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[bkenobi]

My wife has an office with a door that she doesn't shut.  Her desk doesn't face the door.  She keeps a candy dish on her desk and at least a couple times a day, she gets spooked by a sudden "Hello!" from a coworker munching on candy.  While I think that's hilarious, apparently she thinks it's getting old.  I know there's got to be a cheap entry chime that she could put by the door that would basically consist of a light bar (reflective rather than motion probably) that would provide a simple chime when tripped.  I'm not looking for X10 since the office would be an issue for PLC.  Anyone have a suggestion?

[dave w]

Google "Photo Beam Alarm" or Photo Beam Sensor. There is a bunch. 

[bkenobi]

Those search terms help.  The ones that pop up seem to be in the $80-300 range where I was thinking $10-20.  I found a motion sensor on ebay for ~$6 shipped that I was thinking could be modified to add a shield on the edges of the sensor to "blind" it's peripheral sight and make it only see a beam.  If she puts that on the floor by the door and aims it across the opening, it should work reasonably well...maybe.  I'll check a bit more on light beam sensors though in case a budget option is available.