Thieves took my DVR!

[Ri22o]

With LED floods you can easily do it with way less..

I have 2 30w LED floods over my driveway. When I turn them on they're almost too much for the 4K-X.

 

[Sybertiger]

I installed one of THESE for the backyard a couple of weeks ago. It replaced an old halogen two bulb flood light that was 3,800lm at 250W. I really like it so far. The new LED floodlight did measure out to be 65W at full power. I suspect it's closer to 6,500lm as I tested a couple of 50W floodlights that were also advertised as 5,000lm but this one was visually brighter.

 

[ptzman]

Have we stopped using outside and inside 120 dB sirens and bells to alert our neighbors of unusable activates at our properties? May be this is not cool anymore.

 

[Sybertiger]

Have we stopped using outside and inside 120 dB sirens and bells to alert our neighbors of unusable activates at our properties? May be this is not cool anymore.

These days....with so many false alarms a lot of neighbors just ignore it. I called the police one time when my neighbors' went off. It was his parents who were visiting but didn't remember the alarm code. Welcome to Florida...LOL! I have one of my siren horns pointed right at my neighbors' house. Hope they hear it...LOL. Also have an internal home siren to irritate the robbers. Screw them if they can't take a joke.

 

[Timokreon]

If anyone is thinking LED lights for the exterior, I use canopy lights instead of flood lights. Put a couple of those in your yard and you get even light coverage around the area.
Something like these Canopy Light.

These are the same kind you see at a gas station, etc.. They have different wattage, and you can add photo sensors, etc.. I have one covering my side yard and back deck. Before I had a flood light where the light coverage was uneven, some areas lit up great, others not so good.
Now, with one of these lights, nice even light output. Plus I can now run my cameras in color 24/7 if I want.

 

[Sybertiger]

For the OP regarding push notifications. My phone goes absolutely crazy....even with just vibration mode it get's my attention.

 

[CCTVCam]

For lighting my theory, yet to be confirmed by placing cameras in these locations, is to use a wall light as a permanent on light with a low wattage bulb eg 5W 400 lumens. This should be enough to enable something like a 4kX / t to get a picture, and then to use a pir activated flood, to flood the area with maybe 3,000 lumens (30w) to give a bright picture if triggered. I see this as the best of both worlds, albeit with a second of adjustment time. The low light captures the approach, the higher power light captures the money shot with a bright facial, and all the time the permanent on wattage is 5W. The switched wattage is 35W (5w + 30W) for as long as you set the timer only. Very economical way of doing this. Plus even if the timer runs out and the perp doesn't re-trigger the light, you still should have enough light on low to get a capture of everything else that happens.

Until I get mine up and running, I can't confirm the effects of these levels on the picture. However, I think the theory likely works, it's just the levels that need testing or adjusting.

 

[garycrist]

I have liked the 4K-X. I even used the built in leds to fill in up close where it counts or about 20 ft. (2.8)

 

[David L]

For the OP regarding push notifications. My phone goes absolutely crazy....even with just vibration mode it get's my attention.

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Sure you don't live in China Haha

You got every angle covered...What AI tags the UPS Logo?

 

[Sybertiger]

View attachment 155767

Sure you don't live in China Haha

You got every angle covered...What AI tags the UPS Logo?

Oh, that particular cam clone is to tell me when USPS is here. I'm using the model called "delivery" which tags all those trucks. I just left it alone to alert me about all delivery vehicles and that is why is says USPS is HERE when clearly UPS is here.



In similar fashion I use a couple of cams for my parent's system except I only tag the mailman and not the other trucks. On theirs I have the PTZ track the jeep showing that it actually stopped at their mail box and simply didn't just drive by.

 

[CanCuba]

First off, I'm sorry this has happened to you. Not a good feeling knowing someone has been inside your house. For most people, the economic loss is secondary to the loss of sense of security.

I'm Canadian and live in Havana. Naturally, all my neighbours assume I'm a millionaire (I'm not, lol) but I am much better off than 95% of the population (there are wealthy Cubans aren't part of the "political elite"). This type of robbery is always on my mind.

