5150
Well-Known Member
I consider myself a self proclaimed expert on Harbor Freight Driveway Alert motion sensors. May be long post but will have solid info on how to keep your yard guarded without jumping up at every false alarm. Yes false alarms will happen lots with HF driveway alerts. How often? I run 12 alerts in my backyard. On average I get about 4 false alarms a week. (with dogs) I will tell you how to disregard false alarms and get around dogs later. Do not get me wrong though HF alerts are great units. Best kick for the value. If you want solid driveway alerts you will pay about $50 plus for the hi $ ones that pick up heat and anything above 70lbs. The best thing about these alerts is the ripper does not know you have been alerted to his presence. (also more on this later)
HF alerts come in a bunch of channels. Maybe like 40 channels. Each unit has it's own channel from the factory on the box and cannot be changed. So in my case I have 12 different channels running at the same time. When I first started using these alerts I was jumping up at every false alarm. This got old and I did think they sucked at first. Moths will set them off. Even heavy rain drops running off your house. wind and bushes/colas moving will set them off as well. I will go over on how to solve those problems but first I want to talk about the most important thing IMO. With HF alerts you need 2 or more of them on 2 channels bare minimum . One is great and better than nothing for sure. But expect false alarms. This is how I set up my yard and it is rock solid. Impossible for anything to be in my yard without me knowing along with not jumping to false alarms.
So I have 12 channels setup in my yard. I always overlap 2 channels in the same general area. Sometimes 3 channels overlap. The key to overlapping the sensors is false alarms. Say a moth sets of a channel. Only one channel will go off/beep. Never will the moth set off both channels. So the only way both or all three channels will go off is if something large is in your yard. So say a ripper walks down my yard. channel 1 and 2 go off at same time. As he walks further down the yard channels 3 and 4 go off at the same time. he goes further channels 5,6 and 7 go off around the same time. When your receivers go off like firecrackers you can bet your ass a ripper is in your yard. If I hear a single channel go off I do not even jump. I knows it's nothing but false alarm.
Dogs? Big problem for HF alerts pick up everything. They are not like the high dollar driveway alerts. What I do is mount the sensors about thigh high. I aim them up slightly so the dogs can walk under them. I have big Labrador and this method works great. Dogs are no longer a factor with me.
Wind and bushes? Another big problem. Even your colas in the wind will set them off. So basically you cannot aim them right on your plants if you have larger plants. But thats okay you do not need to point them at your plants. Bushes? If you have bushes that blow in the wind you may need to stay away from them. If the bush is close to the sensor you can lay a plywood against the bush. This just lets the sensor read the wood and the path in front of it. You may have to use the plywood if you have dogs. If no dogs just mount the sensor knee high below the tall bushes blowing in the wind. You get less coverage mounted lower though.
Rain? Rain will not set them off. But if you mount the sensor on the side of your house. And your gutters leak or drip heavy. That heavy constant dripping will set them off. So just watch for that. Took me days to figure that one out. Rain was dripping off my carport covers setting a channel off.
Other ways to use them for all different walks of life? Not all people can fight. Not all people want to confront or can confront a ripper. When your wife is home alone you probably just want the ripper gone asap for your wife is not going to run out in the yard in most cases. Or mine anyway. So what I do is leave the receivers outside when not home. My thinking is the ripper will hear all the beeping and get the hell out. Now if your a young buck with a baseball bat by all means put the receivers on low beep and catch the rippers red handed. So a person can use them to scare the ripper off as soon as the alerts go off. Or you can keep them inside and try to catch them. Personally I sleep on the floor right inside my back door. So a ripper and myself would be alerted at the same time. I do not want to confront any ripper. I just want them gone and running but know I know he was there. I have no desire to confront a ripper with a machete in my hand.
One last thing one must consider when deciding to leave the receivers outside or inside is plant size. Say your sleeping away in bed a 4am and your receivers go off. You then jump up and run downstairs and outside. 20 sec. or so. If your plants are smaller and a ripper can just grab them and yank them out. How long do you think it takes him to rip up 5 smaller plants. So by the time you get outside the ripper could rip up half your garden. (thats just one ripper) Sure you may catch him and chase him off but what are you left with? plants and roots laying on the ground. If your receivers were outside chances are the ripper would be gone at first beep. Now if you got monster plants it's not easy or near impossible to just rip them out. Worst case would be the ripper chopping 4 or 5 colas before you got outside. On large grows you see on this site a ripper would need a dump truck to get it all. So if you have large plants you can be more flexible of corse. I like the idea of sleeping with the receivers in your window seal or something. If setup right and multiple channels go off it's not a question on if someone or something was in your yard. It's a question on how long they were in your yard and damage done. I said setup right. Remember how I got them setup if my receivers banks light up and go crazy I have no question and 100% positive a person is in my backyard. Thats or a Deer or something. But setup for dogs in my suburban backyard if they go off it's 100% positive a ripper is in my yard. And I like it that way.
Also do not think it's easy to dial a bunch of channels up perfect. If you have dogs it will take you a few days to dial them in. It's take time to get it right.
Below is a pic of one of my banks. I have 3 of these tapped together like this. When sleeping at night all three are at backdoor with me. When not home I hide the banks under my patio cover. all in different spots. Would have to be crazy ripper to stick around with all the load beeping.
Trail cams work great but they will not save any of your crop. I use 3 of them as well. I also have one of the expensive driveway alerts on the side of my house. It works well for it does not pick up coons and cats. You can set it for 50,60,70,80lb. But it cost $60 or so. If you got the funds get a bunch of those.
Moral of the story? A single HF driveway alerts is not very good. Better than nothing and can save your crop. But lots of hassle with false alarms. Even two channels will let you know so much more than a single channel. The HF alerts are like 12$ with coupon. Plus batteries. One 9v and 4 C batteries. Batteries last for a few years. So for $144 plus batteries I have totally secured my yard. Unless a ripper robs me they will not get shit.
Hope this helps even save one plant. Took me 5 years to figure all this out.
HF alerts come in a bunch of channels. Maybe like 40 channels. Each unit has it's own channel from the factory on the box and cannot be changed. So in my case I have 12 different channels running at the same time. When I first started using these alerts I was jumping up at every false alarm. This got old and I did think they sucked at first. Moths will set them off. Even heavy rain drops running off your house. wind and bushes/colas moving will set them off as well. I will go over on how to solve those problems but first I want to talk about the most important thing IMO. With HF alerts you need 2 or more of them on 2 channels bare minimum . One is great and better than nothing for sure. But expect false alarms. This is how I set up my yard and it is rock solid. Impossible for anything to be in my yard without me knowing along with not jumping to false alarms.
So I have 12 channels setup in my yard. I always overlap 2 channels in the same general area. Sometimes 3 channels overlap. The key to overlapping the sensors is false alarms. Say a moth sets of a channel. Only one channel will go off/beep. Never will the moth set off both channels. So the only way both or all three channels will go off is if something large is in your yard. So say a ripper walks down my yard. channel 1 and 2 go off at same time. As he walks further down the yard channels 3 and 4 go off at the same time. he goes further channels 5,6 and 7 go off around the same time. When your receivers go off like firecrackers you can bet your ass a ripper is in your yard. If I hear a single channel go off I do not even jump. I knows it's nothing but false alarm.
Dogs? Big problem for HF alerts pick up everything. They are not like the high dollar driveway alerts. What I do is mount the sensors about thigh high. I aim them up slightly so the dogs can walk under them. I have big Labrador and this method works great. Dogs are no longer a factor with me.
Wind and bushes? Another big problem. Even your colas in the wind will set them off. So basically you cannot aim them right on your plants if you have larger plants. But thats okay you do not need to point them at your plants. Bushes? If you have bushes that blow in the wind you may need to stay away from them. If the bush is close to the sensor you can lay a plywood against the bush. This just lets the sensor read the wood and the path in front of it. You may have to use the plywood if you have dogs. If no dogs just mount the sensor knee high below the tall bushes blowing in the wind. You get less coverage mounted lower though.
Rain? Rain will not set them off. But if you mount the sensor on the side of your house. And your gutters leak or drip heavy. That heavy constant dripping will set them off. So just watch for that. Took me days to figure that one out. Rain was dripping off my carport covers setting a channel off.
Other ways to use them for all different walks of life? Not all people can fight. Not all people want to confront or can confront a ripper. When your wife is home alone you probably just want the ripper gone asap for your wife is not going to run out in the yard in most cases. Or mine anyway. So what I do is leave the receivers outside when not home. My thinking is the ripper will hear all the beeping and get the hell out. Now if your a young buck with a baseball bat by all means put the receivers on low beep and catch the rippers red handed. So a person can use them to scare the ripper off as soon as the alerts go off. Or you can keep them inside and try to catch them. Personally I sleep on the floor right inside my back door. So a ripper and myself would be alerted at the same time. I do not want to confront any ripper. I just want them gone and running but know I know he was there. I have no desire to confront a ripper with a machete in my hand.
One last thing one must consider when deciding to leave the receivers outside or inside is plant size. Say your sleeping away in bed a 4am and your receivers go off. You then jump up and run downstairs and outside. 20 sec. or so. If your plants are smaller and a ripper can just grab them and yank them out. How long do you think it takes him to rip up 5 smaller plants. So by the time you get outside the ripper could rip up half your garden. (thats just one ripper) Sure you may catch him and chase him off but what are you left with? plants and roots laying on the ground. If your receivers were outside chances are the ripper would be gone at first beep. Now if you got monster plants it's not easy or near impossible to just rip them out. Worst case would be the ripper chopping 4 or 5 colas before you got outside. On large grows you see on this site a ripper would need a dump truck to get it all. So if you have large plants you can be more flexible of corse. I like the idea of sleeping with the receivers in your window seal or something. If setup right and multiple channels go off it's not a question on if someone or something was in your yard. It's a question on how long they were in your yard and damage done. I said setup right. Remember how I got them setup if my receivers banks light up and go crazy I have no question and 100% positive a person is in my backyard. Thats or a Deer or something. But setup for dogs in my suburban backyard if they go off it's 100% positive a ripper is in my yard. And I like it that way.
Also do not think it's easy to dial a bunch of channels up perfect. If you have dogs it will take you a few days to dial them in. It's take time to get it right.
Below is a pic of one of my banks. I have 3 of these tapped together like this. When sleeping at night all three are at backdoor with me. When not home I hide the banks under my patio cover. all in different spots. Would have to be crazy ripper to stick around with all the load beeping.
Trail cams work great but they will not save any of your crop. I use 3 of them as well. I also have one of the expensive driveway alerts on the side of my house. It works well for it does not pick up coons and cats. You can set it for 50,60,70,80lb. But it cost $60 or so. If you got the funds get a bunch of those.
Moral of the story? A single HF driveway alerts is not very good. Better than nothing and can save your crop. But lots of hassle with false alarms. Even two channels will let you know so much more than a single channel. The HF alerts are like 12$ with coupon. Plus batteries. One 9v and 4 C batteries. Batteries last for a few years. So for $144 plus batteries I have totally secured my yard. Unless a ripper robs me they will not get shit.
Hope this helps even save one plant. Took me 5 years to figure all this out.
