Do-It-Yourself Home Security? 49
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?
Print yourself some ADT stickers (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
A few suggestions... (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:A few suggestions... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd thought of the ink, but that would ruin my furniture. So perhaps would pepper spray. I want something that would easily permeate the whole house, not stain the furniture, and be easily dissapated by be when I get home. I'm not sure whether I want it to piss them off so they run out, or send them to sleep so that I can deal with them when I get home.
Any suggestions appreciated.
(I'm also going to make the system output to my TV, act as a set-top webcam and camera playback, internet gateway for my other networked PC. It will act as an answering machine, and be DTMF controllable for disabling alarms, triggering gas etc. It will have audio connected to the front door, so that when the door bell rings and I'm not home, it will telephone my mobile, and I can talk to whoever's at my door.) I'm still working on the plans though. So far I've only got the capture card. Buying a new PC soon.... Got to make sure that it lasts on battery power for a long time though.