Need help picking out Equipment for remote Location- Needs to boot back up easily

[logbuilder]

Several of us use Startup Delayer (free). It is a good way to control startup of non services.

BI runs well as a service. I recommend.

And I'm a big fan of Classic Shell as the first add on for windows 10.

Some version of VNC can be nice at times. I use TinyVNC.

And your favorite malware/virus checker. I like MalwareBytes.

 

[ThomasPI]

@CaliGirl thanks for posting! My original budget is about $1500 give or take but after looking at your list, I best up that a tad!

 

[CaliGirl]

I tried the home depot junction boxes. The mounting holes from the camera to the box didn't lineup well. I prob could have rigged something up but I had the $25 ebay Dahua junction boxes right there so it was hard not to use them. So I used the Dahua Boxes, the oring had a hard time staying on the box while mounting the camera, but I got it eventually. Then I got it all connected and up on the tree 30 feet in the air then I realized that the camera its self is not water tight behind it and so water will be able to reach inside the junction box, unlike the other Dahua camera. So the Dahua junction boxes for these Turet cameras are a big overkill. I thought about this as I was installing bc I remembered everyone's advice. My brothers were not around and I was all by myself so I said screw it and left it as is. I figured I would leave the bottom end of the conduit open so any water, which will likely be very little, can drain at the end of the conduit pipe if need be. It will be ground level and not a box, as I decided not to run conduit from camera to house. Only from tree to ground and ground to house. It would have been impossible for me to trench it that far. The soil is full of rocks and large pine tree roots and it was a disaster to just trench 10 feet 1 foot deep. And there is still snow in some areas.

To resolve this, I can return and take off the camera and use some of my foam expanding glue around the cat 5 cable where it exits from inside the junction box. That way no water an drain down the conduit but water can reside inside the junction box. Or add a small drain hole on box too as advised for water drainage.

The electrical box I bought for the house worked perfect. I ran conduit from the ground up to this and into the house.

I struggled with getting cat 5 cable through the plastic/rubber conduit without damaging it. It would not slide. So finally I got a little dish soap and a hose and filled the conduit with water then the cable slid right it. Just need a little lube apparently I made sure to drain the water out afterwards and the environment is so dry right now I am hoping the conduit will dry out. At least it was waterproof direct burial cable?

I am not rea happy with the mounting location of the driveway camera. During the day it is perfect, but at night the IR light bounces off the nearby tree and blocks the view of the road. Unfortunately there is not a better tree that I can think of expect adding my own dedicated security pole which would look obvious and funny in this environment.

Trench from house to PTZ camera at lake< it is all clean and nice looking now:

Cameras mounted near driveway:

Driveway Day:


Crappy Night view:

 

[looney2ns]

@CaliGirl for the next time you require lube: Klein Tools Wire and Cable Lube - Synthetic Polymer-51015 - The Home Depot

 

[CaliGirl]

You guys, for anyone fall in the long blue Iris software and dell I 6700 has been wonderful! Once I got it optimized it has been extremely stable even when I recycle the power and recovers. The Apple iOS app is a dream, one touch of the button and it brings all cameras up instantly then simply select a Camera to look closer at. You can even do the alerts immediately on your camera, set up push notifications and emails, and the frame rate is significantly better than then my Dahua NVR ever was.

I do miss the dahua ivs cross line detection and triggers, cross line detection but Blue Iris motion detection has been pretty good. The biggest improvement is that you make a software change hit OK and it saves it immediately. The Dahua NVR did not work half the time or you were not sure if they took a setting.

 

[Q™]

Nice install there @CaliGirl!...although I've taken to using PVC trim from Home Depotin place of wood.

 

[logbuilder]

Now that you are on a good platform with some extra processing power, you might want to think about home automation. I've linked my security system (BI4) and my home automation (HomeSeer3) so that they play well with each other.

Some scenarios that I use:

1. BI detects motion on cameras. BI sends alert to HS3 which then turns on the outside flood lights, sends me an alert on my phone, FTPs the captured images to a remote site.
2. HS3 detects motion either from a PIR motion sensor or a door/window sensor. HS3 tells each BI camera to trigger which gets a video or a snapshot. Again of course the lights get activated.
3. When I have been away during the winter, the heat is set to 50 so things don't freeze. I can remotely access the home automation several hours before I am set to return so that the heat is comfortable when I get there. Also, if the heat drops below 50, send an alert to my phone.
4. I have a custom app for my phone that I use to interact with HS3. I control BI4 from HS3. That allows for nice integration with any sort of light management or sensor management. As example, in HS3 I have four house 'states' - Away, No Security, Sleeping, Arriving. When I set it to Away, the heat gets set, lights turn off, BI4 gets changed to my away profile so the cameras are all active. Similar for the other 'states'.

