Burglar alarms?

[Petebass]

At the last vet visit 3 weeks ago, he weighed 18Kg, so 39.6 pounds. He's 1 yr old so he is pretty much full-grown (physically, not mentally), but who knows if he's going grow a little more?

We've asked for pet friendly (quad) sensors. Are you saying they might not work for a dog this size?

 

[JNowiski]

At the last vet visit 3 weeks ago, he weighed 18Kg, so 39.6 pounds. He's 1 yr old so he is pretty much full-grown (physically, not mentally), but who knows if he's going grow a little more?

We've asked for pet friendly (quad) sensors. Are you saying they might not work for a dog this size?

i don't know what kind of motions they have out now, they might have better ones or ones for various weights. Remember i've been out of the game for over a year. I know we never liked putting in the 40lb ones for dogs that are at such a close weight, we always liked to have at least 5 or 10lbs to spare. But, there are other options, if you keep the dog in your room, you could get a keypad in your room so you could use the sensors at night and disarm it in the morning, but if you have kids that will be tricky . That one, but that all depends on where you keep the dog. you can bypass the sensors during the day, if you let him roam free inside the house. like i said, i'm pretty sure when i left the company we had some 80lb and less motion detectors, i don't trust those for big dogs that are like 60-80lbs, but 40lb it'd probably work. You could always ask about that. i think you should just check around with some local companies and see what they offer and what they can do for you. i know the company i worked for, we'd pretty much go out of our way to make sure they get the security they want. As long as it was doable and rational. You have to remember that some additional features will add a little money (probably not much, but a little) but its worth it.

for all the panic buttom programming on the keypad it was all free cause it only takes about 10 seconds or less to do, depending on how fast you can press the buttons! I think you should PM Kael (If he doesn't mind me saying) cause i really think he has alot of knowledge and can help you more than i can, if not you can PM me if you want.


-Jon

 

[Petebass]

Thanks guys. I'll hold off on the PM for now because I like for information to be swapped in public where others might benefit from it as well.

We think we've found a way around he pet thing. When we're not home, the pets are locked outside, which makes the whole thing a lot easier.......

One of the quotes involved a whole bunch of sensors on the house perimiter (windows and doors), plus movement sensors in the rooms where there is stuff worth stealing. The idea being we only arm the perimiter when we're are home, and activate the whole system when we're not home. Sounds like it could work.........

Another quote went for the same idea but with the newer method of arming the perimiter - the fancy wave shock sensor thingy that Kael mentioned previously. She tried to demonstrate it and it failed at first. When she got it working, she did so by opening a door quickly. I couldn't help but picture my dog jumping on a door to open it, as he does, and triggering the thing. And our house isn't exactly "open plan" so I'm not convinced it'll work all that well. In our case, I think the old technology will work better.

 

[JNowiski]

Thanks guys. I'll hold off on the PM for now because I like for information to be swapped in public where others might benefit from it as well.

We think we've found a way around he pet thing. When we're not home, the pets are locked outside, which makes the whole thing a lot easier.......

One of the quotes involved a whole bunch of sensors on the house perimiter (windows and doors), plus movement sensors in the rooms where there is stuff worth stealing. The idea being we only arm the perimiter when we're are home, and activate the whole system when we're not home. Sounds like it could work.........

Another quote went for the same idea but with the newer method of arming the perimiter - the fancy wave shock sensor thingy that Kael mentioned previously. She tried to demonstrate it and it failed at first. When she got it working, she did so by opening a door quickly. I couldn't help but picture my dog jumping on a door to open it, as he does, and triggering the thing. And our house isn't exactly "open plan" so I'm not convinced it'll work all that well. In our case, I think the old technology will work better.

