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Ask Slashdot: A Cheap, DIY Home Security and Surveillance System?
scubamage writes "Six weeks ago, my home was broken into while my fiance and I were at work. Two laptops were stolen, an iPad, a power brick, a safe (complete with several years worth of taxes, my birth certificate, and old copies of my driver's license), a digital SLR, and several other costly items. We are now dealing with an attorney because the homeowner's insurance is fighting us on a number of items and we're not backing down. It has been a nightmare. However, we've now noticed that someone has been visiting our house during the day. There has been garbage left sitting on our back porch table, so its unlikely to have blown there. We've also seen footprints in our garden that are not there in the morning. Our neighborhood is essentially empty during the day, and we want to know who is on our property while we're not. If we're really lucky, reporting it to the police could recover some of our property. My fiance has asked me to assemble a home security system that is motion activated, and both notifies us of an entry, as well as records video or rapid HD stillframes when sensing motion. The goal is to do this cheaply and more effectively than going with a private security company like ADT (who, consequently, our police department told us to ignore due to the incredibly high rate of false alarms). We've already gotten the dog and the gun, so we have those bases covered. What suggestions do you have on setting up home security systems, and what have you done to build one in the past?"
I've got mine set to email pictures where motion was detected to an account I have dedicated for that. By the time they uplug the server, their picture is already sitting on a remote server, waiting for me to forward to the police.
Logitech delivevers a surprisingly good turnkey solution! I use it in my company, we have 20 stores and lately there has been a surge in robberies of our stores. After we got these cameras set up, with no extra hacking, it delivers perfect video with sound and can of course be motion activated. We have sendt the video captures to the national TV station (Norwegian TV2) and it got aired nationwide. The quality was that good that they chose to use our videos. I would not bother create a hacked-together just because these things Just Work. Normally I wouldn't trust a Logitech product to do something this important, but they are very good and reliable. No problems, we've use them daily at 20 locations with no problems and no hazzles. I am not affiliated with Logitech, I just really like a solution that works perfectly and want to share it with others.
Get a concealed carry license and keep the gun on you (obviously, learn to use it well, that part can be fun). It won't get stolen. I live in a place where just about everyone has guns - it's a tool for almost daily use out here in farm country. There are some criminals that live here, but there's no crime here. It's too damn dangerous as they might not get the expected "due process" if caught, and they know it. I was once burgled on several days successively when I lived in the DC area. Kids even made a camp-fire on my kitchen floor. Stole onyx and marble chess pieces to skip on the pond, and coin collections to buy cokes. The cops said, well, it's just kids - not much we can do, we don't have time to stake out your home even though it's been burgled 3 times in three days at roughly known times of day. Sigh. I told them - I hope it's YOUR kid, because tomorrow, I'm going to park my car 5 blocks away, sneak back here, and sit behind the front door with my .44 magnum and blow away the first thing through the door.
Next day - the cops showed up. It WAS one of their kids, along with others, and the cop, realising where all that cool stuff his kid was dragging home, figured it all out and busted them.
Sometimes they need a reminder to do their job. It worked that time anyway.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
First, DOCUMENT YOUR POSSESSIONS!!!
Take pictures that show model numbers and serial numbers. Keep a list of serial numbers. Keep receipts. Register the devices with the manufacturer as additional proof of ownership. I'm sure your insurance agent told you this when you set up the policy.
A surveillance system would have done nothing to prove the value of what you lost. On video, a $6000 laptop looks exactly the same as a $350 laptop.
As to the surveillance system, there are a number of consumer systems available at a reasonable price. Anywhere from a single camera up to 16-camera systems. $400-500 will buy you a ready-to-roll 8 camera system with DVR and remote monitoring, including iphone/android phone video feed. Not pro-quality stuff but decent. Just make sure you post "This area is under video surveillance" signs at the entrances.
I don't think I'd bother with a monitored alarm system, though I'd certainly consider one that makes a lot of noise and flashes a lot of strobes. The fact that a system is monitored isn't what deters theft. It's the noise and attention that is drawn to the scene that chases them off.
Blue Iris is a video monitoring system. Fairly close to professional grade, and free. Large selection of IP cameras available. I was going to recommend this if no one else had (I work in the physical security industry).
If you want to see who's wandering around your yard get a decent quality IP camera and go to the trouble of configuring it. I very highly recommend Axis cameras (and very highly recommend AGAINST Sony cameras), probably the 216FD, or the M3304 or 216MFD if you need megapixel resolution. Expect to pay >$500 if you go that route, but they're worth it and when you're done you can sell them again for a decent price. Log into the camera, set your IP address, and set up motion detection. You'll see how to do it, it's pretty straight-forward. Try to make sure that your motion detection area doesn't include any bushes or anything else that moves in the wind. If you get an Axis camera you can download the Axis Camera Station recorder for free, which is a nice, basic video recording system that is pretty easy to configure (easier than Blue Iris, even). Set it to record continually to a hard drive you don't use for anything else (a cheap external USB drive works fine), since megapixel video sucks up drive space at a pretty phenomenal rate. Three or four images per second should be sufficient, and the camera will raise motion alarms that make it easier to review the recordings. Put it inside a window or under an eave, you don't want to deal with the cost for weatherizing something that's just temporary, and since any of the cameras I mentioned are POE you just need a CAT-5 cable and your system is set.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
That figures for a city. When I lived in San Francisco I had neighbors which would trip my alarm for fun and quickly made the cops tired of showing up. This is a troublesome catch-22 because when your system actually catches a wolf, nobody cares because they are sick of hearing it. I think in these modern times, an internet-attached system is the way to go because it can notify the owner and give them real-time video and data they need to make an informed decision about whether to actually set off a visible/audble alarm and/or notify the police. Everyone hates false positives!
No no, you have it all wrong. Our neighbors, who were burgled last year, had one of their guns stolen. That uplifted it to a much more serious crime (at least here in Texas), and they got police attention until the guilty party (a Mexican gang from the other side of town, who just picked their house at random) was busted.
Here's how you do it:
1. Get a gun. Register said gun.
2. Pour molten solder into the barrel of said gun.
3. Leave said gun in plain sight in your home.
4. If your house is burgled, report your gun stolen immediately. The police will pay attention.
5. Have no fear that your gun will be used to hurt yourself or anyone else, except whoever tries to use it.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.