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Do-It-Yourself Home Security?
pussycat asks: "Having recently purchased a home in an urban area, I am investigating monitored home security options -- I'll feel better when I'm away, and I'll get a break on my insurance. I am rejecting the big security services like Brinks because of their very high monitoring fees: $25-45+/month. I've found a cheap monitoring service (911Alarm has one for $13/month), but I'm overwhelmed by the choices for hardware. SmartHome has some nifty devices, but the hardwired stuff looks like a real pain to install, and the X10 stuff seems kind of cheesy. Does anyone have experience with setting up a do-it-yourself home security system? I'm interested in reliability (minimizing false alarms) and low-cost." Has anyone wired up their own home security system? What things should one watch out for when tackling a job like this?
Most ard wired systems use the phone lineto alert the company watching over your home. Burgulars have noticed this. Look for a provider that has wireless access or look into models that interface to a cell phone. It costs more, but your monitorring can't be lost by cutting a phone line.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
My recommendation: find an ADT sticker, scan it, print a few, and stick it on your house. You'll get plenty of security that way.
Avoid ADT like the plague: They will try to get you to commit to a $22/mo *3 year* contract, that will automatically roll over for two further years after that. Now, remember what they do: the alarm goes off, they call your house. If there is no answer, or the person who answers doesn't give the passcode, they call the cops. THAT'S IT. It is NOT an active monitoring system, the alarm in your house calls them -- so you are paying $22/mo for someone to answer the phone and screen false alarms.
What the hell do you need this level of security for ? Which country do you live in ? This sounds like the kind of thing you might need in South Africa, or possible the Ex USSR, or certain parts of the United Kingdom, but in America ? Are you for real ?
I'm building my own car alarm.
Its a Pbasic stamp from Parrallax.
14 i/o pins, 4 of which go to relays to blink the dome light, horn, 120 db piezo siren, and voice chip hooked to a 80watt amp and 8" woofer. I have a motion detector, Shock detector, dome light detector, and a key ring remote. I am still working on it, but I am making the PCB myself.
Ultrasonic/infrared motion detectors are subject to false alarms due to pets or movement of plant leaves etc when the A/C kicks on.
Glass breakage detectors will sometimes trip if you "clink" glasses or dishes while loading a dishwasher. They also trip if you drop your keys.
As far as monitoring: by the time the alarm company has called your home and received no answer/reached someone who doesn't know the codeword to say, and has then called the police, the burglar and your belongings will be long gone.
Police departments assign a low priority to alarm calls from services anyway due to the prevalance of false alarms. (And some cities charge a fee per false alarm--50 bucks or so) For these reasons, I suggest foregoing the monitoring services and their subscription fees.
How about picking up a cheap 486, installing it in a secure/hidden place and running a webcam(s) to it. Motion detecting software will save images to the harddrive which you can later retrieve so that you or the cops have an idea who broke in. Maybe you could get the images run on the local crimestoppers show. If you want to get fancy, you could include a modem and have the computer page you when the system is activated. You then call the system and see who is in your house and whether you want to call the cops.
Good luck.
Beware of DIY security if you're angling for cheaper insurance. Some companies will only give this for approved installations by professionals, not some DIY geek... Nothing against you personally, but there's probably quite a few other numpties around who couldn't install a lock, far less a complex security system properly who would try to claim the discount. As such, your efforts would probably get lumped in with those.
Its been said before, but its worth saying again. Clear anything you do with your insurance company, and I don't mean corporate help I mean go to your agents office with diagrams and plans if you roll your own.
You have a big decision to make, do you want to keep people from breaking in or do you just want something that makes a hell of a lot of noise if somone breaks in.
All of your exterior doors should be a heavy guage steel of thick solid wood. You need name brand handles and deadbolts on every outside door. You also want good window locks and you want to keep valuables with street value out of the way of windows and nearer the center of the house if possible. Those will prevent someone from breaking in in the first place.
As for a noisemaker, you want some sort of system on every ground floor window that detects glass breaks as well as window openings. The same for the doors.
Go in and talk to the local police and find out what thier policy is on house alarms. You don't want to break local laws and different departments respond differently to alarms. Some will only respond if a neighbor or professional monitoring center calls in and actual burglar, others will go in just for the siren.
