Want to build cheap home alarm with radio notification

[williamf2]

I am an active member of the windsor hills community association in Baltimore MD. Our neighborhood is pretty good, but surrounded by bad neighborhoods, and many criminals in these desperate times have started breaking into our homes. Their protocol is pretty simple they usually knock on the front door (to see if anyone is home), cut the phone lines and then they either kick in the back door, or the front door, steal any electronics and valuables and then they are gone.

I have many build it yourself and DIY talents, but electronics is not one of them, so I am looking for some help in creating a low cost alarm system that could be installed in every house in my neighborhood (900 homes)(I'm hoping I can get a grant form the city to help with this) . Because phone lines get cut I was hoping we could use some type of radio transmitter (my initial thought was to modify an FRS radio,we have alot of retirees in the neighborhood, so I though they could monitor the frs channels, so maybe when the alarm is installed, we program it to transmit the address via radio wave, and then the police could be called with the address information. The system needs to be cheap, and not have any monitoring fees associated with it, so that my retiree neighbors can afford to have it installed, and not be burdened with monitoring fees etc.

My other thought was to use a cell phone type system, but find a way for the entire neighborhood to use one cell phone account for notification (maybe cloning an old v1 sim card ?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, if you know of any forums where I can post this project, please send me the urls. Thanks in advance

 

[barry]

Interesting engineering and social problem! Just to throw something out there: maybe every house has a station which is both transmitter and receiver, and they are all hooked to the phone line. Thus, if a neighbors house is broken into, it transmits a radio message which will be picked up by a neighbor's unit which will send out a phone message. Because of the proximity of neighbors, the transmitters don't have to be very powerful (precluding the need for some radio licensing). This can all be automatic, just a bunch of networked radios.

 

[tpetar]

Mr. William from Your text I see need for mine field and one automatic machinegun on each corner of your house place and garden. You can use SMS alarm but if thiefs uses GSM jammers :roll:. Best is to use several different ways for notifying of burglar event as backup. Use hidden CCTV cameras with hidden recorder, this will help police to identify thief. Use several day/night CCTV cammeras. Use 24h day/night CCTV recording, thiefs usually monitoring house earlier, this record will help police to identify thiefs.

 

[wizpic]

Any help would be greatly appreciated, if you know of any forums where I can post this project, please send me the urls. Thanks in advance

You could post your project here :-D
On a seroius mote you want someone to spend time helping or designing and doing all the work for you ???????
You may get more/better response if you post what you have done so far or post your code if your stuck but don't expect others to do it for you, we are here to HELP

 

[williamf2]

Interesting engineering and social problem! Just to throw something out there: maybe every house has a station which is both transmitter and receiver, and they are all hooked to the phone line. Thus, if a neighbors house is broken into, it transmits a radio message which will be picked up by a neighbor's unit which will send out a phone message. Because of the proximity of neighbors, the transmitters don't have to be very powerful (precluding the need for some radio licensing). This can all be automatic, just a bunch of networked radios.

I really like this idea, we could have two or more houses in the neighborhood with pots lines and or a cell phone backup alarm system that would in effect cover the entire neighborhood or at least several blocks etc. The idea would be to make a sort of neighborhood radio cloud, and we would put up signs to that effect etc, once criminals knew that the entire neighborhood acted as one huge networked alarm system, they would hopefully go elsewhere

Any ideas on how to hack an FRS radio to intferface with an alarm system ?

 

[tpetar]

If phone line wires goes underground in well protected space and pipes then there is chance to be good, if phone lines goes over pole, then this is bad, they can cat whole street or complete block of houses.

FRS radio can be jammed with appropriate jammer, such GSM, and others. All jammers have covering range from few meters to several meteres, 100m, 1k,...


My opinion:
- Best is to use two or more mutually indipended alarms with various alarm sensors (PIR, shock, laser, reed), with battery backup.
- Alarming over all ways: SMS, phone lines, email (Internet).
- Use two good very strong and big sirene (horn) with police siren oscilation.
- Use hidden CCTV with 24h recording on detected movement.
- Put some additional lights around house, activated on movement.
- Be in good contact with your neighbor.

 

[williamf2]

You could post your project here :-D
On a seroius mote you want someone to spend time helping or designing and doing all the work for you ???????
You may get more/better response if you post what you have done so far or post your code if your stuck but don't expect others to do it for you, we are here to HELP[/QUOTE

Right now I am just gathering ideas and information, posting an idea on an electronics forum seemed like a non intrusive way to consult with experts, get some new ideas, and chat with other hobbyists that enjoy sharing their knowledge, I am after all just trying help the senior citizens in my neighborhood avoid having their stuff stolen.

---------- Post added at 08:41 ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 ----------

If phone line wires goes underground in well protected space and pipes then there is chance to be good, if phone lines goes over pole, then this is bad, they can cat whole street or complete block of houses.

FRS radio can be jammed with appropriate jammer, such GSM, and others. All jammers have covering range from few meters to several meteres, 100m, 1k,...


My opinion:
- Best is to use two or more mutually indipended alarms with various alarm sensors (PIR, shock, laser, reed), with battery backup.
- Alarming over all ways: SMS, phone lines, email (Internet).
- Use two good very strong and big sirene (horn) with police siren oscilation.
- Use hidden CCTV with 24h recording on detected movement.
- Put some additional lights around house, activated on movement.
- Be in good contact with your neighbor.

Hi tpetar, it sounds like you have some military experience, fortunately for me the burglars in my town are not that sophisticated, in robbery after robbery they literally just cut the phone lines, and kick in the back door, so my alarm system really only needs to defeat that method. And because there are people on fixed incomes in my neighborhood, any system needs to be cheap, I recognize your recommendations would make a much more secure, less jam proof system etc. But in this case it is not financially feasible, nor warranted considering the threat Thanks for your input though, when we need to secure our neighborhood from the zombie apocalypse, I will call you

 

[tpetar]

Never underestimate thiefs some of them can evolve to some smart human.

If you whant to protect from kids, and you dont have some important things in house, just put some security label on each door and buy few false CCTV cameras.