7 ms·

This reminds me of another home security product called Cocoon, which uses sound instead of RF. Side note: if you have a smart home security system that you're

This reminds me of another home security product called Cocoon, which uses sound instead of RF. Side note: if you have a smart home security system that you're actually happy with, I'd like to hear about it. I've been doing research, and it seems almost nobody is happy with the current offerings. It is either equipment problems, or long, expensive contracts.

dfox 9y ago
Really long time ago at an boot sale I bought essentially complete security system made in early 90's by some smallish company that was probably spun-off from Tesla (ie. the elecronics manufacturer "Tesla n.p.") as part of privatization and then probably failed outright. The thing consisted of obviously repurposed parts of other systems and looked like one giant kludge. But what was the interesting feature of this was that most sensors were based on infrasound, notionally they were meant to detect shattering glass, but somehow the sensitivity was tweaked in such way that they even detected opening of doors/windows (this was mentioned in manual as feature) and even could detect person moving around the room.
jtraffic 9y ago
I sold security systems in 2008, door to door. (Icky, I know.) I had a long time to think about it, every day, and during pitches. I soon stopped, because I think they aren't worth it (which made me the world's worst salesperson. I remember near the end talking one old woman out of it.) The first important thing is that they won't prevent the nightmare encounter where a thief enters the house when you're there. Second, police are too swamped to have ever reacted in time to catch the thief. To my knowledge, it has never, ever happened. There is a possible benefit that it may truncate the time in the house. To me this is not a big issue, I suspect most competent thieves are efficient with time. Finally, there is an unobservable deterrence effect, but that is easily obtained by faking the appearance of a system without needing to enter a contract and pay monitoring fees. The most useless thing about security systems, the monitoring, is the only thing that costs serious money. The final benefit is life-alert style stuff, but there are better solutions for that. On the other hand, there is a massive placebo effect, a sense of safety that the monitoring provides. I suppose that is what people pay for.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- heywire 9y ago
  All good points, and I appreciate your perspective, thank you for replying. For me, I think the greatest benefit is what you mentioned about cutting short the time the intruder has in the home. If I am in a deep sleep, and someone breaks into my home, I would at least like to be awoken with enough time to arm myself (of course hoping that the siren was enough to scare off the intruder). If I'm not home, hopefully this might deter the intruder from getting far enough into the home to get at our valuables. This benefit can also be achieved with a couple dollars worth of the manual door sirens they sell at the hardware store, so I definitely see your point there about the monitoring fees and contracts.
  - cmdrfred 9y ago
    I have the same view as you and my security system is a dog and a pump action shotgun.
    - heywire 9y ago
      If only I weren't allergic to dogs :(
      - feld 9y ago
        Giant Schnauzers are hypo-allergenic and are increasingly being trained as guard dogs
    - imhoguy 9y ago
      Buy snake
      - daveguy 9y ago
        They don't bark loud enough.
accountyaccount 9y ago
They all pretty much suck, there are some alright ad-hoc type of single-device options (downside of those is absolute reliance on a cloud-service)... but if you're looking for an integrated system for a property you own there's nothing decent. I just cut my losses and installed a good security camera system that covers the full exterior (using Hikvision cameras and a DVR). If that doesn't deter someone an alarm won't, and at the very least I can keep an eye on anything suspicious and have evidence after the fact.
tzs 9y ago
I've been happy with my Comcast home security system...but I've never actually armed it so I probably don't count. :-) I have it because I had a triple play package, TV/phone/internet, and they offered me quadruple play, TV/phone/internet/security, on a two year package that was actually $40/month cheaper than my triple play and included Starz. There have been a few minor things that I actually have found it useful for that have nothing to do with security, and could easily be accomplished by simpler means. 1. If there is a power outage while I am at work, I can find out when it started and how long it lasted from the security system logs, which log both power out and power back events. Before, I could figure out when power came back from my digital clocks that reset to 12:00 when power comes on. I could improve this if I added an electric analog clock, since in a power outage that would not reset but it would stop ticking. The amount of time the analog clock was behind would then tell the total time power was out, and the digital clock would tell how long ago power came on. That would not tell me if there was a single outage, or multiple outages. It would be fairly easy to build a gizmo specifically for that: analog electric clock hooked up through a relay in such a way that if it loses power, it does not come back on until you press a reset button. That clock would then record the time the first outage started. From that, the time power came back on for the last time (found via the digital clock), and the total outage duration (from the other analog electric clock), one could figure out if there had been a single outage or multiple outages. 2. I wanted to monitor my home temperature while away. I pointed the security camera at a thermometer, and then could use the remote camera app to look at it. (Later replaced with an ESP8266 and temperature sensor that takes a reading every minute and uploads to my website). 3. I had some work done on the house that required everyone present to use a respirator while work was in progress. I went and spent the day at my office, and used the camera to check if the workmen had left before I headed home.
