Need Help with Security, New to Home Automation

[deejross]

Hello,

I'm new here and was pointed here after this question went unanswered on both Reddit and AVS Forums. This is what I'm trying to accomplish:

Two doors with sensors attached, a Foscam watching each door. When the door opens and the system is armed, turn on a few lights, sound a siren (but only at night), and take a snapshot from the camera and send it in an email. I'd also need to be able to arm and disarm (including silencing the siren) from an iPhone.

Additional information: I live in an apartment, so no permanent installations, and I want to be able to take everything with me when I move. I've done a little research, and a lot of the controllers I've seen don't seem to have the "email picture from the camera on door open" functionality. I've tried using motion detection on the camera to trigger emails, but between kids and dogs running into the frame, playing with the blinds on the door, etc, motion detection won't work for me.

So can anyone recommend a solution for this? There are so many different options out there for home automation that I quickly realized that I would need to ask for help from someone with some experience with this stuff.

I'm guessing I need a controller of some kind. I have an old Linux machine I could use if there aren't any off-the-shelf controllers that would work. Just need some guidance. Thanks!

 

[mikefamig]

I don't have an answer but I may have some food for thought.
 
The idea would be to monitor both motion and the door sensor and trigger an event only when both are detected but I don't know of a portable solution that you can install and uninstall easily. The logic would be that when motion is detected then check for the door sensor to be violated and if both are true then capture a pic and email it. A security system like Elk and HAI can be programmed to monitor for both motion and the door sensor being violated and then send an email but I don't know if or how they could communicate with the cam to capture an image. Even if they could you would be dealing a lag time and might miss the person coming in the door.
 
I can suggest that you run a video cam on the door 7x24 with software like Blue Iris on a pc. Blue Iris can detect motion and send an email to alert you and then you will have the video to review later.
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

I think that you'll find that your requirement for portable hardware will be the sticking point here. I believe tthat you can run Homeseer or other software on the same PC as the BI video capture software to communicate between a security system and a camera and send the email but you need to have a security system installed. I am interested to see what the group comes up with.
 
Mike.

 

[deejross]

Thanks for the reply, but I put a Foscam pointing at one door and tried both its built in motion detection and then I tried using the Synology Surveillance Station's software motion detections and I'm getting about 40 emails a day, all false positives, even after adjusting the sensitivity and setting the detection zones. Any time the dog walks by it sets it off, which is why I don't think I want ANY motion detection at all and want to rely solely on door alarms.

I still plan on having something record video from the Foscam on motion detection, but I don't want any alerts based on that.

 

[deejross]

Also on the portable requirement, when I say that, I'm thinking hardware that I can use double sided tape to install and having the devices use a wireless protocol so I don't have to run wires. In the limited research I did, there seemed to be a lot of Z-Wave devices that can do this (door alarms, wall warts for turning on/off lamps, etc). My biggest problem is I don't know what the best controller/software I would need to tie it all together.

 

[mikefamig]

Thanks for the reply, but I put a Foscam pointing at one door and tried both its built in motion detection and then I tried using the Synology Surveillance Station's software motion detections and I'm getting about 40 emails a day, all false positives, even after adjusting the sensitivity and setting the detection zones. Any time the dog walks by it sets it off, which is why I don't think I want ANY motion detection at all and want to rely solely on door alarms.

I still plan on having something record video from the Foscam on motion detection, but I don't want any alerts based on that.

 
The Foscam is terrible at motion detection. I tried using  a Foscam for motion detection and passing clouds were setting it off. I have a Bosch Blue motion detector (not a camera) that has never given a false detection. I'm sure that there are users here that have vid cam experience and will chime in.

 

[drvnbysound]

I've never used a Foscam... do they allow you to specify the size of an object at all? What about location?
 
I run Blue Iris software and I am able to specify object size as well as contrast for motion detection. I setup and tuned my system a while ago and I rarely get any false alerts - I have 4 cameras, and have emails sent from the camera that looks at my front door. If there is motion at my front door I get a MMS message to my phone. I got 2 false alerts that I can recall in the past year - both were due to the change in the sun's angle, creating shadows in places they weren't before. A slight adjustment to the configuration and that issue was resolved.

 

[mikefamig]

The Foscam FI8910 has very little adjustment over motion detection and I had no success making it work for me. I've attached a snip of the alarm settings screen.
 

 

[pete_c]

Welcome to the Cocoontech forum deejross.
 
You are asking loaded questions (a good thing) relating to this stuff as many Cocoontech members have both security and automation passions here that much time are answered with almost a religious fervor.  You will learn the most from reading all of the options available to you and from folks that have done what you are doing or want to do. 
 
Yeah the whole video motion detection thing works better for inside than outside.  That said a camera fast CPU and fast algorithm processing is better today than it used to be.  A camera's CPU though is not the same as a PC CPU.  The more expensive IP (> $500) camera have better mechanics for this.  Software will do it better than the camera especially a sub $100 IP camera like the Foscam. 
 
Personally here utilize Zone Minder (free) on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit.  I have read of folks running it on a Rasberry Pi 2 for a couple of cameras and it does OK.  Automation software wise utilize Homeseer and firmware wise utilize a Leviton OmniPro 2 panel.  I am running a lite and heavy version of Homeseer 3 on Linux/Mono.  The lite version is running on a RPi2.  I have installed a Z-Wave + and RTC PiFace clock in it and 1-wire devices; neatly stacked and very functional. Homeseer consoles are iOS, Wintel or Android.  You can customize your own interfaces.  Here the "doorbell" even triggers all sorts of stuff using Homeseer and wired sensors from the security panel.  We did get a sudden wake up early this morning (3AM) because of a very large opossum cavorting about.  I had never seen one the size of a medium dog before. 
 
