Building a complete home security perimeter system...

[RaetherEnt]

Hi all!

This is my first post to the board, but despite my "newbieness", I'm hoping you all could help me out with this.

Im moving to the Mountains soon to a fairly remote property. It is approximately 11 acres and is completely surrounded by woods. For our location, a home security system would be rather useless in that if someone were to actually break into our home, it would take at least 30-45 minutes minimum for authorities to arrive.

Therefore, I would like to build a monitoring system that will alert me immediately if someone were to enter the perimeter of the property. I'm looking to build a system that will do a number of things, to include:

1. Detect any movement in the woods
2. When movement is detected, turn on tree mounted flood lights and video camera (CCTV or wireless), alert me inside the house and let me view what is going on with my TV or other monitor.

Obviously I am going to need NUMEROUS sensors and lights, but I would like to keep only one monitor, so obviously I will also need some sort of control unit to make all this happen.

Anyone have any experience like this? I would be VERY, VERY appreciative of any info any of you might have.

Sounds extreme I know, however, recently I woke up one night to my dog barking, and had a laser light coming through my window...SO, I'm getting out of the city, and I don't want anyone else anywhere near that close to my house again!!!

THANKS!

Mike

Thanks!

 

[Squintz]

Im looking into Home Automation stuff like this right now. If you have about $2000 or $3000 you can buil youself a nice security system which you can tell it how to respond. For instance if a motion detector were set off it could call upto 8 differnt number and send out e-mail if you connect it to the internet. Also with the right software you can view security cameras setup arround the house from a remote location. And with x10 technology you can control stuff like your lights tv and all kinds of stuff. With Home Automation you can control just about anything. If you want to start the water in the tub on your way home then call your house with the cell and tell the system to turn on the water and it will do so. You can control the heat and air and just about everything imaginable.

www.smarthomes.com
www.x10.com
www.HomeSeer.com
**broken link removed**

Thats just a few i found in the last few days

If you get any information or better forum links then post them here so i can see them. Your system can range from simple lighting control to hundreds of controls and sensors around the house. Im looking at the OmniTouch LCD control interface. Its a cool flush mount control panel that you can arm disarm your security sytem and control temp and lights and all kinds of stuff from it.

 

[trikebuilder]

remote alarm systems for rural locations

a simple but effective system uses a pair of wire running along your fence, one system for each side. The system is simple, the bottom wire (about a foot below the top wire), is hooked to a simple oscillator in free running mode. The second wire has a frequency about 1,000-1,500 hz difference in it. You balance the second oscillator with a null-bridge so that there is no influence from the lower wire signal. Anyone climbing over the fence inductively couples the bottom wire signal to the the upper wire signal and causes a shift in the output freq. of the top (sensor) wire signal. This causes a shift from null state, and this is detected and triggers the alarm. With four sub-systems, you can tell not only that they crossed, but which side of the property, and this can automatically aim the camera in a sweep on that side. [A point here, the intensity of that shift is proportional the the mass of the intruder, (larger shift, bigger mass), and with some calibration, you could almost determine if the intruder is small or large.] Power each sub-system from a small simple solar cell/battery unit and you have 24/7 service for little money invested.

 

[john1]

Interesting ...
i'm looking for something that can tell if its a cat ...
I will have to experiment, that sound like it might do it.

My PIR sensors keep responding to my cat ...

 

[tansis]

I liked trikebuilder's suggestion , run a search of the web for "Theramin" circuits. Very usefull for guarding perimeter.Either as a single wire threshold or a modular detection cells to give an intruders approxomate position
PIR in the countryside sadly will allways be prone to the local wildlife tripping the alarm, special lenses are available that do not focus a foot or so above the ground to allow pets safe passage but mounting position is crucial. Dual technology sensors , combined PIR and microwave are also worth experimenting with.
Other recent developments from the high tech end of the market are auto tracking cameras , these use software to detect changes in the normal picture from the ccd camera and instruct the servo system to follow. A bitt over the top as it can be done cheaper with a pair of pir's and a bit of logic.
Sadly these Remote Sentry Guns are not available .... yet! :evil: