Laser or Beam sensors?

Devices & Integrations
1

When I leave my garage door open, I want a beam streaming across the opening. When an intruder crosses that beam, I want a chime to sound off.

A motion detector does NOT work as it’s too broad and wind can trip it.

Any recommendations?

2

Quite a few people have driveway alerts set up using either a Dakota or a mighty Mule which they then connect to their smart things system by adding an additional device that has a Z wave radio. So the Dakota is doing the monitoring, and there is just Mimolite or dry contact device added to notify SmartThings.

The mighty Mule won’t match your use case, it’s specific to cars, but Dakota does make trip beam sensors. And the same approach would work for any trip beam sensor that you found that you could wire in a similar fashion to the radio device.

If you search the forums for Dakota you will find lots of examples. Here’s one:

It’s also discussed in the outdoor motion sensor FAQ, although you’ll have to read the whole thread to find the specific posts.

3

you can probably mask a regular motion sensor with some success. You can reduce false alarms with 2 sensors on opposite ends looking through the same plane, to make a cross-zoning “curtain” detection zone, which is also harder to defeat.

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4

Did you read my question???
I need a Beam, not a motion sensor.

5

Look, my middle name is NOT MCGYVER. I need a device plug n play, ready to go. Dumb proof.

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6

@sunset007 These are community members that are trying to provide solutions to your use case. Not sure why your responses are so snarky at best. Not really cool to take it out on them if there is no dummy solution available. Try to be more respectful especially when you need assistance, it helps.

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7

Yes, I did. The beam options are discussed in the threads at both of the links that I gave you. The original questions in those threads were about motion sensors, but the problem that people were having was too many false alarms, just as you mentioned. So one of the alternatives suggested by community members in both threads is to go to a trip beam sensor instead.

If you read my post, you’ll see that I mentioned that the mighty Mule would not work for your request because it is not a trip beam sensor but the Dakota does have a trip beam sensor.

However, it doesn’t sound like any of those options will work for you, because they are not plug-and-play. In all cases you purchase a trip beam sensor and then you have to wire it to a zwave or zigbee device in order to get the notifications to SmartThings.

Unfortunately, there are no plug-and-play trip beam sensors that will work with SmartThings at the present time.

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8

I will attempt to explain in the language of the street:

yo, chilax. Dat b wak - mos’def.

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9

I had the same question. The Dakota’s are super expensive. $200+

10

@nomacgyver - I did what you are wanting to do (read beyond title as my intention was different but the result is what you want) :

Prevent overhead garage door from closing when car liftgate is open or car is sticking out of garage but above safety sensors

Not plug and play but easy enough. I had to complicate things a bit only because I needed my garage door to operate properly in case I disabled the beams or lost power to them (opener has battery) therefore I used a dual relay board to achieve my purpose but you can likely connect the Aeon dry contact sensor directly to the IR beam.

Edit: oops… Did not realize this thread was a year old…

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