Burglar got away. Learn from my mistake

I’ve got another thread going on laser trip wires that would work for this: Laser Trip Sensor?

The Aeon motion multi sensor also has a very short “motion period” where motion turns off after a few seconds I believe. However, it does not work very well outside and tends to give a lot of false alarms.

That sounds like scene from “Home Alone”. :slight_smile: You could scare a 10 year old kid perhaps, but not a determined burglar. The goal is to draw attention of your neighbors and to let the burglar know that his presence is detected so he would hopefully take his business elsewhere. A plain old siren will do the job.

Let us know when you figure out how to do this!

Yeah my Aeon sensor is outside and even with the sensitivity turned all the way down you get TONS of false alarms.

After reading all this I did order the Fortezz siren. Just curious if you guys have one where did you install it? Any help will be appreciated.

I picked up the Utilitech Siren siren from lowes. It runs only on batteries so you can put it anywhere. I put mine above my front door so it can be heard from outside and inside.

Installed the Fortrezz siren which ST recognized as a SmartAlert siren for some reason but it appears to be working and this thing is loud. Have it hooked to electricity.

Sorry about your loss. I would send the pictures to the media. Someone has seen your patio furniture.

Elderly people are awesome when it comes to things like this. It seems like they see everything but rarely come forward unless approached.

Don’t give up on finding your stuff. I once found a bike that was stolen from me years ago.

sorry to hear…
I have motion sensors outside but since they give false alarm so many times that have turned off notifications…

need a good solution

Dropcam or some other kind of IP cam with “people sensing” will get the job done right.

I am a amateur radio operator and have a weather alert app on my phone, due to tornado’s that always popup in my area. regardless of my phone setting, it will alert. Been in a few meetings and kinda funny, everyone had the same app and everyone’s phone was beeping. I would think smartthings can do the same and override the phones settings regardless of mode. During certain times, I would want to either get audible alerts or at least have the phone vibrate.

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This is also why it would be extremely helpful if the phone App and SmartApps had levels of granularity on Notifications. i.e. Information only (always quiet), important (alert if sound on) and Emergency (Always Alert as set on phone).

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What do you use to alert you if your gate was opened? I’ve been looking for something to use but haven’t been able to find anything. I tried a smartthings multi but the opening in between the gate and the post is to big so it never registers it as closed (also tried the aeon labs version).

Thanks!

I’ve got two gates in my backyard that I would like to cover, but have the same issue as above.

I’m thinking of using Wirelesstags with some sort of waterproofing case. Here’s a couple of threads that discuss them:

Wireless Sensor Tags Integration

Anybody Looked Into Integrating Wireless Sensor Tags

This can handle 2 3/8" gap and is rather rugged:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006M1I1W

@tomg2tg I use the Smartthings multi sensor but with a super strong magnet instead of the weak white one they provide. Here’s the magnet I use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BLOGT2M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The gap between my gate and post however is not very large so this happens to work for me. It may work for you or you could probably find an even stronger magnet. I believe they are called rare earth magnets. Just be careful they can be really strong and snap on your finger.

Another option may be to use just the accelerometer in the multi sensor to be alerted when it moves. I have my garage door setup that way although I do get some false alarms when it is windy or a loud car drives by.

I’m also planning on spraying my ST multi with plastidip to camouflage it a bit more and to better protect it from rain. Although it has been through quite a few rain storms and is holding up just fine. PlastiDip is just like spray paint but when it drys it turns to a thick rubber coating that you can peel off if needed. Hopefully it doesn’t impact the signal strength though.

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sometimes the sensors work better near the hinge, or you can just bush it out with a shim/layers of double-sided-foam-tape to get closer.

The stronger magnet is a good idea too.

@mweston,

What are you using to trigger lighting/siren etc. for that exterior view where you used Sighthound to record the video of the burgler?

I am trialling Sighthound now. I used IFTTT to use a Sighthound email notice to trigger a light, but it’s not fast enough. Curious as to whether you’re using a motion sensor outdoors and if so, which one.

Thanks

@jbeletti I’m using a Smartthings multi sensor on my gate to talk to smartthings at the moment. That triggers a siren. Sighthound is setup on multiple devices through out the house and I get push notifications directly from sighthound when a person is detected.

It is slower than the notifications I get from ST but unfortunately I don’t think there is much that can be done about that. One tip from SightHound is below:

Clips are sent with some delay. Sighthound Video waits until the entire clip can be made before sending it out. If you need less delay, try using a rule that is triggered immediately when a border is crossed, such as crossing a line or entering a region (as opposed to being inside, outside, or on top of a region).

You might also want to check out this other thread here: Laser Trip Sensor?

@mweston,

Thanks for the quick feedback. I went ahead and adjusted the rules on my 6 cameras. I now use 1 rule to capture motion, save tthe video and NOT notify me.

Then I created a new rule for each camera to notify me when someone crosses a boundary (either direction). That notification comes to my phone within milliseconds to maybe 3 seconds of the line being crossed.