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DRIVEWAY PATROL

Description: Driveway Patrol is an infrared sensor that alerts you when someone crosses its path. When placed across the driveway or on your porch, a pleasant chime will sound alerting you that someone has come onto your property.

Reviews (22):

not good for winter climate
Reviewer: "mark11" Vermont 12-30-2004
I just installed my Driveway Patrol last night. It worked great inside and it worked well outside... for a while. However, a problem arose after the transmitter was left outside, in wintertime Vermont for several hours, with temperatures in teens.
My son drove in the yard setting off the chime, as anticipated. However, the chime continued to go off for several minutes as I went back outside and retrieved the transmitter. I brought it inside to warm. After a few minutes of warming up it worked fine again.
I have since decided to place the transmitter indoors, near the main entrance, until spring when I will, again, place the unit outdoors beside the driveway as originally intended.
The price on the unit is too good to send it back, so I will keep it and use it when the weather is warm enough.
The chime is somewhat annoying with two volume settings... loud and wicked loud.
As a whole, though, it is fun to have around and will be useful in various applications around the house.

Awesome!
Reviewer: Anonymous 07-22-2004
This system, especially for the price, is awesome!

Works great in warmer weather
Reviewer: Anonymous 03-29-2004
This system works great, except during cold weather. the transmitter stays on when tripped, during periods of below freezing temps. When that happened, I brought it in & warmed it up, and it works fine. The price too good to send it back. I will wait for spring to try it in the driveway again as intended.

Like That It's Wireless
Reviewer: Anonymous 07-28-2003
This is very convenient to set-up & I like not having to mess with any wires. It would be better if there was a volume contol that would do more than just Hi and Low.

Works Well
Reviewer: Anonymous 07-22-2003
This product works well & is a good value for the money. I do get a beep now and then for no reason, thus the four stars, not five.

Great!
Reviewer: Anonymous 02-21-2005
This product is great. It work well & is sold at a good price. I feel much safer now because I know when someone comes down my driveway.

system sucks
Reviewer: Anonymous Butler, PA 02-21-2005
I feel ripped off I bought one driveway patrol it did not work it was returned for another and it would not stop beeping all
I will not recommend this product to anyone!!!!! I rate this product as a negative 10

Baby Patrol
Reviewer: Anonymous Pikeville, NC 12-18-2003
We received this as a Christmas gift and really had no need for a driveway alarm. However, we did have a 1 year-old that kept getting out of bed at night and roaming the house. We set this in her doorway and in the middle of the night we would be alerted that our daughter was up. We only turned it on after we tucked her in and it worked great. As a baby patrol it deserves at least 4 stars.

Detects heat, not motion
Reviewer: Anonymous Phoenix, AZ 10-23-2003
This is an infrared detector, not a motion detector. I bought the Driveway Patrol (model 0790) in April, 2003. I really wanted it to monitor my driveway activity because I've been a victim of a newspaper thief. I also wanted it to sound off if some one walked by my mailbox.
I live on a feeder street in the middle of Phoenix, AZ. I first placed the sensor at the front of my house and pointed it at the mailbox diagonally across my driveway. It would detect larger passing vehicles in the far lane, about 90 feet away, the receiver beeping several times before quieting. However, it would beep for several minutes when a city bus or large truck went by. I couldn't quite figure that out, just yet.

Realizing that was the wrong place, I mounted the sensor about 3.5 feet up on the mailbox post at the front of the driveway pointed at the house. Though this wasn't the idea solution for newspaper thieves, it worked OK (not alarming for EVERYTHING that passed myhouse), until a few days later. I rode home on my motorcycle for lunch and parked it in the driveway. The receiver would not stop beeping. I couldn't quite figure that one out, either.

The other troubling thing about this installation was that the Patrol would not sound off when some one accessed the mailbox. The post is not set in concrete and there is some "wobble" when one opens and closes the hatch. In fact, I could grab the top of the pole and shake it and there would be no alarm.

As summer set in, things began to become clearer. When the temperature got into the 90's in the heat of the day, it would constantly false. There were more false alarms in the afternoon than in the morning or evening. As our desert summer intensified and daytime temps reached 100 to 110, the Patrol would do nothing but sound off with no let off whatsoever. That's when it all started to make sense: this thing detects heat, not motion!

This why it wouldn't shut up when my hot motorcycle was parked in the driveway.

That's why it beeped longer for a bus than a pickup truck: I would assume that the heat trail left by a bus must be way larger than a smaller vehicle and would take a while more to dissipate.

Finally, on a whim, I decided to place the sensor inside the mailbox. I thought this might be handy, alerting me when the carrier was delivering mail, or if some passerby was snooping in my mailbox. Well, opening the mailbox apparently doesn't present the sensor with enough of a heat signature to set it off. Later in the day, when the sun strikes the mailbox, the Patrol sounds off continuously.

Apparently, the Driveway Patrol is not for me. Obviously, judging by the reviews here, it does a good job in some environments. On the upside, the batteries never let up during these months of testing. The 9v battery in the sensor was never removed or changed and still reads toward the top of the "good" scale on my Radio Shack tester.

In conclusion, what this country needs is a good, $20 wireless MOTION detector.