There are lots of other functions I use.

You've learned a lot in terms of security. Hopefully you have viewed it as a challenge and have enjoyed building what you want. If you want to continue your learning, consider home automation.

 

[CaliGirl]

You are probably onto something about the plastic vs. wood. I just used what was around the house and easy.

That was the next step @logbuilder although I don't want the lights to trip bc that will scare away the wildlife that I am trying to capture.

For temp control we are using a Nest and it has been so so. I can turn it on ahead of time like you say and it push notifies me when temps get low. In the winter when there are power outages it doesn't always connect back to the wifi on its own. Then you call Nest and they tell you the only way to get it to the connect is to be at the Nest physically, which is impossible since this is a vacation house. So not the most reliable device for the purpose of remote control from afar. A power cycle of the Nest would do the trick, but they have small internal batteries so if you turn of the heater remotely (scary since the pipes could freeze if there was an issue coming back on) it will take several hours for the internal battery to wear down, then turn power back on and have it search for wifi again. I have tried the other direction, turning off the Asus wifi antenna remotely and back on but that does not jog these wifi devices to start looking for their wifi again. Ideas for these types of devices to get them to look for wifi again after they have given up for a few days?

I like your idea of different profiles or states. Need to do something like that with the cameras and sensors.

The next important step would be water detection and freeze detectors inside the house. But I haven't seen something that I liked yet that wasn't a ton of $ But we have had 3 broken pipe events that have cost thousands of dollars. Water turns off during winter but sometimes a guest will come or house cleaner and do it wrong and we don't find out about it until the next season. And with 3 different families up there, know one ever knows who did what or if it is just a course of nature.

 

[CaliGirl]

Wouldn't it be cool is Blue Iris created a time lapse automatically like this each day? Is that possible? Where would I get started automating that process?

 

[logbuilder]

You are probably onto something about the plastic vs. wood. I just used what was around the house and easy.

That was the next step @logbuilder although I don't want the lights to trip bc that will scare away the wildlife that I am trying to capture.

For temp control we are using a Nest and it has been so so. I can turn it on ahead of time like you say and it push notifies me when temps get low. In the winter when there are power outages it doesn't always connect back to the wifi on its own. Then you call Nest and they tell you the only way to get it to the connect is to be at the Nest physically, which is impossible since this is a vacation house. So not the most reliable device for the purpose of remote control from afar. A power cycle of the Nest would do the trick, but they have small internal batteries so if you turn of the heater remotely (scary since the pipes could freeze if there was an issue coming back on) it will take several hours for the internal battery to wear down, then turn power back on and have it search for wifi again. I have tried the other direction, turning off the Asus wifi antenna remotely and back on but that does not jog these wifi devices to start looking for their wifi again. Ideas for these types of devices to get them to look for wifi again after they have given up for a few days?

I like your idea of different profiles or states. Need to do something like that with the cameras and sensors.

The next important step would be water detection and freeze detectors inside the house. But I haven't seen something that I liked yet that wasn't a ton of $ But we have had 3 broken pipe events that have cost thousands of dollars. Water turns off during winter but sometimes a guest will come or house cleaner and do it wrong and we don't find out about it until the next season. And with 3 different families up there, know one ever knows who did what or if it is just a course of nature.

Ok, I see a couple of things we can work on. The thermostat reliability and the water concerns.

Thermostat
My primary heat is a wood stove but when I am away I need heat to prevent freezing so I also have a propane furnace. I have a Honeywell Wifi connected thermostat. It came with an app for my phone so I can remotely control it. We also have many power outages. It has never failed to recover and reconnnect since it was installed 3 years ago. I have considered getting a z-wave connected thermostat (could connect to HomeSeer) to replace it but heat is so critical that I want as few points of failure as possible.

Freezing
If I had no heat during the winter, things would surely freeze and pipes would bust. So, first concern is keeping it warm enough. As I said, I keep it at least 50F. Secondly was to try and make it so that the damage would be as small as possible should something bust. I am on a well so it would pump till the motor gave out. Not good. I just recently installed 3 devices that I can control from HomeSeer in my utility room. In there is the 220v well pump controls, a 220v water heater, and a water softener (removes iron). I installed 220V relays so that I can turn the well, heater, and softener off or on no matter where I am. During winter, I will routinely turn them off when I am going to be away for a few days. Seems like I should also be able to save some energy when I don't need hot water. I can also control them from 'events' in HomeSeer. As example, I could write an event that said if the inside temp is < 50F and outside temp is < 35F, then turn off the well, heater, and softener. Or, when the house status changes to away, turn them off. I also just installed a water sensor under the water heater. I built the sensor with an Arduino, a sponge, and two wires. Cost < $10. I'll be putting a couple under the house too. Wifi connected to the home automation system so no cables to run. If you aren't on a well, what you might consider is a controllable water valve so you could turn off the water supply as close to the meter as possible. I've seen them but some are over $200.

