Skylink HA-300 Long Range Household Alert & Alarm Deluxe Home Business Office Motion Security Indoor Outdoor Infrared Detector System Kit

I bought a combo receiver and PIR transmitter (Skylink HA-434RTL Long Range Motion Alert Kit ) along with three extra PIR transmitters (Skylink HA-434TL Long Range Motion Sensor). Setup was easy and without problems.Range seems to be about as advertised as I have two set about 450 to 500 feet away, and two more set about 500 to 600 feet away. They are all transmitting through multiple trees (mostly alder) and two are going through a wooden barn to reach the house.They seem to sense motion most of the time although one that is monitoring a gravel road has missed a car occasionally (set about 15 feet away from the road). Two have given several false alerts but I believe they are due to one facing the sun and another having leaves moved by the wind with sun on them. They might all have been sent set on high sensitivity, but I only remember checking one of them, and I left it on high.As mentioned previously by another reviewer, the wire antenna on the receiver is really irritating as it is too thin to stand on its own and constantly flops down on the window sill. I could tape or tack it up, but that's rather lame and again very irritating when you want to move it.It comes with a green LED that indicates power and ready, along with four red LEDs that blink when it gets a sensor alert. The problem is that you never know which sensor is alerting without looking at the LEDs because there is only one tone. That's not a problem if you are standing in front of it, but it requires you to walk over to it every time it goes off. You might be able to see which LED it is from across a room if there is enough light to make out the other LEDs to determine the position of the one that is flashing. My house is all wood (floors, walls, ceiling) so it is not bright and I am limited to about 10 feet to be able to see which one is alarming. Then positioning the receiver is a problem because it must be within line of sight (not on a window sill behind a curtain or a chair back, etc). In my case I have already been up and down twenty times to check the receiver over two days, and am getting pretty tired of dealing with it.UPDATE:I thought I had updated this review earlier ... sorry ... I got a replacement receiver that worked correctly. Not only did the LEDs blink when activated, but the audible alarm indicated which sensor was activated. Sensor one has a single beep with a pause and then repeats. Sensor two has two beeps with a pause and repeats. Three & four have the same grouping of beeps before repeating, so it is easy to tell from the audible alarm which was activated.But the biggest problem is a faulty receiver. The second LED started blinking and would not reset without cycling power (as another reviewer mentioned) within an hour or so of setting it up. I am now on day three and the number four LED shows the same behavior and errors every couple of hours. Again, I cannot stop the LED blinking without resetting power. I have not yet determined if the zone alarm has actually cycled to start the LED blinking or if it is random (it is blinking now and I did not hear an alarm while I was writing this review).UPDATE:The sensors will cause the receiver to blink continuously when they are out of range or the battery goes too low. In the case of the faulty receiver, it would do this even with new batteries and placed within a few feet of the receiver. With the new receiver this only happens when out of range or dead batteries. Note that heavy rain and moisture in the trees through which the signal travels may occasionally cause this alarm as well. Unplug and reconnect the receiver to turn it off.These (more) inexpensive sensors were an attempt to replace some Dakota Alert sensors. The much more expensive Dakota sensors are VERY good for the first 6 months to a year then they all have died (I've gone through eight of them, PIRs and buried car detectors, sent several back under warrantee and still ended up with the same problems with all of them). I bought a cheap (relatively) buried car sensor from a local feed store for $79 and it just keeps going and going and going (over two years now) ... but it is a single sensor only so not easily upgradable.UPDATE:I have been using five of the Skylink sensors for the past four months or so. All have been out in the unprotected constant rain (Oregon Coast weather). One has since died (pipe on which it was mounted fell over and it was trodden into the grass and dirt and not retrieved for over a month), the rest are functioning fine. All have had moisture work its way inside. All have had small spider nests made inside :). But with four out of five still working through the winter, they are still a great buy. Something as simple as a used cardboard milk carton would keep them from getting moisture inside and make them even more robust.Bob

Recent thefts in neighborhood made adding some security necessary. We were looking for a means of being alerted to potential intruders on the property before they could approach the house, as we live on 5 wooded acres. I also was looking to monitor some outbuildings on the property. We purchased the Skylink long-range system with 3 additional sensors. After a month and some adjustments, the system is performing so well that we have ordered 4 more sensors.The additional sensors were easy to program, install, and integrate. I have yet to replace a battery. They are remarkably effective for a relatively low-cost yet long-range wireless option. I had to adjust them all to a lower sensitivity setting (an easy jumper change in the battery compartment), as the first few nights they had me up every time the wind blew a leaf. Since adjusting the sensors, I've only been up once a night (take your pick of woodland animal looking at me when I go to investigate). So far, the smallest animal to set off a sensor was an opossum. The sensors do twinkle red when tripped, so you can visibly tell when you've triggered one.The receiver unit is reliable, but could use a few upgrades. Thankfully, the sensors can be programmed to different zones (up to 4 sensors in each of the 4 available zones for a total of 16). When triggered, the receiver sounds an alert sequence corresponding to the zone that has been triggered and flashes a red LED on the unit in the appropriate zone. There are 3 available modes of operation (Off - which still flashes a visible alert, Alert - which functions as described previously, and Alarm - which would wake thedead). I'd like to see another alert mode, that would simply chime or chirp only once or twice, and a volume wheel.My sensors are installed at various distances from the house, the farthest are about 80 wooded yards from the house. In all, I'm very impressed with the system and highly recommend it, if you don't mind dealing with a few alarms triggered by animals. Great bang for your buck here. Why no 5th star? When I emailed the company to see if this system would integrate with their auto dialer, I received no response. Bad sign.