Customer Reviews

Wireless Motion Alert Kit-600' Max Range

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is the fourth remote driveway alarm we have tried. The others ranged from a $70 GE unit to a $250 unit that supposedly worked "up to four miles." They would either not have the range needed (about 100 yards) or would stop working after a few days. Replacements were tried for all, and all had the same failures or problems.

This one, however, has now been working flawlessly here for two weeks. It has been through a major rainstorm and several extremely foggy mornings. Temperatures here have been as high as 94 degrees.

Other pro's:
Worked out of the box with both receivers. The default settings were fine and setting switches was not necessary.
We like the ability to choose the alarm sound. We chose the short musical selection for the house. The workshop/garage has the sharp whistle tone, as there is often other loud noise going on.

Con's:
Like most infra-red receivers, it does occasionally pick up dogs, deer, and even a crow that flies close enough. It does not trigger on trees or leaves, even in high wind (and where we have it mounted, there is a small forest across the driveway.) I suppose that would be possible, however, if the tree/leaves were in the sunshine, and thus hotter than the surroundings. BTW, although called a "motion sensor," the manufacturer says an object must be a minimum of six degrees warmer than the surroundings to be detected.

Suggestions:
We found that vehicle pickup is more reliable if the sensor is pointed somewhat down the driveway rather than directly across it.
Setting it higher off the ground reduces the triggers on dogs, but also makes it possible to miss some vehicles that do not produce a heat signature that high off the ground. We set ours at about four feet. It still picks up medium and larger dogs, but has not missed a single vehicle. It does not pick up cats, skunks, etc.
If you get false alarms, especially at similar times of day each day, try changing the transmitter and receiver subcode. One of your neighbors may be using the same unit.

Update, 2009:
Well, it's still working fine almost two years later. It does occasionally miss a vehicle, and we have noticed that almost all of the ones it misses are painted white. Maybe that has something to do with the temperature difference requirements. Maybe mounting it a little lower would help.

It has stopped working once. That was one of those so-foggy-everything-is-soaked mornings. I brought the transmitter indoors and removed the battery. Then I set the opened case in front of a small fan for a couple of hours. After the drying it again worked fine, and has since. Still highly recommended.

I first purchased a Chamberlain "The Reporter" alert, returned it, and then purchased the Dakota alert. The Chamberlain is very cheaply constructed, difficult to adjust, and I could never get it to give reliable alerts, despite numerous adjustment attempts.

The Dakota is by far superior in terms of construction, performance, operational options, and ease of adjustments. It's well worth the additional $75. My only complaint about the Dakota is that it is extremely sensitive, even at the lowest settings, so I had to play around quite a bit with location and angle of the mount before I eliminated most erroneous alerts. When I called Dakota to ask for setup advice, I reached a technician who was actually very knowledgable about the technical operaton of the unit and therefore, quite helpful.

I own a similar system by Dakota, but mine uses the magnetic detection sensor that is buried in or along side my driveway. The transmitters are the same as well as the reciever.

The PIR sensor type is sensitive to false alarms due to wind (swaying trees) and wildlife (the neighbors dog). This is unacceptable to me as I only want to detect vehicles of all sorts although it will actually detect a person if they walk directly over the magnetic sensor.

Range is very good as my driveway is about 1/2 mile long and is down over a hill and it works almost to the bottom of the hill.

My two complaints have been solved by me. The first is a single common 9 volt battery only lasts a month and near the end of that time won't work if it is very cold. After the sun comes up it starts working again. Using Lithium batteries and wiring in extra parallel batteries extends reliable operation.

The second problem was it was not waterproof and stopped working. I dried it out with a hair drier and it worked again. I used Vaseline over the O ring seal and it has worked well and stayed dry for the past 7 months.

Bought my first one in '97. Lasted (reliably) for a couple years then quit. Quit because water got inside even with O-Ring seal on cover. Sent it back (after warrantee expired) for replacement. They charged me about 1/3 less than new. New one lasted about 1.5 years before quitting - same issue, moisture inside. Someone somewhere must make a reliable unit that does NOT quit after a year or so.