Personally, I don't want an alarm system. I use methods and things at home and on may car to keep from being broken into to begin with.
if you're in a nice enough neighborhood, get to know your neighbors. that's what my parents did, they knew a lot of the people in the surrounding houses. we all talked to each other, and so we all knew when someone was out on vacation, or who of us worked nights instead of days. that way we knew that if there were lights on or a strange car in someones driveway, we knew something might not be right, and we'd watch a little more, looking to see what was going on.
or, start a neighborhood watch, volunteer to go cruising around your neighborhood looking for suspicious activity. the families in my sisters neighborhood all know each other too, and when her husband left the garage door open one night, a neighbor knocked on their door at 1am to make sure everything was ok.
even in the apartments i live in, which isn't in the nicest neighborhood, i make it a point to talk to my downstairs neighbor occasionally. sure, it's not perfect, but just the other day they told me that a couple of kids had been trying to break into my car (good luck, everyone in the complex knows that it takes at least 15 minutes to start on a good day). he scared them off and then came to my apartment to tell me. i'd do the same thing.
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Pay ADT or whoever for it. That's the only way that if your hosue is left alone, Law Enforcement can be notified and can check it out. Other then that, I know of no other way to do it and do it as well as they do. ADT usually offers the system for free as well. Also, you mean to tell me your house and valuables aren't worth an extra 25 a month?? To me, even with home owners insurance, some of teh stuff I have is irreplace able and I feel so much better knowing when I am away I have our alarm on.
Gorkman
get a couple of dogs that bark loud
My friend in security [big electronic systems for corporate campus's] for over 20 years swears by big dogs.
Burgulars always skip the house with multiple barking dogs, and dogs are fun !!
-- www.globaltics.net
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I wish I was building a house so I could put one in. The only problem is retrofits - that's expensive because the walls aren't already open
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Agree with the Dog idea.
We've got two.
Ridgeback's come from Mastiff stock. But, they can hold their own with a Lion. Also, we only feed each one 4 cups per day of dry food. I doubt Mastiffs eat much more than that. And, our dogs even gain weight on this diet.
keeps out everyone...
including me...
My suggestion: just pay the alarm company. You get the benefits many have listed and *some* piece of mind. I have woken up at 2 am to blaring sirens and my house filled with smoke (was still a smoldering log in fireplace and flue was closed). The fire dept had already been dispatched before the alarm service even called to verify the alarm from the smoke/heat detector(they were called back before they arrived here).
What you might want to do, though, is see if you can tap into their sensors and monitor those from the web. Talk to your installer: once I told the guy checking my system (the previous owner had it installed) that I was an EE, he went into all the details of the system and answered all my technical questions.
You can't guarantee safety with *any* measure you take, but you can take a number of steps to *increase* it. Good external locks, smoke & CO detectors, and get to know your neighbors.
I live in Mexico, which is part of the american continent (i.e. I DO live in America), and let me tell you, insecurity here is a real problem, so needs like those are not far-fetched.
Plenty of countries in our continent (America) are in a similar situation. Off the top of my head, Colombia has severe insecurity problems, and i'm sure others will tell more stories like this.
Since the first thing most security companies do is call the house, if you have two lines, have your computer call "home" and leave an offical sounding message on the answering machine, which is on.
If someone breaks in, the first thing they will hear is "the security company" calling to check on the alarm.
Many towns, like mine, require registration, and a yearly tax, if you have an alarm that calls the cops.
As each section is turned up, you have to take the time to "stabilize" the environment (insuring reliable signalling, preventing false signals). You can code around false signals with two way X10 devices, or use feedback from sensors to confirm. I use a combination of 1-way, 2-way, PIR motion, light detect, cams, magnetic, PIR, glass breakage, (hardwired wireless and carrier current) controlled, of course, by an old laptop running Linux with Bottle Rocket, Heyu and Xtend software (driving TCL and BASH scripts) and cron jobs. I recommend a laptop because of the low power requirement (runs a loooong time on UPS).
Start small, build slowly.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
If you're going to install yourself, and use your own equipment, Why not moitor yourself. Set up a computer with enough serial ports to monitor your equipment. Attach it redundantly to an ADSL or cable modem line, and the telephone line. Set it up so that it pages you through the Net, and through the phone line at regulat intervals as a failsafe. If you leave a mike active, you might even get it routed through the phone line to a cell call.
For hardware, use hardwired switches on windows and doorways, not wireless.
~ a low user id is no indication I have a clue what I'm talking about.