Basic But Works Good
Reviewer: Anonymous 08-16-2003
This motion detection system work great for the price. Batteries last a long time and the detector is fairly unnoticeable. It has both a light indicator and an audible alarm when motion is detected, even at a good distance. The only thing that annoys me is that it has two audible tones, loud and even louder, and it rings about 5 to 15 times, which can't be turned off. You also can buy two systems and use both detectors with the same receiver. I am going to open one receiver and disable the speaker and then use that receiver to be notified of motion just with the light indicator, and use the other receiver with the loud horn only when needed.

Driveway Patrol Poor
Reviewer: Anonymous 08-05-2003
Works for a while and then breaks. Change all the batteries and it then rings continuously. Too bad it was good for a little while.

Pretty good for the price
Reviewer: Erik R Witkowski Bridgeport, CT 02-24-2003
Worked for me. The only downside is that the chime is annoying, and the volume control only has two settings.

Not worth the time/money, do a Google search, see 4 yourself
Reviewer: Anonymous Colorado 02-23-2003
Purchased the first of these items just ten days ago. Once the unit tripped, it would NOT reset/turn itself off. Immediately returned it for another unit and experienced identical problem. Used the "patch" included with the unit (intended to reduce the range of motion detection) in both cases, both attempts failed to elimate the problem. Alarm was loud - as often stated in other reviews - but not a problem as the unit was tucked away in a room that often has a closed door.
Our time is too valuable to waste playing with resistors and building unsightly shields. If this were a quality piece of electronic equipment it wouldn't be necessary to have to fix it in the first place. THUMBS DOWN, big piece of JUNK. Will upgrade to a more reliable product.

EVERYONE in America should have one of these
Reviewer: David A. Gifford Westbrook, ME 02-19-2003
We live in a fairly large home - when I am upstairs in my computer room or in the master bathroom and someone rings the doorbell - I CANNOT hear it!! (esp. while playing a computer game or with the TV on) I received this unit from Amazon, put 3 C Batteries in the receiver (you can use an AC Adapter) and 1 9 Volt in the unit that goes outside. I installed it facing my driveway. As we live in a quite neighborhood I heard nothing for a while... then I noticed that every time a car drove past our house, it went off... I simply moved it so that i "looked" at the driveway perpendicularly and it works PERFECTLY! 2 sound adjustments on the receiver are PERFECT - not an annoying sound and perfect volume! Thank you TELEbrands for a GREAT product at a giveaway price!

Driveway Patrol Wasted Money
Reviewer: bob conduff Gray, TN 01-18-2003
Purchased this product after being impressed with the claims made on the outside of the box. Easy to install, alerts you when someone enters your driveway, no wires. Well, I installed it, about fifty different ways with countless new batteries, with tape on the lens sensor, three feet above ground, four feet above ground, 400 ft away, 300 ft away, etc. The thing never stopped chiming, it doesn't work. The only thing this product alerted me to is don't purchase products marketed by Telebrands.

won't shut off
Reviewer: Anonymous 12-29-2002
I recieved this product from the wife as a Christmas present and when I installed the batteries it would not shut of except when I shut the receiver off or when I disconnected the batteries. It even worked for a few seconds after the 9v battery was disconnected from the sending unit.
Needless to say I was very dissapointed with this unit. I have written to the company for advice.

Works pretty good for the price
Reviewer: Anonymous 09-25-2002
Alarm went off every 15 to 20 munites the first day or two never could figure out why after that it settled down and works great. The alarm is very loud even on the lower setting. I would buy it again its great for the price.

Driveway Patrol Review
Reviewer: Anonymous 09-19-2002
Positives:
1) Its cheap. Very inexpensive.
2) It's short comings can be worked around.

Negatives:
1) Volume alarm setting on receiver has 2 settings. The low volume setting is still annoying loud.

2) IR Passive detector is way too sensitive. Normal IR noise makes it intermittant outside. The False alarms make the unit unusable. Doing a google search, I find many people with similiar complaints. People who do not have this problem are fortunate.

My work arounds for these 2 problems are:

1) Opened the Receiver alarm unit and put a 1k resistor in series with the speaker. Volume reduced to a pleasant level now.

2)I built a wood housing that surrounds the IR Detector unit with a opening protuding 8 inches beyond the unit. This blocked the IR noise and made the unit very stable :0)

... Driveway Patrol Alarm system and the fixes were easy for me, I am happy with the product.

Waste of money
Reviewer: Anonymous Massapequa, NY 09-14-2002
Living near the bay as we do, we've had problems with people taking a stroll down our driveway in order to "just take a look."
Looking around for a solution, I came across this product, and figured for [$], I can't go too wrong.
So, does it work? Well, this is an updated review: the alarm goes off without rhyme or reason--sometimes at 2 AM--and often stays on for a minute or so. Very annoying. The unit has been disconnected.

Excellent economical alert system!
Reviewer: jt collier 08-16-2002
I had bought the driveway patrol with the intention of being able to hear persons coming into my drive and feeling that maybe this system was a cheap knockoff. To my suprise the system is very reliable and has an excellent sensitivity. The alarm is too loud and overbearing with the ability to have two volume levels. Buy it, it works well and is a good value!

Not worth it!
Reviewer: Anonymous Georgia 07-06-2007
Needed it, bought it, returning it. The alarm wouldn't work unless outside, and this is after 20 tests with a friend and his truck. We moved it and moved it and moved it and still no alarm indoors. I'm very disappointed and going for a little more expensive unit.

A TOTAL PIECE OF EXCREMENT AND RIP OFF.
Reviewer: aithomas@bellsouth.net kentucky 01-05-2008
I HAVE PURCHASED THREE OF THE

retired 73yo registered nurse

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