Yeah, of course. Door sensors are usually standard, and some people love window sensors, but they seem to be the first to act up (but then its fairly inexpensive to replace them). Some people like glass breaks, which you ususally install on the ceiling fairly close to the windows (but not too close of course) and it detects the pitch of broken glass, alot of people don't seem to like these though, and i've heard some people say they've been broken into and it didn't set the alarm off, but i KNOW that some of them just didn't set the alarm. Door sensor, either window sensors or glass breaks and one or two motions is pretty standard. I think some of the newer windows you can't do window sensors, but i don't know now. I think with you keeping the dogs outside you wouldn't have any problem with the sensors or motions. and if you wanted to arm it at night while you're home you could bypass all the motions and arm the doors and windows to instant so there's no delay. You know, usually the front door (or garage or the door you enter the most) has a 30-45 second delay on it, so you can turn it off. I would make sure you get as little doors as possible with a delay, for obvious reasons.

And about the cell backups and all that. I don't think we ever installed the backups on residential installations (except for on the really expensive houses where they wanted max security) but we always tampered the phone line. I would think most alarm companies would do that, it doesn't take long to do and it really brings a sense of security to the homeowner. But depenind on how many rooms and windows you have you should check on the glass breaks, i think most the people who were broken into and had complains didn't set the alarm (usually they had previous history of doing similiar things). And i'd also avoid wireless, we installed a big house and did all the windows (like 23 or 24 windows, it sucked) and a little more than half were wireless because of the many additions they added onto the house, and we ended up going back there and replace all the wireless sensors with a different wireless sensor because the others kept screwing up, so i'd try to avoid that too. I'm sure i'll think of some other things later, but for now thats all i can think about. I think you should go for it though, it can be expensive at first but its worth it in the end.

 

[Petebass]

It's done, we pulled the trigger and it's being installed Wednesday.

We went for the Bosch Solution 16+ system with the old-fashioned sensors on all windows and doors, plus Quad movement detectors in the Lounge room, main bedroom, the home office, and Garage.

The garage was tricky because it's detached form the house. The options were to either dig a trench for the wires, or go wireless just for that one. My Mrs doesn't want a trench being dug into her newly manicured garden so I'm losing the battle and unfortunately might end up with one wireless sensor - albliet a dual-tech which works on both infrared AND microwave. Apparently that's a must for garages in Australia where temperatures can vary greatly and change rapidly.

We've asked for an extra internal siren because the house isn't open plan. I want one at each end of the house so it remains loud and annoying throughout the house.

We also got 2 remote key-fobs which can fully or partially arm the house, and has a panic button.

We're also going for the back to base monitoring. I checked and they are monitored locally, and their procedure when an alarm is triggered is to my satisfaction.

I asked again about glass breakage sensors and we’ve decided against them. According to the police, it’s very rare they’ll climb through broken glass. Usually they’ll break the glass then unlock the window. If they’re silly enough to climb in through the broken glass, not only will they cut themselves, they’ll trigger a motion detector once they’re in. I’m happy with that.

Once again, thanks for all the advice. I’m now confident we’ve purchased the right alarm for our needs.

TB rocks!

 

[JNowiski]

yeah, that sounds like a good system. The duel techs are decent, i've installed them and those are probably the best wireless device i can remember installing, they are good for more rough weather conditions too. And yeah, digging a trench is a pain in the arse. I had to dig a 100ft trench with a couple turns in it close to summer last year and it really sucked. I think you made the right decision with glass breaks. I'm not a big fan of them. Sometimes they are awesome, but they are very temperate. sometimes they work, sometimes not. The additional siren isn't a bad idea either.

I thought about saying something about the key fobs but i didn't know how much you wanted to spend. Those things are pretty awesome. I need to correct something i said earlier when i was talking about the motions and animals. I said you could bypass the motions and arm it instant, but thinking about it now, i remembered they many have a "home mode" type setting, so everything arms EXCEPT the motions, so when you're at home at night you can arm it and not have to worry about setting the motions off, and you won't have to bypass the motions.