With some sort of home automation, you can begin to deal with these things. It can receive inputs and take actions whether you are there are not. Since I'm away a lot, that is real important to me. Also, you should be able to control or see anything when you are away. HomeSeer has a really cool app designer that I have used to build an app for my phone as well as a wifi android tablet. I can see each and every sensor and control every device that is on the automation system. With BI4, I can also see. It has given me a lot of peace of mind.

These areas are important to me too and are a work in progress in terms of mitigating risk. Any ideas you or others have will be welcomed.

 

[logbuilder]

Wouldn't it be cool is Blue Iris created a time lapse automatically like this each day? Is that possible? Where would I get started automating that process?

I do a simple timelapse with hourly snapshots. On the Record tab for each camera, you can setup to take a JPEG snapshot every mmm:sss. That's what I use. What you posted is far superior but it requires a full video recording. Since I'm on satellite, I don't do any video.

But, surely there is someone who knows of such a tool that you could schedule to run each day against the continuous recording from the prior day. I know BI can create the files needed, just need to find a tool to do the timelapse.

It was really nice!

 

[CaliGirl]

Wow, sounds like the honeywell is the way to go for anyone listening. No interrupts in 3 years!! Nest has not been the that solid at all. It is slick, but does not recover great from wifi power outage. Certainly there is a solution for this but I have not reasoned what that would be. Honeywell is now on my radar.



We shut off the water supply in the winter from October- March. Then only turn it on if we arrive in the winter to enjoy the snow. Then it goes back to off at the end of the a visit (asking for trouble with guest and visitors). There are two valves 1. water supply on and off 2. drain water supply at bottom ground level of main house. This is located deep in a closet that is not the easiest to get to. It is also 2 feet under a concrete slab and rocks for the drain. Perceivably to be below the freeze level or limit freeze. With that said, I’d love to install that auto water valve controller. Do you think it would take 2 of those controllers? Maybe there is a better location by the street 200 ft up the hill. That would def require a wifi point to point system to be reliable.



In the house there one valve to turn on and off and one to drain, so do I need to of those controllers? And does it sounds like a big deal with the location and depth in the ground? Sounds like an IP camera looking down at the water valve would be helpful as we control it remotely we could see and hear that it turned open or close. Or maybe keep it simple and not control it remotely but just have that controller mounted on the wall for people. And I could also check the position remotely and turn it off if someone did it wrong or forgot.



Last time we had a water leak it was the shower line on the 3rd floor. So when it thawed, water was on, it spray from the top down and ruined soooo much. It was terrible. The thermostat was an old style mercury and did not require power, but I think pilot light went out and never recovered all winter. The other leak was a skylight or roof and as the snow thawed it went down the walls and ruined drywall and paint with it. Wish I had a water sensor at the time. Since then I have installed 2 electric floor heaters with free mode so that when the power recovers it will bring the house temp back to 55f and not rely on gas or a pilot light or a bad thermostat. I think that is the most reliable fix yet. But sometimes the power goes out for 3 days at 17F nights.



We also have a water softener. 120v never had and trouble with it, but I could install a wifi plug for it easily. Really not sure how they work or what they do or their role in a leak but I can look in it now.



To complicate everything you read above, there is also separate small guest house that is everything above and times 2. So you can see how there is a lot to manage remotely.

 

[logbuilder]

First, to clarify, I wanted to be able to control the water softener because it cleans itself out periodically. If the well and water heater were turned off, I didn't want the softener trying to run without a water supply. It is 110V so it is on a simple controlled outlet.

For the main house, I would think you would need two controllable valves. Here is one that would do the job. I didn't research lowest cost bit that gives you an idea. One valve would be at the input. Likely where the main water line comes into the house. The other would be at the low spot. To setup for being away, you would 'control' the valves so that the input valve would close first. Then the second drain valve would open. Reverse order to bring things back online. As far as the second house, is it on its own water meter? If not, you might be able to switch off input before it feeds them both. Other than that you would need to duplicate valves. The valve I referenced in this post is controlled with 12v. That would just be two small wires going from the valve to a control point where you would attach into your HA system.

