He all, this time of year I have a problem of not knowing that there are deer in my yard before I let my dogs out. The dogs chase the deer, then I have to chase them.
I was thinking that motion sensors tied to an Inovelli dimmer notification might be a good way to know it was safe to let the dogs out.
Has anyone tried this or have any motion sensor recommendations? The major problem I see is that I need to cover the whole yard (0.66 acre), not just the area near the house. Its probably 100ft from the back door to the back of the yard. TIA!
I have Blink outdoor cameras which I keep armed. When they sense motion at night, an automation turns on all exterior lights. I thought that might spook the deer but they just pose for a while and move on.
#1 - I go in and cut the power to one of the two light panels; preferring to have the longevity of function in the dead of winter over the brightness of two light arrays. This company has been selling through Costco for years, their stuff is pretty good.
#2 - I have not used but understand these to be some of the best in outdoor motions. Donno if you even need the light unit if all you want is to know they are out there.
My inkling is to go low cost and visual over motions integrated into the hub but YOU are going to have to think through how they move, how long they stay, and how you want to be notified (bothered).
Just putting three of those solar light modules out there would give you a lot of "quick look" visibility without a lot of HA hassle. BUT your neighbors might be bugged by the lights going on/off all night
Lastly #3 - under the category of..."a dog's gotta go when a dog's gotta go"
I’ll be interested to hear what works the best. I’m moving to an area with a lot of deer (I might even miss the raccoons here ), and my little dog thinks she’s 10 times taller than she is. They’re sure to snuff her out if I’m not careful.
Is prefer not to flash lights in the yard constantly. We have a LOT of deer. I like the blink camera idea. I was hoping for a discreet notification that is see before opening the door. You know, the kind of over engineered solution that'll make the wife roll her eyes. (She just peeks out the door before opening it. Who does that?!?)
Might work better on deer than raccoons. Two of my neighbors bought them for raccoons and they said they either walk around, so not to trigger it, or they pushed it over so it’s pointed down. Clever animals.
I too have a big deer problem where I live, and I can contest that simply turning on lights doesn't deterrent them at all. My solution to protect the bushes and flowers in front of my house has been my Blink doorbell, one spare old echo dot device and a pair of outdoor Bluetooth speakers linked to the dot... cheap ones that look like rocks. I have an Echo routine when motion is detected by Blink during the evening and early morning (times the deer show up) ... the Echo devices begins playing buzzing sounds to those outside speakers which are spread-out to cover all the foliage I need to protect. So far, so good. I have been using deer-netting for another side of my house, but I've been debating whether to get a blink camera or an outdoor z-wave motion detector to do the same for that side. Still considering that option. Just waiting to see if the deer will continue to be spooked by the sound. Really wish I could use the censor water hose idea... but it gets way too cold here to use that.
Oh man, that Yard Enforcer is amazing! I might have to get one for my wife's garden.
For now, I'm just looking for something that'll let me know if there are deer in the yard. We have so many that deterring them is probably a lost cause. The Blink camera solution looks promising, thought it'll probably require several cameras. (I have to go all the way around the house.) I could probably get by with motion sensors assuming I could get good coverage and minimize false positives. The search continues.
Try the motion sensors if you expand it. In my experience they afford a lot less tinkering and easy repositioning than my camera. Anxious to try the Hue Outdoor motion, been using cheap Iris Motions in a segment of PVC pipe (believe it or not they have worked beautifully unless aimed at heat gaining walls etc.).
I've had mixed results with the Hue sensors. I have three of them that all stopped responding. I moved one of them to my newish C7 and am testing it again. So far it is working. The only thing I don't like is that stray cats set it off too often.
I have had good luck with the Ecolink sensors. The pet immunity works well. People and cars set them off reliably but they rarely get triggered by the cats. I have one mounted low on a wall and that one picks up cats when they walk in front of it but otherwise they have been solid.
They aren't rated for outdoor use but I have had them outside for a few years. They are stuck in place with fun tack and don't have any sort of weather protection. Granted we don't get much rain here but they have been working well. I would recommend using some sort of weather protection if you use them.
The one interesting false positive I get is when it does start to rain. The front "yard" is all concrete the rain quickly cools it during the warmer months. This causes the sensors to trigger until the temperature stabilizes.
I have been using the YoLink Outdoor Motion Sensors to detect visitors in our front and back yard. They work extremely well! The key was determining the ideal height of installation with limited tree limbs to choose from. Aim them such that the subject will cross the sensor perpendicularly (not approach it head-on or from behind). These are the only outdoor tuned motion sensors (fewer false alerts) that I found rated for 2 years battery life and up to 1000 ft range using LoRa (low-power wide-area network). With the hub connected to IFTTT, I added some virtual sensors in Hubitat that trigger pushover notifications and increase the sconce dimmers from 30% to 100% for 10 minutes. Only $40 on Amazon currently.
i use a product that cannot be connected to Hubitat but i can said that it work because it alert me when a human, car, deer, dog and even rabbit if the detector is mounted "too" low.
Wuloo Solar Wireless Driveway Alarm
My driveway is 150ft long, and it work to alert me that something is coming to my house.
It's like a door bell but it sound BEFORE the person is at your door.
Like many outdoor motion sensor you need to put the sensitivity at the lowest setting.
The beam is not really large but it goes far enough. Maybe 10 degrees.
During the night : 0 false alarm. And deer are detected.
I highly recommend them.
Battery and Solar power is good even in Québec with the current cold weather (-18c) and low sunlight.
Each sensor have a unique sound that you must choose. So just by the sound, you know where the thing is.
I considered using something like this too. I have hacked a few products in the past which also worked well in some cases. For example, hijacking the indoor chime device and using the chime circuit to trigger a Hubitat supported relay is another workaround.
), and my little dog thinks she’s 10 times taller than she is. They’re sure to snuff her out if I’m not careful.
