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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?"
We had our cars getting broken into and did basically the same thing (minus gun).
We have a linux file server at home, so what I ended up doing was getting a V4L
compatible video capture card off ebay (I got a 16 input card for $80). 4 port
capture cards are common and cheap. Just make sure it's compatible with linux.
Then go to dealextreme.com, or I think they're also at dx.com now. There you can
get cameras, and the video balun's to make it simple to use cat 5 to run your
cameras. A camera is about $20 for a decent night vision one, and the balun set
(8 baluns to run 4 cameras) were about $25.
Once you've got your hardware all set up, you can use either "motion" or "zoneminder"
for the actual surveilence. Both will do what you want. I use motion, but
zoneminder is a little more polished in the UI department.
Finally, set up an rsync script or other mirror software to get those files off site
in case they actually try to steal your server.
http://www.zoneminder.com/
It integrates well with MythTV, too.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
We were broken into about 5 weeks ago. I originally considered Frontpoint about 5 months ago, but we kept putting it off. It's the only security company that had mediocre to good reviews consistently.
They have a few options - what you're looking for is their "ultimate" version, which includes cameras. It streams online I believe, and you can turn on/off the security system from your phone or their web page.
They do not send out a rep to do installation, instead they ship the system to you (they'll probably upgrade you to next day shipping for free if you mention you just had a burglary) and you set it up yourself. It took me about 15 minutes to set up, although I had to re-glue some of the door sensors.
When you call, or email, their sales agents don't try to upsel you. They work with what you want, and try to assess your needs based on how you describe your house. If you want an extra sensor for something, they are happy to give it to you - but they will want to know why, and if they don't think it's needed, they'll try to talk you out of it. I had the feeling they actually cared about my interests, and not selling me more equipment.
They also follow up on any feedback you provide, and actively try to resolve issues. I'm really happy with them. They use alarm.com for monitoring.They also have additional styles of sensors that the average joe doesn't care about (ones that you install in the door, rather than putting on the outside of the door - i.e. invisible), but you need to ask. They try to keep it simple.
Baver
Steal someones 'secured by' signs from their front yard
Maybe you can tack the sign up on your wrought-irony porch railing.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Since you have the gun already, landmines for the garden are the obvious next step
Right, because some in-and-out trained chimps are who you should trust with your home security.
Get something like a Honeywell Lynx Plus. It's wireless, easy to install, and easy to set up. You don't even need it monitored--the sound of the panel blaring would send any burglar packing. As for CCTV, you can get some dead cheap camera/DVR deals on Newegg, but don't expect awesome quality or lifespan.
Get a hunting trail camera. Takes pics on an SD card. Not networked, but is designed to be outside and it should get you the information you seek relatively cheaply.
We don't need no Net Explorer We don't need no Thought control
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.
Assuming you live in Florida, start by chasing down passers-by with your car and shooting them with your gun. Given TV interviews afterwards in which you claim that you were simply defending yourself.
It might take some kind of vast racial conspiracy in order to make sure the police release you without charges. You'll have to get together with all the other Hispanic Democrats to pull this off.
If you do it right, though, you should be able to get enraged mobs of idiots to attack some random elderly couple whose son happens to have the same middle name as you!
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.
Middle of the night:
... them, the walls, whatever (NEVER move to fire a weapon unless you can put your hands on every member of your family first. Do that and then advance to the intruder. Secure the family and then secure the house.) The sound of the blast will do a lot to persuade the bad guy to take off. Oh, and the pistol grip makes it much more likely you'll be able to get the first shot off first; you can "fire from the hip" instead of taking the time to raise the weapon to your shoulder (not to mention that you don't have to step back from the door to raise the weapon).
"knock, knock."
"Who is it?" as you rack a round in your pistol grip Mossberg 500, the process of which makes a very distinctive noise.
"Sorry, wrong address."
The comment about the blaring alarm scaring people off is true. As is the sound of the shotgun being racked.
Never mind 5,000 rounds a year, etc. On the off chance you have to fire after answering the door (a) you're firing from less than four feet away and (b) you're opening fire with pellets. So long as you don't try and play Terminator and use one hand to fire, you're going to hit something
Take the weapon out to the woods and put a dozen rounds through it. Take your family. You'll get to feel the kick you're going to experience and almost more to the point, the sound. Should you need/feel the need to fire another shot during an intrusion, if you've never heard a shotgun go off while you're holding it, in my experience you are more likely to pause as you recover from the shock of the sound.
Bark less. Wag more.
You have the gun, and you have the dog. All you really need now is a reputation.
No, no, no ... get rid of the gun and get another dog.
You need a big scary dog to frighten off the burglars and a small yappy dog to bark and wake up the big dog.
Do you know how a monitored security system works?
I do, I work for an organization with about 100 sites which I have to go in and out of, including during hours when I have to disarm a site.
The security company, by and large, doesn't really care about the brand of system in the site, they can interface to many, so long as they're commercial products. In our case, only one door into a secured area won't immediately set the alarm off, that one door has a delay before the alarm goes off, in which one disarms the system. The attendant at the security company gets an alarm on their computer screen when a site goes off, and they call the police if they don't receive a call within a minute or so of the actual alarm going off, even if one disarms the security system post-alarm. One has to know who to call and has to have a code word to prevent the authorities from being called.