I think its much better to go with a company that is more local and has monitoring nearby. I think ADT and some of the other guys (Brinks maybe and any other nation companies) use like a centralized monitoring station...but i'm not sure if thats correct. But yeah, it sounds like your getting a good sytem and you'll be very pleased with it!

 

[syciprider]

What? No punji sticks?

 

[Petebass]

....... but i didn't know how much you wanted to spend.

Neither did we Of the 3 quotes we got, the one we went for was in the middle price-wise. It ended up costing AUS$2,000 even, plus $33 per month for the monitoring.

And even with our intimate knowledge of the house, my wife and I can't think of a way of gettting burgled without the alarm going off - assuming of course we don't get complacent and forget to arm it. That's why we went for the key-fobs - no excuses now that it only a press of a button............

What's a punji stick?

...looks at wikipedia.........

ummm, no..... no punji sticks

 

[JNowiski]

in vietnam they'd use punji sticks around the outside of FOBs (forward operation bases) to help defend it. They were usually sharp sticks basically and they'd put fieces (sp?) and pretty much anything else on it so if you survived an encounter with them you'd most likely get infected.

Thats what they are to the best of my knowledge, i could always be wrong though.

 

[Kael]

The garage was tricky because it's detached form the house. The options were to either dig a trench for the wires, or go wireless just for that one. My Mrs doesn't want a trench being dug into her newly manicured garden so I'm losing the battle and unfortunately might end up with one wireless sensor - albliet a dual-tech which works on both infrared AND microwave. Apparently that's a must for garages in Australia where temperatures can vary greatly and change rapidly.

We've asked for an extra internal siren because the house isn't open plan. I want one at each end of the house so it remains loud and annoying throughout the house.

We also got 2 remote key-fobs which can fully or partially arm the house, and has a panic button.

We're also going for the back to base monitoring. I checked and they are monitored locally, and their procedure when an alarm is triggered is to my satisfaction.

I asked again about glass breakage sensors and we’ve decided against them. According to the police, it’s very rare they’ll climb through broken glass. Usually they’ll break the glass then unlock the window. If they’re silly enough to climb in through the broken glass, not only will they cut themselves, they’ll trigger a motion detector once they’re in. I’m happy with that.

Once again, thanks for all the advice. I’m now confident we’ve purchased the right alarm for our needs.

TB rocks!

Sounds like a pretty decent setup there. That case of the detached garage is probably one of the few legitimate uses for wireless sensors. Detached buildings and trailer homes where there just is not space to run wires in the walls are the only times that I would suggest them. Even then only if all other options have been exhausted. Make sure you keep spare batteries handy for those wireless sensors. They like to run dead in the middle of the night and make that keypad beep at you waking you up. Yippee! Also, make sure that you occasionally don't use that keyfob. You would be surprised how easy it is to forget your keypad code if you haven't used it in a couple years. Try and arm/disarm occasionally from the keypad just to keep familiar with it.

 

[JNowiski]

Sounds like a pretty decent setup there. That case of the detached garage is probably one of the few legitimate uses for wireless sensors. Detached buildings and trailer homes where there just is not space to run wires in the walls are the only times that I would suggest them. Even then only if all other options have been exhausted. Make sure you keep spare batteries handy for those wireless sensors. They like to run dead in the middle of the night and make that keypad beep at you waking you up. Yippee! Also, make sure that you occasionally don't use that keyfob. You would be surprised how easy it is to forget your keypad code if you haven't used it in a couple years. Try and arm/disarm occasionally from the keypad just to keep familiar with it.

yeah, i've seen some people forget their codes and it sucks for them. Keyfobs are nice, but you definately need to make sure you remember how to use the keypad. +! Kael!

 

[Petebass]

Keypad. Gotcha. Good idea.

The guys are here right now installing the alarm as I type. It's comforting knowing I've run it all by people who know what they're talking about and got the OK.

Thanks for allowing me to pick your brains.

 

[JNowiski]

Keypad. Gotcha. Good idea.

The guys are here right now installing the alarm as I type. It's comforting knowing I've run it all by people who know what they're talking about and got the OK.

