Home Security Project

[derajer]

First I feel a need to shamelessly plug the wiki article for deterrence, http://zombiehunters.org/wiki/index.php ... andscaping.

I used to install security systems for a large local installer, they work almost exclusively with Ademco/Honeywell systems and had good success (read, no repair calls).

I would strongly recommend a hardwired unit and then integrate wireless sensors where practical. In theory you could put in a hard wired controller and all wireless sensors. On several occasions we installed wireless sensors, but they are aesthetically displeasing and require maintenance that hard-wired sensors do not. The hard wired controllers will likely be easier to tinker with as well.

As for fire, the Ademco units we installed had a smoke detector circuit that was monitored by the monitoring service.

[jor-el]

Radio Shack offers a few wireless systems, though I never got one. Back in the nineties I put together two hard wired systems for my apartment and for my dad's house. I remembered getting nastygrams from the PD for both systems frequently going off, but in both cases it was because someone was tampering with the sensor arrays on the windows. My dad got tired of what seemed to be false alarms and turned his off. Two days later his place got broken into.

[crypto]

wiring internal sensors in a 100 year old house with plaster-and-lathe walls would be a fucking nightmare, so I understand where he's coming from with the desire to be all-wireless.

For the cameras though, I would recommend the wired solution. the wireless cameras still need power, which means either changing a battery out frequently, or wiring power to the location, which defeats the whole purpose of getting a wireless camera. The wired cameras are typically cheaper, typically offer better resolution, and typically carry power to the device over a single shielded wire.

One thing to mention here that is another stupid variable to what must already be a dauntingly complicated problem:

When you decide where to place your cameras, be considerate of your light placement. I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but there's actually a flip side to the "make sure the camera has enough light to see anything" thing:

Many of the newer CCTV cameras either have a night mode that uses IR to see at night, or are extremely high-gain for their night modes. In any event, a sudden light level change will 'bloom' the imager to white for a few seconds until the day/night switch or the automatic gain control can compensate. I've seen cameras where this will take up to 10 seconds to accomplish.

Order a few cameras and motion-sensing lights and pilot-test them before you go all out and buy a shitload to cover the house. Nothing's worse than spending a shit-ton of money on a bad solution.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

In any event, a sudden light level change will 'bloom' the imager to white for a few seconds until the day/night switch or the automatic gain control can compensate. I've seen cameras where this will take up to 10 seconds to accomplish.

True dat. I've got a $500ish Linksys/Cisco Ethernet camera in my lab that takes about 4 or 5 seconds to compensate to light changes.

If you're going to go with cameras, you might be able to shave off a few bucks and save on bandwidth and (electronic) storage space if you don't mind time lapse image as opposed to full motion video.