Great long distance PIR sensors to go with IP cameras?

[Razer_SE 0]

I have plenty of IP cameras and they are working fine, but I was wondering about using some PIR sensors in conjunction with the cameras to better work as an alarm system. I have Exacq servers with relays available so I can wire a sensor directly, or to a camera depending on the location.

 

My question is what sensors would people recommend? I am looking at Optex sensors right now and they look pretty good but wondering if people have experience with them either good or bad. I am looking at something like the SIP-100 and the SIP-404/5 to cover a fence line as they have the long narrow beam. The SIP-100 is rated for example at 300 feet long by 10 feet wide detection. My worry is false alarms and the like, anyone know how good or bad these could be? I know one location we need protected has a ton of rabbits running around at night, would not be good if they set it off all the time.

 

In a few locations I might hook an alarm output to a phone dialer to call and alert when something is detected, but of course I want minimal false alarms on that! I have to find a dialer yet too, but that is the thinking for now anyway.

 

Anything else I should consider, other brands maybe, or is this not a good option to begin with? Thanks all, appreciate any info.

[blakem 0]

In a few locations I might hook an alarm output to a phone dialer to call and alert when something is detected, but of course I want minimal false alarms on that! I have to find a dialer yet too, but that is the thinking for now anyway.

If you have IP cameras why not setup the camera to email your cell phone with the picture when a motion event is detected. Then you can review the picture in a text message on the spot.

 

Those PIRs look nice and expensive but I would bet you will get false alarms since the outdoors are so unpredictable. If your fence line is fairly straight maybe an infrared beam would work just as good for less money. Still I could see birds breaking the beam and triggering it. Regardless of how you do it I think it is worth doing if you want to track movement in that area. You just might find there is a lot more wildlife movement than you would like to be notified about. I live in a city and cats set off my motion light every couple weeks, but i can live with that false alarm rate. I get the picture of the cat on my phone and just delete it.

[ssmith10pn 0]

Well there is one advantage to using PIR.

They don't trigger when the sun goes behind a cloud.

[buellwinkle 0]

Bosch makes very reasonably priced PIR motion detectors. I get it, you can point the PIR motion detector where you want, you can shield part of the PIR view to eliminate small animals from triggering it. Definitely the way to go if you need to be accurate. I used PIR motion detection in our vacation home and never got a false alarm.

[Razer_SE 0]

Thanks for the replies all, I've looked at bosch and they did not make the long narrow beam I was looking for but they have a few others that looked good to me anyway.

 

I have ordered another model of Optex for a shorter run and I'm pretty confidant in it working as it is a shorter shot of only 50 feet or so, and that model has two beams that overlap multiple times so if both are not broken then it will not go off, so I'm hoping rabbits and such at least will not make it go off.

 

I'd use normal motion alerts as someone else mentioned, but with 1000 cameras that would get old pretty quick so I'm hoping these have less falseing! I'll be trying these over the next few months and see how well they work out I guess.