Driveway alarm

brooklyn07

Hi All, I am looking for a driveway alarm for my parents - theres a been a bout of break ins in their local area and they are understandably nervous.
I already set them up a CCTV with a PIR but its not helping as the local wildlife is setting it off every 5 minutes.
The driveway alarms with the beams seem to be the best solution so that when the beam is broken it sets off an alarm.
The problem is i cant seem to find a "programmable" one whereby you can either switch it on and off with a remote control or one that you can program to only activate between certain hours because they will set it off themselves in the day - they want an alarm to sound inside the house and outside the house.
I have found one where you can silence it on the actual alarm speaker but they would have to manually turn it on and off on each speaker each morning and each night and they are bound to forget.
I have searched but im not coming up wtih much luck they all seem to be PIR which is no good as they have cats/foxes etc roaming around the garden at night.

Spinybif

Assuming speaker is not battery powered could you not use a 24 Hr timer to turn sound on & off

Ectophile

An alternative approach that I have seen (or rather, heard) is a driveway detector connected to a doorbell.  No loud scary alarms.  This has the advantage that there's no need to turn it off during the day - it gives you early warning if there's somebody coming to the door.

olbas_oil

Do you have a link to the beam break detectors you are thinking about?
I bought some from Maplins 20 years ago. They still work perfectly, though I have had to drill a window through the perspex covers which became opaque in the sun. They are powered through a 12v transformer. I have them on all the time, but it would be trivial to plug the transformer into a timer so they only came on at night. They are twin beam, so both beams have to be broken to create an alarm. I get about 2/3 false alarms a year caused by frost, leaves or foxes. I have had real alarms, where the intruder has legged it as soon as I turn a light on.
They are very old-tech, but I have also been able to integrate them into a more modern system where the alert triggers a camera. 

markin

If its a long drive you can get ones you bury in the road, With any pir ones you will get false alarms, i did see some pir door bells that if you can angle them at the door in a porch may get very little false alerts apart from birds?

Is the an alarm!? fitting one would be easy and with key fobs very easy to set.

£150

Honeywell HS331S Wireless Home Alarm