If you want to DIY this for nothing have a look at HomeGenie or OpenHab.  They are free and run on anything (including RPi2), does a bunch and has an iOS and Android smart phone interface. 
 
You can also build a little all for one box including the camera using an RPi2 if you wanted to.
 
You can utilize Z-Wave for all your wireless doo whats if you want.  Personally I do not do wireless security stuff and do not want to think about batteries.
 
I do though play with the Z-Wave and ZIgbee wireless doo whats; just don't use them in production, if that makes sense? 
 
You can today still connect X10 to Zone Minder to manually or automatically trigger events type of stuff.  The motion detection stuff is very granular on Zone Minder.  I still though mostly depend on analog wired sensors though for triggering events.  Lately too it more a short video rather than a few snapshots.  I am currently playing with a time lapse python script that just snap shots every XX seconds and concurrently creates a video.  It is neat to watch a day's worth of timelapse in a few minutes.  The script is running on an RPi2.  I utilize a little bash script to condense it to an MP4 file.
 
Blue Iris has become a default choice now for those wanting to utilize Wintel software.  I also have but do not utilize the Grandstream NVR.  It is reasonably priced, includes analogue terminals for wired switches and will do your email stuff. 
 
Zone Minder is free.  I have used it now over 10 years. 
 
Today utilize old combo Optex cameras and Grandstream cams.  Optex combos are both PIR and Camera.  They look much more like a PIR and that is probably why they are not sold any more.  Ideally as Mike has mentioned about your best motion trigger device will be a PIR which is relatively inexpensive if you compare it to a high end IP camera with with PIR built in. 

 

[drvnbysound]

Ugh, that's terrible!
 
Here are the options I have...
 
1) You can see the sliders for object size and contrast...

 
2) For masking...

 
In this case I've masked all motion from being detected in the road... since people and cars are "allowed" to be there, I don't want my system to create alerts every time someone is in the road - just when they are in my yard.

 

[drvnbysound]

BTW: I live in a subdivision with 60+ homes and we've had a visitor lately...
 

 

[deejross]

BTW: I live in a subdivision with 60+ homes and we've had a visitor lately...
 

 
 I imagine your neighborhood probably doesn't have too many stray dogs and cats around anymore. We had a two-legged visitor last week which is what started the interest in a self-managed security system.

 

[deejross]

@pete_c: thanks for the info. A long time ago, I actually ran "motion" with a single camera just to watch the front door and it was pretty good for that, but not much else. I was starting to look into the SmartThings hub a bit since meets many of my needs, but needs a little work to get Foscams to work apparently. I'm a developer by day and since the thing has a web-based IDE for developing apps on it, I figure it might be easy enough to customize it to my needs. I might order one and play around with it for a couple days to see if I like it. One of the other issues I have is that whatever I end up going with has to be usable by the wife, so an all-in-one solution has a decent chance of accomplishing that.
 
If I wasn't in an apartment, I would probably stick to a wired protocol like X10 simply for the security aspect. I don't know how secure Z-Wave and Zigbee are, but I know that it's much harder to hack a signal you can't touch.

 

[pete_c]

Much as you will read here has to do with WAF (wife acceptance factor) for some and not for others; depends.
 
Automation is just another hobby here; like collecting coins, stamps or playing with an automobile.
 
I do hear stuff (wife) occassionally about odd programmed by accident event or trigger glitches and typically is referred to by wife as why is the house doing this today type of stuff. (IE: why is the home speaking Reddit posts or in Portuguese today type of stuff).  I just blame the mothership's mind of it's own.
 
X10 / UPB are typically referred to as power line because they utilize your home's power line.  Insteon is a hybrid of power line and wireless (and does both X10 and Insteon).  Z-Wave and Zigbee are both wireless protocals.
 
You can if you want reset a Z-Wave switch remotely sans touch very easily.  I have done that here in a rush to reset a few Z-Wave devices.  I just looked for an ON which provided an ID then reset it with my portable doo what z-wave thing a ma jig.
 
Most secure though is a wired sensor.  A wired PIR sensor typically uses two wires for power and pairs of wires for sensor triggers. (here outdoor PIRs have night dark sensors, PIR, case trigger sensors et al).  You can render it useless though by pulling it off a wall and cutting the wire; well then triggering it.  Typically the wireless sensors made for alarm panels are a bit more reslient as they deal with life and saftey stuff.
 
You can hide a wired PIR as they do make them 1/4 the size of your pinkie and you just bury it in a wall so it looks like a small blemish.  There are also tiny battery operated for alarm panel wireless doo whats but they are still a bit larger than 1/4 the size of your pinkie.  A wired sensor is not portable. 
 
A combination of a trigger using an analog wireless sensor and video motion detection via an NVR could maybe provide you with less false positives. 
 
Yup; only seen a coyote or two here in the midwest; never any bears; but you never know.
 
The Foscam is a nice to learn inexpensive piece of hardware.  Here had two a while ago; first generation then second generation.  I could cause it to hiccup by making it do more than one thing at a time.  Turn on a light and moving it sometimes would cause an odd endless loopy loop.  (which I watched by JTAGing the device).  My recollection of the Foscam OS was mostly seeing a bunch of blind loops of tried efforts with a few lines of code that did work just fine.

 

[drvnbysound]

 I imagine your neighborhood probably doesn't have too many stray dogs and cats around anymore. We had a two-legged visitor last week which is what started the interest in a self-managed security system.

 
Actually there's a cat that has been following it around... the bear has been getting into trash cans and feasting away! I guess the trash seems to make an easier target...