Installing SD cards in cameras is probably the best suggestion considering power and alarms were disabled. Since no cameras were taken, the SD cards may provide valuable information (clothing, face capture, licence plate, etc). I've installed SD cards in my most important cameras (256GB, the largest the cameras will take) and make sure that they're good quality, brand name cards. Amazon is full of deals of garbage cards. Considering a 256GB card is a fraction of the price of a camera, it doesn't hurt to buy the best you can. My camera's would require a ladder to access. Fortunatley, they're set back enough from the street I still get 1000+ face captures a day off the two cameras running face detection.

For lighting, I use solar powered reflectors such as these. They've easy to install, require no cabling to be run (other than between the solar panel and reflector) and, of course, stay on even if the power to the house is cut. I've seen them available up to 800 watts (requiring two largish panels which are incluced) which are about 30,000 lumens. They come on at dusk (when the panel stops being able to charge the internal battery the light comes on) and off when there's enough light to begin charging the battery. Only issue is they come with remote controls which seem to be universal between brands. It's a security issue but the IR receiver could be disconnected. This would render the remote useless but once you set up the light, there's really no reason to use the remote.

These reflectors have worked great and my original ones are going on two years. I should replace the batteries before they start to fail but this requires unmounting them (requires a ladder) and opening them to see exactly what kind of battery they use. I buy them in Mexico but they're available on AliExpress.

Back to face detection...two of my cameras run FD 24/7. They don't get all the faces at night (need to make some adjustments) but daytime is great. I have threads here showing what my SD1A404XB gets. It's done 1000+ captures a day alone.

But ever day, I quickly review the FD captures. Just lets me see who has been passing (there's a few known thieves in my area) and how people have been looking at my property. While cameras are often used reactively to see how a robbery occurred, I use mine proactively to see who's been watching the property and the frequency in which people pass by. In the future, I'm going to run face recognition on a back-end to see frequency of the same faces. There's a lot of foot traffic in Cuba so this has been very helpful.

The same would apply to LPR in Western nations but that currently isn't an active concern of mine. That type of robbery has been, until now, VERY unusual. But, again, I will implement it in the future.

I also have a good relationship with the local police, particularly the "sector boss". He's been by to review footage a couple times and videos have solved two robberies in my immediately vicinity. Again, the thieves here work on foot so it's a bit easier.

Again, sorry this happened to you. But thank you for sharing. It's given myself, and others I'm sure, some excellent insight on how we can secure and "fortify" our homes and businesses.

 

[CCTVCam]

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Oh, that particular cam clone is to tell me when USPS is here. I'm using the model called "delivery" which tags all those trucks. I just left it alone to alert me about all delivery vehicles and that is why is says USPS is HERE when clearly UPS is here.

I suggested this a while ago - using the logos to discriminate between different mail companies. I' don't know if you were using my suggestion or if you implemented this independently, but it's nice to see it confirmed it works as a filter. I may eventually implement this myself although a camera on the front of my property is low priority as it's so open, there's no way any burglar would even attempt an entry from the front. Elevated, in full view of every neighbour, on a quiet but still reasonable busy road during the day for both foot and vehicle traffic with lot of people in gardens, and working on nearby houses, not very likely. My priorities are the rear and side and from the side I imagine trucks on the road in my case will be well out of focus at around 70 feet away from the camera.

 

[JimLS]

They removed backfence panels and walked in. There were security lights but power was disconnected from the front where there were no security lights (ie quite dark). They moved all turrent cameras upwards but didn't damage them.

A surdy steel security screen door was jimmied easily from a metallic door frame. A regular hollow door was cut in themiddle to remove a large wooden bar that was blocking access from inside. The weak lock was jimmied.

Once inside the garage, they disengaged the garage door. The garage to house door had 3 dead locks. None was harmed as they just lifted the door off the hinges.

Entire house was ransacked including kitchen/bathrooms. It took almost 6 hours to clean up.

The doors had to replaced as they were damaged severely.

How to lift the door without releasing the dead locks (I take it those are typical deadbolts or similar)? Depending on the door swing they may have had access to the hinge pins and removed those but typically they are on the inside.

And why does a "typical house" have 3 deadbolts on the door? I suppose that's are some houses around that have 3 - years ago I had a house front door kicked in and the deadbolt gave pretty easily but not typical I would say.

