Home Construction Surveillance

[Rupp]

Guys,
A close friend of mine is having a new home built and just a couple of nights ago someone broke in and stole all of the Romex wiring and coper piping. The house was wired and they cut the wiring off above the plastic box. This has me thinking that there has to be a market for new homes surveillance while the home is under construction. The problem is the home may or may not have electricity. Do you guys have any ideas on how you could keep a remote eye on such a situation?

 

[upstatemike]

If you put some kind of remote camera there they would just steal it. How much does it cost per night to hire a security guard?

 

[Spanky]

A solution may be near!

 

[toymaster458]

A solution may be near! B)

You know that statement is like setting a timer on a time bomb, walking away and not telling us when it is going to go off or what it is going to blow up but we do know it is a bomb.

Thanks!!

 

[Spanky]

Guys,
A close friend of mine is having a new home built and just a couple of nights ago someone broke in and stole all of the Romex wiring and coper piping. The house was wired and they cut the wiring off above the plastic box. This has me thinking that there has to be a market for new homes surveillance while the home is under construction. The problem is the home may or may not have electricity. Do you guys have any ideas on how you could keep a remote eye on such a situation?

I sent Rupp's request to the people in the KNOW, and they all got a big smile.

 

[electron]

If you search google, you can find some people who did this using solar powered cameras, etc, maybe even use a cell phone as a wireless data link. I keep hearing about these copper thefts, I guess there really is a need for this now.

 

[Digger]

I guess the price of copper is really getting up there.

If you could hide a camera that is run off a battery etc you could work with this to a degree.

A couple of years ago a customer of mine came up with a product for contractors to use n jobsites to keep their tools from being stolen. It was Black & Decker but I never saw it get to market. Basically you could have some motions on a very small panel with a siren and maybe a cell phone interface. Mount all of that in a strong weatheproof metal can and you might have something.

It would deter as well as catch them on video.

I bet I could throw something together from what I have lying around.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Guys,
A close friend of mine is having a new home built and just a couple of nights ago someone broke in and stole all of the Romex wiring and coper piping. The house was wired and they cut the wiring off above the plastic box. This has me thinking that there has to be a market for new homes surveillance while the home is under construction. The problem is the home may or may not have electricity. Do you guys have any ideas on how you could keep a remote eye on such a situation?

Rupp;

I'm in your exact same situation. My VERY close friend (who most of you know I'm helping with building his home) had all of his copper ripped out of his house while the home was still in the framing stage (not lockable).

There are a couple of companies who monitor construction sites here in Las Vegas.

Basically they have a generator with a couple of towers that hold lights and internet based cameras. They then use a service like Keyon.com who provides wireless broadband internet service (not like cellular). This is the service that makes it all possible.

I was actually thinking about starting a company up like this years ago. I was trying to talk him into using this type of monitoring with Keyon before this all started, mainly so he could monitor the progress of his construction as he is building this as a private individual (i.e. not a track home).

There are a lot of people using Keyon (with their special antennas mounted on the side of their homes) for broadband internet service when cable is not available.

Here is sort of an example of a company I was talking about (but not the one in Las Vegas).

My feelings go out to your friend,

BSR

 

[wifieye]

There are a couple of companies who monitor construction sites here in Las Vegas.

Basically they have a generator with a couple of towers that hold lights and internet based cameras. They then use a service like Keyon.com who provides wireless broadband internet service (not like cellular). This is the service that makes it all possible.


Here is sort of an example of a company I was talking about (but not the one in Las Vegas).

I've browsed through a few times and decided it was time to jump in.

The problem with a solution like ours is, its not very cost effective for a single homebuilder. In 90% of our construction work, we go into a new home subdivision were the costs can be spread out.

The most economical thing you can do is vary your crews time when they leave or make random trips out to the home. We have found most of our thefts have occured between 8pm - 11pm. We call it "Prime time" in the office and will bring on additional crews to monitor during that window.

Also if you can, add some lights to the jobsite. It makes a world of difference.

Its not that these things will stop a thief, but if they see some precautions being taken they will simply move onto the next site that hasn't taken any, and believe me there are lots of them out there!

