Home Security and Smart Home

LMSC https://www.4gon.co.uk/ubiquiti-unifi-ac-outdoor-mesh-pro-p-6922.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpfaA4sq-9QIVie3tCh3xugrtEAQYAiABEgLG0vD_BwE
This is what I’ve fitted.

LMSC I don’t think you’ll be unhappy with their WiFi offerings.
I install data and fibre cabling for a living - ubiquiti is what I’d use in my house 😁
I’m often surprised by the reach & coverage those little AP’s push out especially at their price point. They’re probably the most popular unit I fit outside of Cisco which would be massive overkill for a domestic install, and to be honest they’re not as nice looking as the ubiquiti offerings 😉

Whaaaat… How did I miss this thread? Home automation is probably more of my life than coffee!

Some great advice above. I think the best comment is make your house less attractive than your neighbours. If they know you have a safe, they are still coming in whatever you do. Forget internal cameras, they only know about those once in. I think best bet is external cameras, either on front door bell, or round the side and back. If someone looks over my gate they can see 2, with red IR lights at night.

Wifi and routers agree that Unifi is the way to go. Best is separate cable modem from router (USG) and separate wifi access points. I have multiple internal and the external one as well. All solid.

Wouldn’t recommend their cameras as needs their system unless you are really spending money on their high end gear. NAS and any 3rd party camera probably as good and cheaper or go with Apple HomeKit ones but you don’t get 24/7 recording there.

Home automation - Loxone is great if doing whole house rewire, but not the easiest to build out slowly. I use Indigo which is a Mac based software, is local only (but with external secure connection if required) that runs my lights (via z-wave modules behind the switches) so no changing bulbs or switches and still works if someone uses a switch, unlike Hue bulbs

Also does my TV, alarm, heating, Sonos (Sonos comes on playing ACDC full volume throughout the house if alarm goes off!), cameras, cable tv, basically anything electrical in my house and links all to HomeKit and Siri and Alexa. Built up slowly over a few years. Much much easier to use than the free raspberry pi systems but more expensive to buy, and needs always on Mac. Hubitat which I also use seems a cheaper easier system to setup but reasonably configurable and extendable.

If I had the money and was doing rewire then Loxone looks good. Be careful of things like Control4 etc as you don’t want to have to pay hundreds to company to add a new light or change logic.

Also be aware of what you want. Lots of companies will provide connected houses, ie one app on phone controls lights and blinds and alarm. But do you want to pull phone out to turn on a light or open a blind. You likely either want voice control or physical switches (and ability to easily change their logic) or you want smart. Smart requires some great logic and will be changed over time, again you don’t want to pay someone to do that. I don’t think I have touched my kitchen light switch in years. Motion and time controlled and depends on outside light levels outside, ie they come on if dark clouds during day.

We live in a relatively low crime area but recently some little tykes have been going round in the early hours (obviously their parents don’t give a toss) targeting cars. We have installed a Eufy video doorbell and window, door and movement sensors which link up to our phones. When we go out or to bed we set it all to go off (there is also an alarm) if an intruder tries to get in. The video doorbell records any human movement. However, our front door is actually at the side of the house (lots of pics of our post lady) so we are getting a Eufy video camera with floodlight that points directly at the front of the house where the car is and again is connected to the whole system. We also have the Hive system that shedules when the lights go on and off too, which is good for when we are out or away after dark for any length of time.

Not very sophisticated but hopefully a deterrent. Having said that, our next door neighbour has a house alarm fitted that makes a right racket if tripped. We have a key to go and investigate if it goes off when they are away. Over the years it has gone off a few times…spiders! and not a soul has come out to even look. So, is it all worth it? If it makes the thieves go to someone elses house, then yes…not very charitable I know, but hey, as Tarzan once said to Jane…

’it’s a jungle out there’

I love my smart home tech. I’ve had a Nest video doorbell for a number of years as have a lot of Google Home speakers that it links to. We have a nest thermostat, hue bulbs, smart life and meross smart plugs which are all great with Google integration so have automations set up for when we’re home and away, including the coffee machine of course.

When we moved into our current house just over a year ago, the previous owner left a power over Ethernet 4 camera CCTV system with recorder. He was an electrician and did a great job wiring the house up. I changed the NVR this year to enable better remote viewing and next up will be better cameras at the front of the house that have person detection as these are so sensitive they alert every time it rains. Also have a standard alarm which weirdly has the ringer inside the house with nothing outside but accidentally triggered a couple of times and it’s so loud you’d want to leave.

Although there’s no guarantee it will put thieves off, we’ve had cars broken into down the road recently and each time we’ve been left alone so think CCTV does play a part.

I also fitted a TP Link Tapo wireless camera at my parents and that’s a pretty good budget system that lets them check who’s coming to their door now they’re getting older.

LMSC I have a Eufy doorbell and like it.

LMSC I have a Mac mini running Indigo software controlling z-wave lights, texecom alarm, Heatmiser heating, Spirit TRVs, Sonos, Virgin, denon amp, selection of TVs, irrigation. Via connection to Hubitat it controls Zigbee light bulbs and remote controls. All devices are controlled by Alexa from Indigo, and then I run homekitbridge on the Mac which publishes all those devices and cameras to HomeKit.

I think that’s it… sure there are bits I am forgetting.