- heywire 9y ago
  > If there is a power outage while I am at work, I can find out when it started and how long it lasted from the security system logs... Pingdom works well for this as well :) > I wanted to monitor my home temperature while away. I pointed the security camera at a thermometer, and then could use the remote camera app to look at it. (Later replaced with en ESP8266 and temperature sensor that takes a reading every minute and uploads to my website). Is there anything the ESP8266 can't do?? (I also have some of these - Wemos D1 minis) spread around my place for temperature monitoring and general geekery)
sandworm101 9y ago
Mine is great. It sits quietly all night only to spring to life should something out of the ordinary happens. It knows friend from foe, pet from racoon, lost child from home invader, and is the result of a few thousand years of breading. Ill take my four-legged 90lb security system over anything networked. Seeing her sleeping on my couch strikes more fear in burglers than any blinking red light. And i trust her judgement more than the smartest of google's robots.
noonespecial 9y ago
I made one out of what was left of an older system (door sensors, motion sensors). Its getting pretty old now as it predates arduinos and was made with a PIC (olimex PIC with ethernet board). It just posts all of the events from the sensors to a VPS in the cloud (that I have already to run personal web sites). If its "set" with a post from my phone, it simply texts a list of people (wife, dad, good friend) that an "alarm" went off. Otherwise it just records the events for later curiosity. I've also got one IP camera that I can jump on and look into the main room with. It was nearly free except for the happy project time to build it and is all I've ever felt I needed.
emmelaich 9y ago
I used a Ninja Block (precursor to the sphere). https://ninjablocks.com/ https://ninjablocks.com/ It's not a full proper security system but could be made into one. I had it alert me when a certain room was entered or had a high temperature or humidity. I say used (past tense) because some support is now discontinued but I think it is a worthwhile idea. I haven't tried the sphere and not sure of the status.
DrPhish 9y ago
For a partially DIY option with a certified, well-tested security/fire alarm option a DSC 1832 with the IT-100 serial interface board is an excellent piece of kit. Bought one off a local security company and did all the install myself, and they verified it for me. With the base board you can run a couple of relays to trigger whatever you'd like. I use it to turn on the lights when the alarm is tripped which helps the camera system I have actually get a picture and not just a dark room. It is also nice when coming home in the dark, and for automating light schedules when out of town. The IT-100 gives a simple serial interface to monitor/control the entire system from a computer. I used cereal on debian to follow/interact with the serial stream, and a bunch of perl/bash scripts to do things like log events to a mysql database, turn on/off the zoneminder DVR system, manipulate relays, send emails, and pretty much do whatever I wanted. As far as B&E deterrent, I think having the monitoring company stickers is 90% of the benefit since most criminals are looking for a quick low-risk fix and will just hit your neighbour without a security system. That said, making it hard for them to hang around and really clean you out makes me feel a lot safer, since most valuable are hidden away somewhat. I also like the cameras so I can check in while out of town. I have heard that video footage has to be REALLY cut and dried as far as identity for the police to use it, so low-res or low-light images are probably useless for prosecution. You may find that the monitoring costs are paid for by a house-insurance discount that you get for having active fire alarm monitoring Still, probably not as good as a vicious-sounding dog.
- xkcd-sucks 9y ago
  My understanding is that camera are pretty useless in terms of catching people cognizant enough to wear a hoodie/mask, but are useful in convincing your insurance company that a burglary did in fact happen
- ghaff 9y ago
  >I also like the cameras so I can check in while out of town. Yeah, I have a couple cameras and a temperature sensor. Especially on a longer trip, it's nice to be able to just look in now and then and see that everything seems to be OK. (Of course, it doesn't help if there's an extended power outage but that's rare where I live.)
aseav 9y ago
New to alarm systems but just put Abode into my first house. Happy with the offering so far, integrates with z-wave and IFTTT. Happy to answer any questions on it: goabode.com

