Any advice for a driveway sensor

[Nick Night]

I am interested in a driveway sensor. I have a long driveway and am interested in adding driveway sensor. I would simply like it to ring a chime in my home and then send a notification to my iPhone. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced solution that integrates with the Insteon system? Thanks for your assistance!

[stusviews]

AFAIK there are no reasonable priced driveway sensors that integrate with Insteon. A Dakota sensor and a Smartenit receiver will work, but they're costly.

[BLH]

A Dakota Sensor with its Receiver may also work. Some models of the receiver have a dry contact relay output. That can trigger the Sensor Input of an I/O Linc.

[TheKing]

I have been using the Mighty Mule driveway alert for years. It costs around $60. and has a wireless range of 400ft. My application actually pushes this distance limit between transmitter and receiver. It has rarely missed a car entering. I would love to interface with insteon via I/O Link. The receiver does not have a built in option for triggering dry contacts but there is an LED that lights so a modification could be made to trigger a relay when the LED gets current.

[stusviews]

The sensor on an I/O Linc requires a dry contact switch. Applying a voltage may destroy the sensing circuitry. If there's sufficient current a relay could be used between the driveway alert and the sense connection.

[stusviews]

Just curious, why does it have to integrate with Insteon? I'm going to be doing the same thing soon. I'll be using one Foscam FI9900P Outdoor 1080P Camera. Will do everything you want and is only 129, plus you'll actually see (and record) anyone coming up your driveway. For something a little less high tech Harbor Freight has a driveway sensor for only 15 bucks. Item # 93068.

Both great finds, but the camera can't ring a chime and the driveway alert can't send a notification. Using both will work, but there are many less costly cameras, if budget is an issue

[stusviews]

How does that occur?

[tornado]

I've gotten this to work however this forum seems to not be allowing me to post pictures. I have all of my pictures up on my blog here:
http://joefleck.com/blog/mighty-mule-driveway-project/

Here's how I did it:

You'll need the following items:
Mighty Mule FM231 Wireless Driveway Alarm
Smarthome Light ProbeLinc LED and Fluorescent Light Detector Probe 8013 (or similar)
Insteon Remote Control Plug-in Low Voltage Controller
Icstation Mini DC Step Up Voltage Regulator Power Converter Module 0.9-5V to 5V 480mA
A soldering iron and solder.
A drill if you want to make it purdy.

First thing, put your MM alarm in the driveway at your appropriate spot. For my house I actually bought two so that I could control gate and garage openings depending on which one "fired" first. For the two I have I spaced them pretty far apart so as to get good independent firings.

Once the MM is in the ground and tested working you're ready to go.

Solder a wire pair to the speaker pins on the MM logic board.

Solder the other end of the wire pair to the ground and the Vinput traces on the Icstation.

Cut your light probelinc end off (I tried using it and the lights on the MM are not bright enough to trigger it).

Drill a hole through the case at the top to allow the probelinc wire to go through.

Tie a knot in the wire once you've threaded it so it can't be yanked out easily

Solder the probelinc wires to the Icstation Voutput and ground traces.

Plug in the MM. Plug the probelinc headphone jack into the Insteon.

Test the MM by hitting the reset button. If it works, the light on the side of the Insteon should blink rapidly.

Just button up the case. You should be good to go at this point. Again, see my pictures for step by step images of how I did this, or message me.

Best,
Joe

[TheKing]

I am planning on doing a similar interface with my MM. Does the Icstation detect low voltage on the input side and then output 5V ? I was thinking I would then connect this to a low voltage relay and feed an insteon window sensor for alerting.