Chamberlain Group CWA2000 Chamberlain Driveway Alert, Black

I had some concern after reading some of the reviews but went ahead with this purchase anyway. I'm glad I did, it works well. For the benefit of others, here are some of my notes.The reviews that talk about heat and partial detection are correct, placement and aiming is really important. I installed these at the end of a driveway that runs east-west in an open field, so road traffic and the sun were factors. I placed two units, one each on opposite sides of the driveway, facing towards the driveway at about a 45 degree angle away from the road. Each unit was secured to a tree about 18" off the ground. I placed two opposing units because for one, I was concerned about reliability based on some reviews, and two, on cold days it does need to see something hot so I wanted to capture exhaust heat regardless of where it was placed on the vehicle.Each sensor is placed approximately 12-15 feet from the driveway, which is about 12' wide itself. This seemed to be the perfect placement; movement anywhere on the driveway activates both sensors; if you get a few fee off the driveway it only activates the nearest sensor.So far this has a 100% accuracy rate. I haven't had any confirmed false alarms; out of the handful of non-vehicle alerts we've had, a few were confirmed to be deer or dogs and others just couldn't be confirmed in the darkness. It does pick up humans; it had no problem detecting me walking down the driveway on hot days nor when I was thoroughly bundled up from head to toe on cold days. I've had no issues with the sun nor passing road traffic interfering with the sensors.The sensors have a green LED that activates and is visible through the PIR lens for about 1 second when they detect motion. It's usually not a big deal, but on a dark night while driving towards the sensors the green light stands out and quickly draws attention to the unit. If you're going for a covert installation, keep this in mind.A previous homeowner had one of these units installed very near where I installed my new units. It showed signs of corrosion, and based on other reviews I agree that water intrusion seems to be an issue. So, when I assembled my units (yes, some basic assembly is required but its not rocket science), I used clear silicone to make a good seal around the face plate, including the antenna hole and screw holes. I installed the included sun/rain shade above the units too. When I change the batteries next time I'll see how they're doing at keeping weather and bugs out. I wish I'd had some Lithium AA batteries to use when I assembled these; instead I had only alkaline batteries on hand. I'll hopefully provide an update here on how long the batteries lasted and how well they're keeping dry.The mounting plate worked well, I pre-assembled everything and just screwed the mounting plates directly to trees near the driveway using deck screws.Reception so far is good. These 2 units are placed right at 100 yards from the residence, across an open field with no obstructions aside from a few small ornamental trees. The signal then has to pass through concrete siding and 4 interior gypsum walls. The beep is loud enough (at high volume) to be heard throughout the house, even on other floors. Pairing the units with the receiver was easy enough.Things I wish were different on these:The beep when a sensor activates is a long sort of whiny squeal versus a quick chirp, and its a little irritating. Not necessarily bad for an alert, but it happens to closely mimic the washer and dryer beeps. Each sensor that is paired with the receiver gets a corresponding number of beeps. With 8 units, that's an awfully long series of irritating beeps.It would be great if the alert beeps could be adjusted (pitch of tone and length of the beep).It would be good if there was an aux output (dry relay contact) built in to the unit so this could be tied to a variety of other systems. Even better would be 8 discreet relay contacts (one for each sensor). Best would be throwing in a Z-Wave or similar smart module so you could really integrate this with other systems.With a simple sequential beep for the sensor zone number (1 beep for zone 1, 2 beeps for zone 2, etc), you run into some problems. For example, if sensors 1 and 2 activate at nearly the same time, you get 3 beeps. Well, was that sensors 1 $ 2 going off, or sensor 3? Did sensor 4 activate or was that sensor 2 twice? You get the idea. If the sensors had a unique beep pattern (for example, a high pitched tone followed by a number of low pitch tones for each sensor) it would be easier to distinguish the different sensors. In this case 'hi-low-hi-low-low' would easily be distinguishable as sensors 1&2 versus the 'hi-low-low-low' of sensor #3. The point is, the current system can be confusing across zones and there are many answers to this problem, but the manufacturer should pick one and implement it.

I used the Chamberlain as a motion alarm inside my Uhaul truck. I was transporting cross country some very expensive items I did not feel comfortable shipping, and preferred to have my eyes (and ears) on everything the entire time. I stayed in motels where I could have line of sight from my room at all times. The Chamberlain gave me peace of mind b/c I set the motion detector inside the locked cargo box of the truck and had the remote station in my room to alert me. The best part about this set up is the remote station also operates off batteries if it's not plugged in, so I could take it with me inside restaurants or places where I would lose line of sight, bathrooms, etc. The reception is around 1/2 mile but trees, hills, buildings and other things could affect distance so don't expect a full 1/2 mile. The motion sensor runs off batteries only. In extreme cold climates I would suggest batteries designed for cold weather. The information on the ad for this product can be a little confusing in regards to batteries. The receiver station uses 4 AA batteries, or you can just plug it into a wall outlet. The motion sensor if I remember takes 3 AA batteries that last for many months, maybe a year. The home station is pretty small and I could carry it portable inside my jacket pocket running off batteries. Its only like 3-4 inches square with 5 inch antenna. Set up for this product took me less than 5 minutes. You will need a very small phillips head screwdriver to open the back of the motion sensor and install the batteries. TESTING: I used my phone on record function to test the alarm every night during my trip. I would basically put my phone on record next to the receiver in my motel room, go out to the truck, open the cargo door where I had the sensor on the inside, and then go back to my room to listen to the recording. It worked every time. There is a volume level you can set and also a chime or alarm sound. I also used a backup motion alarm designed for a brake caliper of a motorcycle and put that on an outside grab handle of the Uhaul cargo door. At one motel the motorcycle alarm went off at 3am and I could hear it from my room. You have to pretty much bang that alarm pretty good to get it to go off so I knew someone messed with it. On inspection I noticed someone had messed with the lock on my Uhaul b/c I set it a certain way and noticed it was moved. The weather seal on my lock had been opened too. Even if I didn't have the motorcycle motion sensor alarm I am confident the Chamberlain would have also alerted me if they had cut the lock and opened the cargo door (and I was basically 150 feet away). Be advised the Chamberlain sensor does not make any sound so if you have a visitor, unwanted or not, they will most likely still be in the area since only the receiver station sounds an alarm. This Chamberlain was well worth the $50 and is a pretty solid little set up. In my opinion its a sturdy product from a well known established company. Now that my trip is over I plan to install this sensor on the side of my house to alert me when the neighborhood feral cats pay a visit. These feral cats have turned the side of my house into a litterbox and I plan to set up a legal cage trap and be alerted every time I've caught one. I think this Chamberlain would work well for anyone who has valuables stored in their yard, cargo trailers, work trucks, etc. Once I'm done with the cats I will install this on my back patio where I recently caught a homeless guy searching around. He climbed the wall in the middle olf the night, tripped in the dark and made a noise and I heard him and he ran off leaving behind his tweaker backpack full of stolen merch from a local drug store. With the Chamberlain I'll know if he returns (I also have a monitored alarm on the house so I'm not worried). The Chamberlain motion sensor doesn't make an alert sound but it does have a small flashing red LED light I noticed when it detects motion. If you're trying to use it as a stealth detector I guess you could put something on it to cover the red flashing LED light. I hope my review helped.