We've just had a new alarm system fitted at work. I raided the old units because they are microwave / pir. I was puzzled as to the 3 led colours when messing with one in the shed. Now I know! Thank you for the explanation.
In my old apartment block, the corridor lights were microwave based and would detect people walking around inside their apartments. A few people thought we had ghosts when they saw lights turn on "randomly". I popped the covers off the lights on my corridor and adjusted the sensitivity - I hated that someone could see if I was in or not
Ohhhh I always thought the 3 leds were like a traffic light were a little movement would be green. A bit more yellow and a lot would be red. Never thought it would be 2 technologies. That’s super interesting. Thank you
Once, me and some mates went exploring an abandoned workshop. They all went to an upper floor, but I stayed behind because there were no stairs, just a hole in the wall and the random crap piled up to climb in there was very sketchy, so I stayed behind to hold the crap so it wouldn't fall. Then I explored the lower floor by myself. I went into a rook which had a PIR, not knowing what it was, I proceeded to take some photos with my camera (with flash on) of the room and walked around the room... I didn't take any photos of the PIR, but when my mates came down, we left. I wasn't the first to leave, but there was a worker from the active asphalt plant at the exit (it was quite a wide road so he couldn't exactly stop us, and I couldn't tell if he was waiting for us cuz I triggered the PIR 5000 times, or just saw us leaving) he asked us what school we go to, but we lied because I was smart and told everyone to take their ties off, then we ran, harder than we had ever done before. This was on one of the hottest days of the year as well.
I've got an alarm board hung on the wall in my workshop with a 1980s RS components alarm panel, fire bell, PIR and strobe, I must check whether the motion sensor on that is a dualtec or just a straight PIR! EDIT: we actually had those old-style huge microwave detectors at highschool!
BUT… if you want a small teaser for one of them… ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G7nZF8rBDTw.html (Unfortunately the other one’s not as exciting!)
I always hated the Rokonet dualtecs. The front covers never fitted correctly without making many attempts to get it just right. My preference was the Napco Gemini Dualtecs. It's old but it's a classic that never failed on me.
Another fantastic video from the mrmattandmrchay channel. Love the content keep up the amazing videos. I do like the PIR related videos best as I do too like PIRs a lot.
I remember we used to create our own "dualtecs" by wiring in parallel separate RACAL Microwave or Aritech ultrasonic and pir detectors, years before they were available as a combined unit !
Yep, seen this done in the past! When a detector has been replaced many times and you suspect it's to do with the environment it's in, then before the age of the dualtec, that was an option. I've mostly seen PIRs doubled up. For example 2x Racal 772s, 2x Ademco 650s in warehouses. The 772 combination was terrible at picking up!
I have several "pure" PIR detectors in my house for many years and never had a false alarm. They are honeywell quad element detectors and I believe they require two to activate to signal an alarm. I have a dualtech in the garage as the more drafty environment means more chance of false alarms.
I've always been fascinated by motion detectors I had a PIR I played with quite a bit when I was little, moving slowly enough it wouldn't detect so my siblings and I played the game of not setting it off :D
No, although you can "mask" off some of the lens to help avoid pets. Its best to always exclude pets from protected areas to avoid false alarms, yet give good protection from intruders.
I somehow have a fear of motion detectors because i feel like if i just get some chips or something at 3:00am the motion detector will go off and set off the alarm and something bad will happen.