In some residential installations, the security company will call a phone number on the account and ask for the code word instead of waiting for a call.
As far as burglars go, without some kind of monitoring, a burglar will still have a few minutes to grab whatever they can, even while the thing is blaring, as it's unlikely that the neighbors will call the police until the alarm gets annoying and they figure that no one is around to shut it off.
There are also fairly inexpensive ($500-$1000) camera systems with eight cameras (expandable to sixteen) at Costco that use PoE cameras. One has to run Ethernet wiring to locations for the cameras, but the advantage of needing only one battery backup for the main DVR/switch outweighs the use of separate power at each camera, in my humble opinion. I'm considering a system like this, but I know that I'll probably spend another $500 wiring for it, with the horizontal cable, the patch cords at each end, the conduit pipe for the outdoor cameras, the patch panel, the snap-in connectors, and the like, and that's assuming that I can coax an old battery backup back to life with a new set of SLAs for it.
There's no good cheap solution, in my opinion. If one is in a house, signing up for monitoring for a certain amount of time may yield a free system for detection.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
99% of the time a very loud siren will stop the theif from spending much time in your property. Even if you had the most expensive ADT setup it still takes minutes for police to do anything about it anyway.
You can pay ADT $45/mo for 5 years to install $200 worth of equipment and feel better. But you can get better results installing your own system and hooking up with something like NextAlarm for $17/mo no contract and get email/SMS notification when anything goes wrong, check event history such as who armed and disarmed and even get SMS when your housekeeper disarms/rearms, etc.
This combined with a cheap Lorex/Swann net connected DVR system from Costco that lets you instantly see 8/16 channels of video from your smartphone will be more than adequate.
There is a small learning curve when programming your own alarm panel, but since you are asking Slashdot, you probably know how to google already. Hopefully.
Trendnet has a good supply of cameras as well. They're cheap, but I can say from experience the 110w, 121w, and 312w all do a perfectly decent job. They're not the best thing in the world, but they just work. Trendnet's "monitoring software" is crap however.
640 x 480 cameras don't get good faces. Even megapixel shots from any more than a couple feet away aren't that great. A better bet is to cover vehicle approaches. No one is going to steal your TV on foot, no one is going to loot ten minutes worth of your stuff on foot, and cops have a much better chance of spotting "Two white males 1998 red ford ranger with a dent on the left side of the bed" than they have of spotting "black male with a mustache and an earring in his left ear wearing a blue shirt." The guy in the shirt will have a chance to change shirts before the cops even show up at your door. The guys in the truck are going to use that truck in another break in.
In my experience, the two guys doing home invasions (one guy goes in, one guy keeps the car running and sits on lookout.) will hit a neighborhood a few times before things get hot. If you can ID the car, cops will have a *MUCH* better chance at nabbing the perps. I passed a couple frames I managed to get of a car that was involved at a break in near my home to the county sheriff. The cops were thrilled to have that more than a description, as it gave them a much narrower focus.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
The reputation you want is "do not fuck with us or you will reap the whirlwind."
Physical security takes many forms; the dog, gun, and security cameras all serve various parts of the whole picture.
As for your current situation: you were scouted out and target over a period of days, weeks, or months. You were probably hit by fairly brazen professionals. You will probably not be hit again for a number of reasons:
* you are now more alert due to having been victimized
* you are now more likely to be better prepared
* they were thorough and you have nothing of value in the house which they wanted. Presumably, it was not a quick snatch and grab due to the safe being gone, too.
* you are more likely to alert your neighbors to be alert
Alert your neighbors, if you have any. Having a strong community is the best defense against these things. Our neighborhood has a nosey codger who is quite vigilant about things like this: if someone doesn't look like they're supposed to be there, he confronts them. People home with no vehicles in the drive is usually a pretty good indication if there's no garage.
I would also suggest not leaving unsecured arms in the house if you are not normally home. If they know you're not home and have firearms, you are more likely to be robbed by serious criminals (and then have to deal with all the paperwork, headache, and guilt of stolen firearms). On the other hand, stolen firearms are fairly easy to track unless they're intended for use in other crimes.
The most likely thing is that you won't be violated again in this fashion for some time, though it pays to be vigilant in security of mind. As for the topic at hand: newegg has occasional deals in the under-$500 range (saw an 8 camera unit for about $350 recently) for decent home security systems which do what you request. They use mini-BNC and the like, I believe.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
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
If they're looking to catch the daytime lurker (and likely robber), I'd imagine you'd want it to be silent.
I use MythTV as a PVR, so adding MythZoneMinder and a few IPCams was pretty simple. It sends me a text message when one of the zones is breached, and I can look at the images or the live feed from my phone or work computer. One of the cameras is a PTZ, and the only time I got to use it in anger, turning it to face the kids who were about to tag my mailbox got them to change their minds. If something's happening that really concerns me, I can call the police direct or ask one or several of my neighbours to help out.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
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.