dfox 9y ago

Really long time ago at an boot sale I bought essentially complete security system made in early 90's by some smallish company that was probably spun-off from Tesla (ie. the elecronics manufacturer "Tesla n.p.") as part of privatization and then probably failed outright. The thing consisted of obviously repurposed parts of other systems and looked like one giant kludge. But what was the interesting feature of this was that most sensors were based on infrasound, notionally they were meant to detect shattering glass, but somehow the sensitivity was tweaked in such way that they even detected opening of doors/windows (this was mentioned in manual as feature) and even could detect person moving around the room.

jtraffic 9y ago

I sold security systems in 2008, door to door. (Icky, I know.) I had a long time to think about it, every day, and during pitches. I soon stopped, because I think they aren't worth it (which made me the world's worst salesperson. I remember near the end talking one old woman out of it.) The first important thing is that they won't prevent the nightmare encounter where a thief enters the house when you're there. Second, police are too swamped to have ever reacted in time to catch the thief. To my knowledge, it has never, ever happened. There is a possible benefit that it may truncate the time in the house. To me this is not a big issue, I suspect most competent thieves are efficient with time. Finally, there is an unobservable deterrence effect, but that is easily obtained by faking the appearance of a system without needing to enter a contract and pay monitoring fees. The most useless thing about security systems, the monitoring, is the only thing that costs serious money. The final benefit is life-alert style stuff, but there are better solutions for that. On the other hand, there is a massive placebo effect, a sense of safety that the monitoring provides. I suppose that is what people pay for.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
heywire 9y ago
All good points, and I appreciate your perspective, thank you for replying. For me, I think the greatest benefit is what you mentioned about cutting short the time the intruder has in the home. If I am in a deep sleep, and someone breaks into my home, I would at least like to be awoken with enough time to arm myself (of course hoping that the siren was enough to scare off the intruder). If I'm not home, hopefully this might deter the intruder from getting far enough into the home to get at our valuables. This benefit can also be achieved with a couple dollars worth of the manual door sirens they sell at the hardware store, so I definitely see your point there about the monitoring fees and contracts.
- cmdrfred 9y ago
  I have the same view as you and my security system is a dog and a pump action shotgun.
  - heywire 9y ago
    If only I weren't allergic to dogs :(
    - feld 9y ago
      Giant Schnauzers are hypo-allergenic and are increasingly being trained as guard dogs
  - imhoguy 9y ago
    Buy snake
    - daveguy 9y ago
      They don't bark loud enough.

accountyaccount 9y ago

They all pretty much suck, there are some alright ad-hoc type of single-device options (downside of those is absolute reliance on a cloud-service)... but if you're looking for an integrated system for a property you own there's nothing decent. I just cut my losses and installed a good security camera system that covers the full exterior (using Hikvision cameras and a DVR). If that doesn't deter someone an alarm won't, and at the very least I can keep an eye on anything suspicious and have evidence after the fact.

tzs 9y ago

I've been happy with my Comcast home security system...but I've never actually armed it so I probably don't count. :-) I have it because I had a triple play package, TV/phone/internet, and they offered me quadruple play, TV/phone/internet/security, on a two year package that was actually $40/month cheaper than my triple play and included Starz. There have been a few minor things that I actually have found it useful for that have nothing to do with security, and could easily be accomplished by simpler means. 1. If there is a power outage while I am at work, I can find out when it started and how long it lasted from the security system logs, which log both power out and power back events. Before, I could figure out when power came back from my digital clocks that reset to 12:00 when power comes on. I could improve this if I added an electric analog clock, since in a power outage that would not reset but it would stop ticking. The amount of time the analog clock was behind would then tell the total time power was out, and the digital clock would tell how long ago power came on. That would not tell me if there was a single outage, or multiple outages. It would be fairly easy to build a gizmo specifically for that: analog electric clock hooked up through a relay in such a way that if it loses power, it does not come back on until you press a reset button. That clock would then record the time the first outage started. From that, the time power came back on for the last time (found via the digital clock), and the total outage duration (from the other analog electric clock), one could figure out if there had been a single outage or multiple outages. 2. I wanted to monitor my home temperature while away. I pointed the security camera at a thermometer, and then could use the remote camera app to look at it. (Later replaced with an ESP8266 and temperature sensor that takes a reading every minute and uploads to my website). 3. I had some work done on the house that required everyone present to use a respirator while work was in progress. I went and spent the day at my office, and used the camera to check if the workmen had left before I headed home.

