HomeSeer stopped a thief

[bpm32]

You're right - it did make me feel good. I tried a motion sensor, but I never really had much luck with that. (I have to admit I didn't spend a lot of time on it though.) I thought I'd go for a DS10a at one point, but soon got to thinking it may be overkill.

Speaking of overkill (I'm notorious for this), if my house alarm is triggered, I have HS announce over the house speakers any movement it detects. "I'm detecting motion in the kitchen," etc. (I guess the idea was that it might make them nervous and leave.) Now for the really-overkill part: I've always wanted to connect a low-power FM transmitter that would broadcast that message over an FM channel. That way I could tell the police to tune into 89.5 when they're outside the house and they could get real time updates of where the criminal is in my home. Haven't done that one either... but maybe someday.

I've only lived in this neighborhood for 18 months and haven't experienced any other issues, but every neighbor up and down our street has security company signs in their yard, so I guess it made me a little nervous.

[JeffCharger]

I have an "overkill" approach too... mostly because it's fun...

I have a number of cameras, on ninja moving bases. With a combination of Ds10's (which are great BTW), and simple x10 motion detectors, when I have security set ON, and I get a detected motion or opening door etc. - I have the closest camera activated, turned to where the intrusion was detected, take 10 snapshots - 2 seconds apart, zip them, email them to me at home and work, and send me a text message.

I also have sign posted that says "if you can read this sign, then your picture has been taken and emailed to authorities|". In other words, it's too late....

I haven't caught anything significant, but have found neighbors and curious folks walking around our lake property when we're not there.....

My neighbor/friend borrows my ladder periodically and I get a kick out of showing him the pictures.

[damage]

i was able to catch someone in our neighborhood who let their dog crap on our lawn. i printed up flyers with framegrabs of the dog in action with the owner nearby, put the caption "BEWARE! Your neighbor's dog craps on lawns!" and taped them to various streetlight posts near her house.

lately, these idiot renters next door to us have been throwing garbage into our recycle bin and into our pile of yard waste waiting for pickup. i guess they haven't figured out why their bag of garbage is sitting on their porch in the morning.

[sleighbor]

Hey CJ,

This is great news. I am fairly new to this and want to add some outside security myself. Can you tell me please what motion sensors you are using and then how do they report back to HomeSeer?

Thank you,
Kevin

[langenet]

Well... I just came up with a new application for HS myself. That is, to monitor water bed leaks.

My girlfreind and I both have hybrid water beds. (no... they don't run on gas and batteries). These are beds which have a water blatter within what looks like a regular mattress. Anyway, her's sprung a leak and the water had done some significant damage to her hardwood floor and the ceiling below.
Realizing that this could happen to me, I placed a leaf sensor placed in an old sock, within that blatter cavity... (also found an application for those single sockes that I can't seem to match ), connected to a ds10 and created an event to send a page should it ever trigger... I guess you could call this a sense of security!

ah... the wonders of endless possibilities

Robert

[CJVann]

Hey CJ,

This is great news. I am fairly new to this and want to add some outside security myself. Can you tell me please what motion sensors you are using and then how do they report back to HomeSeer?

Thank you,
Kevin

Hi Kevin - I have both X10 motion sensors & Insteon motion sensors. I use a virtual device in HomeSeer to enable or disable security announcements, so they don't go off when I have company or parties.

X10: I use a whole-house wireless receiver (W800RF) to receive the X10 signal, and the ACRF Plug-in sends that information to HomeSeer without putting the commands on the power line! I like that they send an "On" every 6 seconds while motion continues. I have 2 levels of security: 1 Announces motion the moment HS receives the first motion "ON", or I can use the 2nd option that waits until a 2nd motion "ON' is received. (This way it "filter's out" cars driving by, birds flying past, etc, but if motion continues beyond 6 seconds, HS announces the alert. I always have HS turn the outside lights on (after dark) on the FIRST motion event, no matter what.

Insteon: These commands are sent over the power line. I use Universal Device's ISY to detect Insteon commands, and the ISY Insteon plug-in to send the information to HomeSeer. These motion sensors only send one "ON", then do not send any further commands until no motion has been seen for a pre-set period of time (min. of 30 seconds), and then they send an "Off". If I want to wait for the 2nd "On", HomeSeer waits 30-some seconds and sees if the motion sensor is still "On" - if so, it announces motion. These sensors are nice in that they have a mounting bracket so you can adjust them up/down/left/right, and they have a sensitivity switch (long/short range detection).

[CJVann]

Well... I just came up with a new application for HS myself. That is, to monitor water bed leaks.

Hey Robert - Great idea! Do you have HomeSeer send you a text message if it detects an alert?

[langenet]

Yes, text message on phone, e-mail to work account as well..

While I'm a water sign, I don't like the sign of water on my ceiling

Robert

[sleighbor]

Thanks for the info CJ.

Kevin