I agree with those that say there must be more to the story.

Still some interesting discussion on hardening security.

I recently had a utility outage of about 6 hours. Only the second long one in 20 years here but they do happen. And even with a good battery the security system died. Have thought about some sort of smart load shedding system to shut down non essential backed up stuff on the UPS after about 5 minutes - which covers 99% of all outages.

 

[CanCuba]

How to lift the door without releasing the dead locks (I take it those are typical deadbolts or similar)? Depending on the door swing they may have had access to the hinge pins and removed those but typically they are on the inside.

And why does a "typical house" have 3 deadbolts on the door? I suppose that's are some houses around that have 3 - years ago I had a house front door kicked in and the deadbolt gave pretty easily but not typical I would say.

I agree with those that say there must be more to the story.

Still some interesting discussion on hardening security.

I recently had a utility outage of about 6 hours. Only the second long one in 20 years here but they do happen. And even with a good battery the security system died. Have thought about some sort of smart load shedding system to shut down non essential backed up stuff on the UPS after about 5 minutes - which covers 99% of all outages.

I can understand having more than one deadbolt. I grew up in Canada but now live in the Caribbean where one requires more security. Two good locks minimum for an exterior door plus an iron gate. As well, all windows up to the second floor must have bars. Much security than I was used to growing up outside of Toronto.

I had this gate made for my front door recently. The bars are 1/2" solid steel.



I also have a gel battery array of 12v @ 150Ah. Just running my NVR and cameras will give me about 2 days of running time. Last hurricane left us without power for almost 5 days but that's very uncommon.

Moving here has really allowed me to harness my paranoia and love for security. Lol

 

[garycrist]

I remember all the pretty colored glass on top of all the walls in Spain.
I was shocked when my parents told me the purpose was to keep the bad guys out!

 

[David L]

Over the years I went from a few UPS's to one in every room, even have them for the TVs I have 3 just in my Office alone. I mainly use them for dirty power protection.
Our Alarm system can go for several days, not much load power draw from it. POE Cameras are a different story, actually my POE Switch plus the PC running Blue Iris does not make it very long, around 12 hours, that is with a Modem and pfSense Router (Mini PC). During our major storms, Hurricanes, we are normally home and really don't need Cameras/Alarm.

 

[JimLS]

I have been thinking of doing a modest solar panel setup to power smaller loads without going through all the hoops to do utility intertie (My utility doesn't do net metering so payback on that is poor). Internet/security seems like a good target. Doing dc to dc converters would be more efficient than going to AC and then back to dc like with a UPS. Will need to do some measurements of load and some calculations... If anyone has done something similar I would be interested in some details (although that's probably the topic for a different forum).

 

[CanCuba]

I remember all the pretty colored glass on top of all the walls in Spain.
I was shocked when my parents told me the purpose was to keep the bad guys out!

I have broken glass in a few places where people have climbed up. A friend's neighbour came out one morning to find a trail of blood on the sidewalk outside their property. Someone had tried to climb up and gotten cut pretty bad. Suspect was never found.

 

[David L]

I have broken glass in a few places where people have climbed up. A friend's neighbour came out one morning to find a trail of blood on the sidewalk outside their property. Someone had tried to climb up and gotten cut pretty bad. Suspect was never found.

Wish we could boobytrap our places like "Home Alone" but it is illegal where I live.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I can understand having more than one deadbolt. I grew up in Canada but now live in the Caribbean where one requires more security. Two good locks minimum for an exterior door plus an iron gate. As well, all windows up to the second floor must have bars. Much security than I was used to growing up outside of Toronto.

I had this gate made for my front door recently. The bars are 1/2" solid steel.



I also have a gel battery array of 12v @ 150Ah. Just running my NVR and cameras will give me about 2 days of running time. Last hurricane left us without power for almost 5 days but that's very uncommon.

Moving here has really allowed me to harness my paranoia and love for security. Lol

I’m currently in India and it’s sort of the same here, all my doors are effectively 2 doors and all my windows have decorative bars inside which are steel bars.

These are needed to stop the house being ransacked whilst it is empty.

I’ll take a few pics and update this post if anybody is interested

Since pictures paint a thousand words you’re going to get pictures

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