heywire 9y ago
> If there is a power outage while I am at work, I can find out when it started and how long it lasted from the security system logs... Pingdom works well for this as well :) > I wanted to monitor my home temperature while away. I pointed the security camera at a thermometer, and then could use the remote camera app to look at it. (Later replaced with en ESP8266 and temperature sensor that takes a reading every minute and uploads to my website). Is there anything the ESP8266 can't do?? (I also have some of these - Wemos D1 minis) spread around my place for temperature monitoring and general geekery)

sandworm101 9y ago

Mine is great. It sits quietly all night only to spring to life should something out of the ordinary happens. It knows friend from foe, pet from racoon, lost child from home invader, and is the result of a few thousand years of breading. Ill take my four-legged 90lb security system over anything networked. Seeing her sleeping on my couch strikes more fear in burglers than any blinking red light. And i trust her judgement more than the smartest of google's robots.

noonespecial 9y ago

I made one out of what was left of an older system (door sensors, motion sensors). Its getting pretty old now as it predates arduinos and was made with a PIC (olimex PIC with ethernet board). It just posts all of the events from the sensors to a VPS in the cloud (that I have already to run personal web sites). If its "set" with a post from my phone, it simply texts a list of people (wife, dad, good friend) that an "alarm" went off. Otherwise it just records the events for later curiosity. I've also got one IP camera that I can jump on and look into the main room with. It was nearly free except for the happy project time to build it and is all I've ever felt I needed.

emmelaich 9y ago

I used a Ninja Block (precursor to the sphere). https://ninjablocks.com/ https://ninjablocks.com/ It's not a full proper security system but could be made into one. I had it alert me when a certain room was entered or had a high temperature or humidity. I say used (past tense) because some support is now discontinued but I think it is a worthwhile idea. I haven't tried the sphere and not sure of the status.

DrPhish 9y ago

For a partially DIY option with a certified, well-tested security/fire alarm option a DSC 1832 with the IT-100 serial interface board is an excellent piece of kit. Bought one off a local security company and did all the install myself, and they verified it for me. With the base board you can run a couple of relays to trigger whatever you'd like. I use it to turn on the lights when the alarm is tripped which helps the camera system I have actually get a picture and not just a dark room. It is also nice when coming home in the dark, and for automating light schedules when out of town. The IT-100 gives a simple serial interface to monitor/control the entire system from a computer. I used cereal on debian to follow/interact with the serial stream, and a bunch of perl/bash scripts to do things like log events to a mysql database, turn on/off the zoneminder DVR system, manipulate relays, send emails, and pretty much do whatever I wanted. As far as B&E deterrent, I think having the monitoring company stickers is 90% of the benefit since most criminals are looking for a quick low-risk fix and will just hit your neighbour without a security system. That said, making it hard for them to hang around and really clean you out makes me feel a lot safer, since most valuable are hidden away somewhat. I also like the cameras so I can check in while out of town. I have heard that video footage has to be REALLY cut and dried as far as identity for the police to use it, so low-res or low-light images are probably useless for prosecution. You may find that the monitoring costs are paid for by a house-insurance discount that you get for having active fire alarm monitoring Still, probably not as good as a vicious-sounding dog.

xkcd-sucks 9y ago
My understanding is that camera are pretty useless in terms of catching people cognizant enough to wear a hoodie/mask, but are useful in convincing your insurance company that a burglary did in fact happen
ghaff 9y ago
>I also like the cameras so I can check in while out of town. Yeah, I have a couple cameras and a temperature sensor. Especially on a longer trip, it's nice to be able to just look in now and then and see that everything seems to be OK. (Of course, it doesn't help if there's an extended power outage but that's rare where I live.)

aseav 9y ago

New to alarm systems but just put Abode into my first house. Happy with the offering so far, integrates with z-wave and IFTTT. Happy to answer any questions on it: goabode.com