13
Switched from standard 22/4 wire to a 18/2 shielded run for a long driveway sensor.
Had a client in a rural part of Spokane with a 400-foot driveway. The motion sensor kept giving false alarms, especially on windy days. I swapped the old wire for a shielded 18/2 run about six months ago, and the nuisance trips stopped completely. Anyone else found a good fix for long wire runs in high-interference areas?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
taylor1220d ago
Man, that reminds me of my buddy's nightmare setup. He had a gate sensor on a ranch with a run almost as long, right under some old power lines. It was a constant headache, going off like crazy. He fought with it for months before someone told him to try the shielded stuff. Swapped it out in an afternoon and it was like someone flipped a switch to quiet. He said it was the best twenty bucks he ever spent on that place.
6
josephmartin21d ago
Glad the shielded wire worked for you! That's a solid fix. For really long runs like that, I've also had good luck using twisted pair cable instead of just shielded. The twisting cuts down on noise even more. It's a bit more of a pain to work with but makes a huge difference in windy spots or near power lines. Honestly, once you go past 300 feet, good cable is the only thing that stops the ghosts in the system. Your client must be thrilled to not get alerts every time a branch falls.
1