In regards to people visiting that don't know how things work, if you controlled everything yourself remotely, you could have a house status of 'Guests arriving' and 'Guests leaving'. Arriving would close the drain water valve, open the main valve, turn on water heater (and maybe softener), turn up the heat to 70F, turn on outside lights and some entry lights. Leaving would close the main water valve, then open the drain water valve, water heater off, main heat to 50F, lights off. You would just need to open your app and press one button for 'Guests Arriving' or 'Guests Leaving'.

All of what I mention is totally doable. The technology is pretty reliable. You don't need to be a programmer. I have found it to be challenging and also rewarding when something I thought of I was able to actually do. But... a caveat... it is seldom inexpensive.

 

[looney2ns]

@CaliGirl My two cents, you have already found the nest to be unreliable, keep the mission critical stuff hard wired.

I'd suggest a controller like this: Omni LTe

Some of it's accessories: Security & Automation

It's been around for many years, and is rock solid. You could control remotely or program it so that when a guest disarms the alarm, it would turn on what is needed, when they leave, they arm the system and required items are handled.

It can call your phone and tell you verbally what's up, or send you a text.
Many other features that are simple to program.
Programing can be changed remotely.

I've installed several of these over the years, and they just work.

 

[logbuilder]

@CaliGirl My two cents, you have already found the nest to be unreliable, keep the mission critical stuff hard wired.

I'd suggest a controller like this: Omni LTe

Some of it's accessories: Security & Automation

It's been around for many years, and is rock solid. You could control remotely or program it so that when a guest disarms the alarm, it would turn on what is needed, when they leave, they arm the system and required items are handled.

It can call your phone and tell you verbally what's up, or send you a text.
Many other features that are simple to program.
Programing can be changed remotely.

I've installed several of these over the years, and they just work.

Wow, over $400! It kind of reminds me of the first remote thermostat controller that I installed 10 years ago. It attached to the furnace and the thermostat and then the land line. It was a Honeywell Telephone Access Unit. I would call the house and it would answer and give me a menu of options that allowed me to control the HVAC. The controller broke about 3 years ago and I found it was not feasible to replace the Honeywell unit. I researched it and decided on the Honeywell wifi thermostat. $83 from Amazon.

Honeywell Wi-Fi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat (RTH6580WF), works with Amazon Alexa - - Amazon.com

 

[BillG]

Wow, over $400! It kind of reminds me of the first remote thermostat controller that I installed 10 years ago. It attached to the furnace and the thermostat and then the land line. It was a Honeywell Telephone Access Unit. I would call the house and it would answer and give me a menu of options that allowed me to control the HVAC. The controller broke about 3 years ago and I found it was not feasible to replace the Honeywell unit. I researched it and decided on the Honeywell wifi thermostat. $83 from Amazon.

Honeywell Wi-Fi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat (RTH6580WF), works with Amazon Alexa - - Amazon.com

I've had this one for a few months.Honeywell RCHT8610WF2006 Lyric T5 Wi-Fi Smart 7 Day Programmable Touchscreen Thermostat with Geofencing, Works with Apple Home kit - - Amazon.com Works well and looks a little nicer I think. And it has re-connected after power cut for a couple hours.

 

[logbuilder]

I've had this one for a few months.Honeywell RCHT8610WF2006 Lyric T5 Wi-Fi Smart 7 Day Programmable Touchscreen Thermostat with Geofencing, Works with Apple Home kit - - Amazon.com Works well and looks a little nicer I think. And it has re-connected after power cut for a couple hours.

That looks very nice. Do you use the geofencing feature? Does it work with multiple family members?

 

[BillG]

That looks very nice. Do you use the geofencing feature? Does it work with multiple family members?

I do not use the geofencing, but other people say it works. If fam. members download the Lyric app it will work for them.

 

[CaliGirl]

So the power went out a few times and the Blue Iris Dell computer booted back up all on its own fine and the BI service ran and all cameras are working and feeding the iOS app.

BUT, Teamviewer did not come back online. I had it setup so that it ran anytime the computer was restarted. I tested at home and even pulled the computer plug a few times to make sure it would handle a power failure and start back up and run Team Viewer. Obviously that didn't work this time. I tried power cycling computer remotely to get team viewer to load again an a boot up but no luck. My team viewer app cant find that computer online.

I have a VPN and have access to my remote router and cameras, but is there anyway I can get Team viewer app opened remotely? Or another way to log into my Windows 10 computer remotely knowing it's IP address and the VPN?

 

[looney2ns]

This is one of the issues that can appear when a computer isn't on a Backups. Sometimes files get corrupted when the power goes out.

A backup UPS setup correctly, will gracefully shutdown the computer in a power outage and help avoid file corruption.

See if any of this helps.
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