By the way we do have solutions that are solar, 110v, generator powered. We can also use any Internet source, as well as cellular networks.

Thanks,
Aaron Caviglia
wifieye inc.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Thanks for posting Aaron. I should have made my post a little more clear. Please let me re-explain.

I wanted my friend to sign up for Keyon broadband internet as they only require a one ft by one ft antenna on site (aimed at one of their station antennas).

This would get him internet access that he could plug an IP camera in. Since he already had electricity on site, the only cost would have been the internet camera ($600 to $1200 for a decent one) as he would have just kept the Keyon service for his home internet access (until maybe cable TV was run to his home. The cable is not even at his street yet so it may be a while).

The Keyon service here is very reasonable (something like $30 or $40 per month I believe, haven't checked on it in a while).

This is the exact same broadband internet service companies like yours use here in Las Vegas (got this straight from the Keyon sales rep).

Regards,

BSR

 

[wifieye]

I wanted my friend to sign up for Keyon broadband internet as they only require a one ft by one ft antenna on site (aimed at one of their station antennas).

This is the exact same broadband internet service companies like yours use here in Las Vegas (got this straight from the Keyon sales rep).

Regards,

BSR

I've sent out kits to homeowners/homebuilders but about half the time these cameras are stolen along with the materials.

You must put them out of reach, or make it as dificult as possible. Try to conceal it. Put a battery backup on it, that can e-mail you when its lost power and has gone to batteries.

I've never heard of Keyon, I may have to give them a call, we use another provider in the area. When we go into a jobsite we require at least 512kb up and down with up to 3mb up and down on some, depending on how many cameras there are.

I think its a good idea to put a personal camera up just so you can archive the images. They are neat to look back on in 5 or 10 years. Besides you won't believe some of the stuff you'll see the subs do!

Aaron

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I've never heard of Keyon, I may have to give them a call, we use another provider in the area.
Aaron

Aaron;

I have a contact at Keyon. Are you local here in Las Vegas? I'll send you a PM with my Email.

BSR

 

[huggy59]

There is a 900MHz RF line-of-site Internet service provider in my area and they were a direct result of the company needing construction site monitoring and security. I believe they've now spun off the ISP part of the operation, but there is definitely a need for this.

For those of you wondering, it is approx. 1Mbps down and 256k up, like a mid-speed ADSL circuit. 900MHz needs a small antenna of about a square foot in size, but can't pass through lots of heavy foliage or go over or through hills and mountains. I wanted to have it here rather than deal with my brain-dead telco provider's DSL, but I'm not in line of site to the nearest tower and there is no cable in my area, either.

 

[wifieye]

There is a 900MHz RF line-of-site Internet service provider in my area and they were a direct result of the company needing construction site monitoring and security. I believe they've now spun off the ISP part of the operation, but there is definitely a need for this.

For those of you wondering, it is approx. 1Mbps down and 256k up, like a mid-speed ADSL circuit. 900MHz needs a small antenna of about a square foot in size, but can't pass through lots of heavy foliage or go over or through hills and mountains. I wanted to have it here rather than deal with my brain-dead telco provider's DSL, but I'm not in line of site to the nearest tower and there is no cable in my area, either.

900MHz does the best in NLOS situations. It can pass through light foliage. But the problem with 900MHz is its rather easily blocked, as well is 2.4GHz.

256K upstream is enough for one 640x480 camera or 4 320x240 resolution cameras.

Becareful however as a lot of WISPs will cut you off after transfering a certain amount of GBs. We typically have to negotiate with them.

You might be able to try a cellular service if you have EVDO in your area. But again you'll get disconnected if you transfer a lot of GB, Sprint seems to be a little nicer with the terms of service than Verizon.

--Aaron

 

[Photon]

I was looking into doing this sort of surveillance using a local ISP who offers Motorola Canopy equipment for wireless service: http://www.nconnect.net/wireless.htm Then I realized I'd never get anything done at the office if I could monitor my house construction all day long. I bought a builder's risk insurance policy instead. Not nearly as much fun, but pretty practical.