Unifi USG and multiple wifi APs. Pi holes on pis and QNAP NAS.

oh and the Harry Potter magic map that shows live location of keys and phones on a floor plan of the house!

LMSC I’m surprised they can match colour for aluminium. Normally they’re powder coated and you can have pretty much any RAL colour

Interesting thread …. which I seem to have missed.

My take, which I’m not necessarily suggesting suits anybody else, is to consider security and home automation as not necessarily linked.

For me, home automation is about our convenience. And nowt else. Part of that is what data I am prepared to let leak to the likes of Amazon (not too much) or Google (absolutely nothing if I can prevent it without massive inconvenience). So, I have a few Echo devices and some smart bulbs that let me turn lights on/off or dim, by voice (or switch/sensor, as well, in a couple of cases), and play internet radio. Not much else, and no way am I connecting cameras to that.

Security is a different issue (for me) and I approach that with two different philosophies. Those are ‘obvious’ and ‘non-obvious’. Non-obvious involves some physical measures that are going to make getting in non-trivial. The obvious category is things that anyone walking/driving past might see, like alarm boxes, cameras or gates, walls, etc.

The other factor is to consider who are are seeking to protect from. The meaures I would take against the casual local ne’er-do-well opportunistic a-hole are very different from what might work against a professional. For the latter, well, unless you’re setting up Fort Knox, the White House or Buckingham Palace (and at least two of those have had well-publicised breaches) it’s a case of not keeping out really serious burglars unless you’re spending mega-money.

All you can do is either make it hard enough that hopefully they target someone else, or minimise the risk profile by not having anything to target that would make it worth their while in the first place. Or, potentially, by being crafty enough to appear to not have nothing worth their effort, and hiding it really cleverly if they try anyway.

But be aware, there is (in my opinion) a very bad middle ground. I’d advise against taking suffiiently expensive preventative measures to keep the casual local idiots out, by going far enough to hang out a sign to the serious burglars saying “something here worth nicking”.

So …. take all obvious basic steps - decent doors/windows, don’t leave ground floor doors unlocked and secure windows etc if you go out, chain any ladders etc down, or better yet, don’t leave anything like that laying around in the first place. That’s a set of examples, not a comprehensive list. Oh, and basic alarm boxes etc might deter the casual thief but too good a system risks advertising yourself to a more serious class of scumbag.

You might even want to consider the alarm box you appear to have not being the one you actually do. Oh, and hard-wired is better, IMHO, than wifi for security functions. Other measures might include anti-climb paint, nasty bushes (with nasty needles ;) ) along fence lines to deter people climbing over, etc. Oh, and be aware of what you can do legally, and what you can’t - broken glass on the tops of walls for fences isn’t a bright idea, but a few bushes with loads of 2″ thorns or needles …. <grin>.

Less obvious? Think about how you might get in if you had to break in? Where are the less secure points? Garage door is often one. You can also consider re-inforced door frames, and wood-clad steel-cored doors, etc. These aren’t that cheap, and even less so as a retrofit, but if done well, will be invisible from the outside. Good luck to anyone trying to kick my doors in …. when they get out of the foot/ankle plaster. ;)

That kind of measure is effective against casuals, without screaming “something to protect” to professionals.

Another factor, and it’s a major one …. the size, type and location of where you live. Living in a Beverly Hills mansion is going to present a different risk profile to a council house in Stoke on Trent, Deptford or well, anywhere really. That will be part of assessing who you are protecting against.

Finally, consider exactly what you are protecting, what it is worth, and what both the cost and inconvenience factors of serious security are against the value of what you’re protecting, and/or where a more sensible approach is either to not hve extremely valuable items in the first place, or to ensure you insure them thoroughly.

One reason I don’t have an extensive collection of Monet’s and Van Gogh’s is I can’t protect them. So it’s convenient I also can’t afford them. I can afford nice watches, jewelry, etc but chose not to have them, partly for security reasons. Also because while I like watches, I don’t like them enough to pay what a collection would cost. And the one I do have …. insured.

I don’t want to live in a secure bunker, partly because of the inconvenience. I also don’t want the worry of loads of expensive and highly portable stuff. Sure, some stuff is expensive (though not in Picasso territory, or anything close) but some camera gear, computer gear etc is worth a fair bit. So, I have good insurance and if the worst happens, it can all be easily replaced.

I take reasonable steps to deter casual riff-raff, plus some “non-obvious” measures, but don’t have anything likely to attract serious professionals, and not much to attract even less serious ones …. that isn’t insured thoroughly.

We each have to calibrate our response to security according to our circumstances, what we’re trying to protect, who we’re protecting against and how much cost and inconvience taking more measure would involve, and whether it’s worth it or not. It is easy to get carried away with what you can do rather than what really makes sense to do, and to omit considering that more heavyweight measures might actually have a downside, in marking you as a target.

All IMHO, and YMMV.

5 simple things can make a house/garden less interesting compared to a neighbour’s house and cost little to nothing.

• Beware of the dog signs
• If you have a garage, use it a lot for the car (then it’s not always clear when you are in or out)
• Unless you are using a downstairs room at that moment, keep the curtains closed (Kitchen and Utility don’t count). Saves energy too.
• Turn on LBC, Talk Radio in the kitchen, or similar when you go out. Burglars like it when you’re not home), so don’t let them know you’re not there. There are also deterrent sound, but they don’t work as well
• Lights on routines. (linked to sunset sunrise)