Wireless Security System

dieselsmoke1 · Nov 12, 2003

( >I know that the alarm companies that install and then have the monitoring done by a third party are paying about $5.00 - $8.00 per month and charging about $25.00 - $30.00 per month. )

So the monitoring may be a 1000 miles away anyhow.....definitly a question to ask if going the local route.

dieselsmoke1 · Nov 12, 2003

Thanks for the link. Lots of good stuff there.

fivestring · Nov 13, 2003

"So the monitoring may be a 1000 miles away anyhow.....definitly a question to ask if going the local route."


If the monitoring station is not local, they have to dial a long distance number (this costs $$$ to the monitoring company).
Most police departments, fire and medics only have one or two lines set up for long distance dial-ins; everything else is 911 enhanced driven. Here in Charlotte, (600,00 people) our PD has one line for these NON-LOCAL monitoring companies to call. Guess what, there are lots of busy signals for monitoring companies during storms. I know for a fact that most monitoring companies will not make repeat calls to long distance numbers. Laziness? Possibly. I think a better reason is staffing and costs associated with non-local dialing.
Local switching stations do not work, so if your monitoring company in Timbuktu says they call a local number that switches them, uh-uh, doesn't work.

An interesting statistic here (as with most other places, I guess) is that the bad boys hit more often in bad weather... you all know why.

dummy · Nov 13, 2003

This is one of the reasons why I prefer just using the auto dialer to call neighbor first and then others. I don't use the alarm if we are home that's the dog's job. The reason I use an alarm system is to let me know what happened and to repair any damages to keep the half-honest folk from wandering around (or away with) my stuff. An alarm will not keep you safe or keep the burglars away. I look at mine as a means to help me figure out who took the stuff or who was around while I was away. The neighbor says he doesn't mind an occasional 3 am wake-up call. Says it gets his adrenaline rushing and starts his day a tad earlier.

dummy · Nov 13, 2003

I have used mine for two years now and have not had any false alarms from it. Change out all the batteries the same time as the fire alarms. Haven't tried the new nightwatch, I have the x2 cameras and they work reasonably well., but they are indoors to see things inside. For outside, I located some used RCA zoom cameras and they are hard-wired in
and yes you can read a license plate with them.

ducati996 · Nov 14, 2003

I'm going to add to this with another level of technology.
Video security along with digital recording. It compliments
existing systems, and offers so much more!!
I attached a picture of my live image at a remote location.
The unit can sense activity that be captured, and then emailed and or have the person paged when activity is dedected. Long recording capability is possible ( 1 month or more). You have ethernet capability with these units, along with remote PTZ control. Its not for the faint of heart ($$) too many features to list...
Ademco panels are rated one the best and feature rich systems around. Their wireless systems are top notch as well.
These panel can be controlled via Ethernet as well, so the options are endless...the picture is too small because of the forum limits
This is my area of expertise along with Tractors /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I would be happy to answer questions on these subjects...

Ducati996

dmccarty · Nov 17, 2003

ducati996,

How much does a wireless video camera system cost?

What is the broadcast distance?

Later,
Dan McCarty

MossRoad · Nov 17, 2003

How much does a wireless video camera system cost? What is the broadcast distance?


You can get a little wireless camera from X10 for $69.00 that will transmit sound and color picture about a hundred feet or so. They have BW that can see in low light for about the same price(their stuff is always going on sale). Hook it to a cheapy VCR and use their $49.00 motion sensor package and you're set. That's the cheap end. I've installed a $10,000.00 camera that transmitted picture one way and camera controls the other way over laser beams. It had a distance of 1.5KM and was subject to rain/fog/snow faid... but if it was snowing or raining real hard, all you'd get is a nice picture of rain or snow anyway. It was kind of proportional. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif That connected to a system with a $5000.00 time lapse video recorder that could take multiple camera inputs.

Now, with wireless networking being so cheap, things like laser transmitting will be a thing of the past. I have a friend that has two, $400.00 radios mounted on towers that transmit about 17 miles unamplified. It's a full 11Mbit connection and can transmit data, voice, video or combinations of the three, depending on what they want to do.

If you ask me, you can secure yourself into the poorhouse. A good, basic system with switches on the doors and windows, good, loud sirens both inside and outside the house, maybe an autodialer to call family or friends, and modules to flash the outside lights will scare the bajeebers out of most folks looking for an easy score. Don't forget about any outbuildings, too.

They make devices that look like a cradle for a cell phone. You wire your house for two phone lines. Then pop the cell phone into this cradle and anything connected to the second line jacks in the house will use the cell phone to dial. That way, even if the criminal cuts your land line, the cell phone will make the autodialer call. With the new legislation pending to make it possible to transfer your land phone number to a cell carrier, these things will become more common.