I have had a couple of these systems for about a year and a half. As other reviews have stated, there are problems working in wet weather and when it is cold out (below 20 degrees or so. I expected to get false alarms with deer and other animals, so that didn't bother me. After all, I wanted to be able to detect people, not just vehicles coming up my road.

I was able to eliminate the cold weather problem with better batteries. I did some research and found that all alkaline batteries start to fail in freezing weather, but lithium will still work well and last a LOT longer too. (Amazon has the best deal around on Ultra Life Battery UPVL-X 10 Year Smoke Detector Battery 9 volt batteries)

Lately however, both of these units quit working, and I don't know why. They seem to work fine when I take them inside, but fail when placed back out. This could be a wet weather issue, but I can't go out with a hair dryer every day, so this is a serious problem.

The manufacturer's website has no email address, and the comment page doesn't work.
I'm not sure if there is anything better on the market, but these aren't cheap, and aren't dependable either.

I bought one of these systems in December of 2008, but did not get around to installing it until late January of 2009. I could not get it to work with the transmitter more than 100 feet from the receiver. I called Dakota Alert, and they said to send it back. They returned it in a reasonable time, having replaced the transmitter circuit board, but it would only transmit about 120 feet. They again said to send it back, and about 10 days later returned it with another new transmitter circuit board. This time it works great!

I have it set up about 430 feet away, and it rings every time. I have noticed no false alarms. It will pick up a person walking, but I have not noticed it being set off by the deer that frequent our area. I don't know how I got by without it. I recommend it highly.

While I am dissapointed that the product was defective, Dakota Alert kept working at it until the fixed the problem. I wish other manufacturers would stand benind their product like Dakota Alert did.

After my Chamberlain system failed due to water leakage, I was thrilled to see that the Dakota Wireless Transmitters had a rubber ring to waterproof. I was also thrilled to see that it's wireless range is 600. However, when testing, I find that it barely makes it 100' direct line of sight with transmitter sitting upright (antenna vertical) and receiver upright with absolutely no obstacles between the units. When I called Dakota, they said that the FCC changed the rules about the transmitters and that they couldn't get the range that they did a few years ago. So, the reviews are giving this unit a 5 were from units sold a few years ago and not from current sales. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN FALSE CLAIMS! On the other hand, they do say UP TO 600', and 100' is UP TO, but not even close......

I purchased this system for my farm. I bought two transmitters and two receivers. The receivers work fine, but I think the transmitters are junk. My transmitters are not water-tight and will leak if exposed to the elements. Instructions make no mention of sheltering the transmitters, so when placed on a fence post or tree my transmitters have failed. I feel that a one year warranty is inadequate.

Do not be misled into buying this product. I can only assume that the positive reviews it received were from employees of the manufacturer. Mine lasted for two weeks (never exposed to inclement weather) then stopped functioning. Probably best that it did as I was getting so annoyed with false alarms that it was destined to be used for target practice. I tried altering the location of the mount, changing the angle at which it scanned across the driveway, all to no avail. As for that claim of a 600 foot range, I could only get it to work at about 100 feet or less. No obstructions, no trees, no fences between the transmitter and receiver. At that distance it doesn't give one much time to react to an alert, might just as well wait for the doorbell! I attempted to call Dakota customer service THREE times and was put on terminal hold. Overwhelmed with complaints, I'm sure. Finally, I just gave up and scrapped the whole thing. This product is an overpriced, overhyped piece of junk and I am sorry I spent the money on it. Save your money and spend it on a good watchdog! I gave it "1 star" because I couldn't give it "0 stars".

We've had this device guarding our driveway for a few weeks now. It seems to be effective about 90% of the time (after much adjustment of the sensor's height) in detecting vehicles. It's about 100% effective at false alarming for dogs, birds, and other wildlife at all hours of the night. This then sets off our three dogs to barking.

Still, my wife likes it since she doesn't have a clear view of the driveway and we live out in the country where home defense is completely up to us.

Also, it's less expensive than the induction-type of sensor (which doesn't detect people on foot), and less noticeable than the air hose type (which can be moved out of the way by the bad guy). It's a compromise, but probably the best available for the price.