Mighty Mule FM231 Wireless Driveway Alarm, Motion Alarms for Cars with Long Range Base Station, Weatherproof Driveway Alert, Ignores Animals and People

I installed this same device 12 years ago, and when the sensor finally failed I looked for a replacement. I ended up buying the same device again after seeing no comparable alternatives at an equivalent price. The unit works perfectly, and the sound it makes when triggered isn’t annoying. (I’m not interested in hearing melodies or other sound effects—just a signal that someone has arrived is all I want, and that’s what this product delivers.) Set up is easy, and it has a decent range that works for us (about 200 feet). I strongly recommend this particular product for its reliability and very reasonable cost.

Edit after 4.5 years.I am still very please with this unit. It's been running flawlessly for the last 4.5 years. Like I said earlier, I had to place the sensor unit at about 20 feet away from the main road. Because there is a lot of heavy traffic and sometime I got a false alarm because a heavily loaded semi truck went by. My driveway is about 100 feet long.Today after 4.5 years of continuous use, I had my first low battery warning. I use the brand name alkaline batteries. So the batteries last a very long time. I am sure my unit is still working fine in part because it is protected by an big PVC pipe (see pictures).--------------------------------Edit after 18 months.I am still very pleased with this unit. I am still running the same batteries since I installed it 18 months ago. The cold weather of winter does not seems to bother it at all. Even after been totally covered in snow it is still working fine. As you can see in my picture my apparatus is well protected with a big plastic pipe with very good venting. I believe this is important so humidity does not saturate the equipment.--------------------------------------------Great driveway alarm. Works great. No more false alarm. Before this one I had one of those wire less motion detector drive way alarm. About the third of the price of this one. But there were always false alarms. Animals (deer, cat, etc), branches moving in the wind and when the clouds keeps on hiding the sun intermittently, this was causing false alarms.Now with this one no more problems. Every time the alarm sound, there is a car in my driveway. I installed it about 30 feet from the road. I live on a very busy road, it is a road that lead to the US border, so there is always many cars and heavy trucks that go by. I happened to have a piece of 3 inches ABS tube with an elbow so I ran the device in the tube. I also happened to have a 4 inches PVC pipe. So I made a sleeve that slide perfectly over the ABS pipe. I just added a cover and put some holes (pointing downward) so there will be a good aeration and the rain will not enter. This way the access is very easy for maintenance and changing the batteries. I also painted it with some camouflage paint. Next summer, the grass will growth around the pipe and will help to hide it.The receptor does not sound very loud nor for very long. If you happen to sneeze while the alarm goes off, you will miss it. However there is a light that come ON and remain ON (until you reset it), to tell you the device have been triggered. Also it is possible to buy more receptors. I bought an extra one. Now I have one in my living / dinning room and another downstairs in the basement.Very handy, now I can be in my workshop in the basement without missing the delivery truck that brings me my Amazon parcels. Before that, I always hesitated to move far from my kitchen window when I expect a parcel. This is very liberating.

Vehicles were always pulling down our driveway without us knowing. Did not want one that detected motion as we have a lot of wild animals wondering around. Easy to install adding a 90° electrical conduit elbow at the ground for the transmitter. Works as advertised, now vehicles won't sneak up on us. Only problem, and it is of no fault of the unit. The transmitter signal seems to interfere with our wifi garage door opener every once in awhile, will have to work on that.

I'm an old hermit living in a very rural section of Colorado and I hate surprises. My driveway is almost a half mile long and some of it is hidden by trees. I tried this magnetic type driveway alert because there are so many deer and elk that the infrared detectors were always going off.I've used one for over two years now and have been very happy with it. Occasionally it will stop working, but usually all that is required is a new set of batteries. Some reviews have said that theirs stopped working altogether . Mine did that once, where new batteries didn't remedy the problem. I gave it some thought and reasoned that the detector and transmitter are running on only 3 volts from the two AA batteries, and it doesn't take much resistance in the form of corrosion to stop that trickle of electrons. So I thoroughly cleaned the batteries and the compartment contacts, and inspected for other signs of corrosion. I also flipped all the dip switches back and forth a few times in case their internal contacts were slightly corroded from being out in the weather, covered as they are. If you try this, be sure to put the switches back exactly as they were, so they match the receiver's setting. All this, and using quality batteries, seems to keep mine up and running.I put my sensor under a rock by the driveway and ran the cable up a tree, where I cable tied the transmitter. The literature says it will signal the base station from up to 400 feet. My transmitter is right at 800 feet from the base and works reliably. It is line of sight, the transmitter is up high, and there is likely no other interference.I just recently bought another Mighty Mule driveway alert as redundancy and as a back up, should the old one finally die. I've stationed that transmitter at 1100 feet down the drive (and up in a tree), and it seems to be working just fine.Snow doesn't seem to bother it, and the critters don't set it off. I can remember only one false alarm, at about two in the morning. After I settled down, I remembered hearing on the news that way north of here was getting a beautiful Aurora light show. Maybe that had something to do with it, maybe not.The base unit has a power light and a "visitor" light that shows when a vehicle was detected. It's kind of useless to me since I drive by the detector on the way out and the way in. When I get home it's, of course, always on because I've tripped it with my own car. A counter would be more handy to determine if another vehicle had come up the drive while I was gone. A minor complaint, but room for improvement. Other than that, it's a great product so far.Addendum: it’s 2023 and both are still working well. Good product.

Works great. Should be installed on a post. Need to follow the instructions or it won’t work.