Sometime last night some loveable person broke into our two cars in the driveway. Didn’t take anything …just tossed everything in it looking for goodies. They even took the time to pop her trunk and empty bags of laundry she was taking to the cleaners. Funny enough they missed my 300 dollar LED flashlight behind my passenger seat, so that’s nice.
Got me thinking I should probably install security lights over the driveway. They probably wouldn’t had been so bold if they were in blinding light. Does anyone know of a zwave connected security light? I’m thinking something like the smartthings motion detector combined with a flood light would be perfect.
You could setup outside lights on one of the GE ZWave switches - create a “night” mode - then setup the motion sensor to watch outside and anytime there is motion turn on your outside lights for X minutes.
Could be a simple way to work it!
Just make sure you can put the motion sensor in a place that won’t get wet and that won’t pick up EVERYTHING that moves on the street.
That was my first thought…but I’d like something cleaner and weather proof. It looks like I may not have many options though, as surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be anything out there like what I have in mind.
Does anyone know if the motion detector will work if it is pointed through a window? I was thinking I could simply point one through the front window of the house…but the range may be an issue…
Perhaps your motion sensor needs to be attached to one of those “shocking” dog collars to give the lads a nudge the next time someone decided to toss your car.
Well, I have just standard outdoor motion sensor lights by my side and front door. Obviously not tied into any Z-wave stuff, but they work for just turning on if something is near at night. It’s also really nice for when we’re coming home at night or leaving early in the morning as they will click on as soon as we step out the door and then shut off after a set time.
I suppose if you wanted it tied into z-wave you might be able to put a power meter on the wiring leading to the light. A change in power draw would indicate that A.) Motion was detected and B.) the Light is on. The down side here is that you wouldn’t be able to turn on/off the light with z-wave.
Another possibility would be to put a multi-sensor in the car itself. When it detects motion it tells the hub, which flips on a z-wave exterior light. Of course this only works if there is enough motion in the car to set it off.
Kris, that’s pretty much what I’m looking into now. The big project is actually running the wiring and setting up the switch. Thanks for the link Eric, that looks good…
