Dakota Alert Wireless Driveway Alarm System DCPA-4000 One Mile Wireless Range, DCR-4000 Receiver & DCPT-4000 Vehicle Detecting Probe Transmitter with Direct Burial Cable | Outdoor Vehicle Sensor Alarm

I was just searching thru my purchase history for something unrelated, but this popped up and I realized I have never left a review. We installed this a full 7 years ago, and it is still working perfectly. I think we've only changed the batteries one time. We live in the country and having this alarm installed gives us peace of mind (that plus two large, loud dogs). Would highly recommend this brand. Fun fact: lightning storms often trigger it, which is kind of fun and hasn't hurt performance in any way. Nor have the sub-zero winter conditions we have here.

I've purchased 2 of the passive IR driveway sensors over the last 5 yrs. They eventually stopped working; would no longer pair. Also, MANY false alarms: deer, raccoons, even spiders would set the damn things off. If you're looking for a driveway alarm that alerts when cars approach, get this. It's more expensive and a bit more work to install, but you buy once, cry once. Follow the instructions and bury the sensor parallel to the road. Not perpendicular; one of the images I've seen shows the wrong orientation. Bury it at the proper depth and orientation and the thing just works.

I purchased this two months ago and waited to write a review until I was convinced that it would work for my needs. On the pro side, it works nicely even transmitting through a wooded area. I took the photo standing next to the transmitter that is mounted on a tree by the driveway. It is approximately 200yd from the receiver mounted in a window (blocked from view by trees) in the center of the photo. The sensor is another 50 ft up the driveway. The receiver notification melodies are also very nice. Since adjusting sensitivity I get zero false alarms and zero misses for the last 6 weeks. It will even signal when I drive by on my ATV. On the con side, be prepared to dig a 50ft trench to bury the cable to the sensor. In my case I had to dig the trench twice. The first sensor placement was on a curve in the lane which resulted in unreliable sensing of passing cars. Since moving it further up the lane, it’s been very good at all notifications. Addendum: We have had this alarm now in Wisconsin for 20 months now and it has performed flawlessly. It is still on the original batteries. Last week we had a ice storm that took down several trees on the driveway, including the tree on which the transmitter was mounted. I contacted the Dakota Alert company and they were very helpful in providing a replacement transmitter at a reasonable price. Very happy with the purchase from a great company.

Amazing - Actually works. I had a question about installing additional sound alerts (thingy's), so I called the customer service number and an actual person picked up the phone. I asked for technical support and she said, I can help you - and she did! How refreshing is that! Very easy system to install and the range is amazing!

Found this unit to replace a ten-years-old non-buried metal/vehicle-only driveway alarm whose last receiver (of an original quantity-3 receiver count) finally gave up the ghost. The old alarm's manufacturer went out of business several years ago, so no hope of just purchasing another receiver for the old system. This unit works better than the one it replaced, although having to bury the transmitter's probe and then trenching to a near-by tree was more work than the prior system which didn't require a connecting wire to a buried probe. This system handles line-of-site distance much better than the prior brand/style system. I had to tweak the sensitivity adjustment to get the transmitter to recognize both large and small vehicles. *** CRITICAL CAUTION *** As another reviewer has already mentioned (and I took his advice seriously), you MUST have the transmitter and receiver next to each other to initially synch them together (and to set which of the dozen receiver sounds you want to use). Based upon this consideration, I purchased a couple extra receivers along with the full system/kit that I might not have otherwise purchased until after I had a chance to evaluate how the new system worked. In my application, the transmitter is approximately 300 feet from the nearest electrical outlet, which would have been required to get an add-on receiver synched up with the transmitter. I synched up all of my receivers before my transmitter was installed, and I'll keep the extra receivers in their boxes until they're needed. *** UPDATE *** Still trying to dial-in the correct sensitivity on the transmitter. No false positives (yet), but buried probe sometimes misses vehicles of all sizes, (a silent receiver). Turning sensitivity dial to maximum, the transmitter sends continuous triggers to the receiver, so that's not the answer.

It’s working A little pricey & more choices of alarm sounds would be nice

Had a previous model Dakota Alarm at our Country Home with 1.0 mile long private driveway. Due to steep terrain and woods you could never see a car on the driveway until it was 20 yards away. Installed one of these and it worked great for 5 years. Never a false alarm and don't think it ever missed a car or ATV. Moved to a new house and tried several motion sensor alarms on the driveway and was constantly getting false alarms from wind and sun not to mention squirrels and birds would set them off. Went ahead and installed this new model Dakota Alarm even though it was kind of overkill for our 200 yard driveway. However I love it as it is super dependable and never a false alarm. As soon as I hear it I know to call the dogs or kids out of the driveway since someone is pulling in. Installed 25' off a public road buried 10" down in the center of our gravel driveway. I went ahead and ran the buried wiring through a PVC chase pipe so that it wouldn't get pinched or crushed in our gravel driveway. The Dakota Alarm costs more than the cheap $40-$80 driveway motion sensors, but the sense of security it provides is worth every penny.

We are very excited about the Dakota Alert system as it works so well. It replaced a hard wired in ground system that was lost when we had some yard excavation done. We have a very long driveway lined with many trees that with follows a one acre pond. I was expecting some interference with those Large objects blocking the line of sight, but it works really well. Not sure how long the batteries will last. The only thing that would have made this better is an option to have it solar powered with battery backup.