Thanks for allowing me to pick your brains.

No problem. It brings back alot of good memories. I had alot of fun with my buddies install security systems and wish i could go back to it, but i doubt i can thanks to tattoos. I knew it when i got them, but i didn't think i'd miss it as much either.

Good luck!

 

[Petebass]

And now the fun begins

We set the alarm up so a when it's "partially armed", only the windows, doors and motion sensor in the detached garage are active. We partially armed the alarm before we went to bed, but the instant I walked into the bedroom, the alarm went off. The display on the keypad confirmed it was the bedroom sensor that triggered the alarm......looks like they mistakenly programmed the bedroom sensor into the partial arming instead of the garage sensor.

I called and they were very apologetic about it. They're coming out tonight to fix it.

I tell ya what - it's Hella LOUD inside. I thought it was gonna rip my head off. I'm pleased to see it really does make it hard to function. I had a hell of a time turning the thing off............

 

[JNowiski]

And now the fun begins

We set the alarm up so a when it's "partially armed", only the windows, doors and motion sensor in the detached garage are active. We partially armed the alarm before we went to bed, but the instant I walked into the bedroom, the alarm went off. The display on the keypad confirmed it was the bedroom sensor that triggered the alarm......looks like they mistakenly programmed the bedroom sensor into the partial arming instead of the garage sensor.

I called and they were very apologetic about it. They're coming out tonight to fix it.

I tell ya what - it's Hella LOUD inside. I thought it was gonna rip my head off. I'm pleased to see it really does make it hard to function. I had a hell of a time turning the thing off............

yeah, it will make it hard to function for sure if its armed. did they tell you how to test it while they were there? I don't know how it is where you're at, but where i'm at the homeowner could call the monitoring service and give them the number of the system (we usually wrote it on the inside of the panel door to the system) and tell them you want to put it on test, then you can set everything off and call them back and see if they recieved a signal. Thats a good way to make sure it still works once or twice a year. Or you could have the guys that installed it come and check it out. not a bad idea either.

 

[Petebass]

Update. We're happy! My wife feels safe again and we're back to sleeping normally. She even feels safer when I'm out doing gigs and she's home alone.

We've had a couple of moments though where one minute we're watching TV, the next minute all hell broke loose when the alarm went off for no apparent reason.

The beauty of back-to-base monitoring is that they are able to tell if the alarm was armed or not when it went off. It makes it easy to tell if the alarm is malfunctioning or not. On both occasions, there was no apparent malfunction as we apparently armed the alarm moments before it went off.... we were both sitting on the couch so how did we do that?

Then we realised - the remote controls! Mine is usually attached to my belt hoop on my pants with the rest of my keys. It seems I've sat on the remote, or leaned against it and activated the alarm accidentally. Twice!!!!

In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have got the remotes. We don't seem to use them often, but we have to keep them with us at all times. We can't leave them at home because it provided thieves with a means of deactivating the alarm once they're in. So we're stuck with them and we'll have to be more careful about leaving the remotes where the buttons can't accidentally be pushed.

Provided for the info of anyone who stumbles across this thread and is looking to get a burglar alarm.

 

[JNowiski]

Update. We're happy! My wife feels safe again and we're back to sleeping normally. She even feels safer when I'm out doing gigs and she's home alone.

We've had a couple of moments though where one minute we're watching TV, the next minute all hell broke loose when the alarm went off for no apparent reason.

The beauty of back-to-base monitoring is that they are able to tell if the alarm was armed or not when it went off. It makes it easy to tell if the alarm is malfunctioning or not. On both occasions, there was no apparent malfunction as we apparently armed the alarm moments before it went off.... we were both sitting on the couch so how did we do that?

Then we realised - the remote controls! Mine is usually attached to my belt hoop on my pants with the rest of my keys. It seems I've sat on the remote, or leaned against it and activated the alarm accidentally. Twice!!!!

In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have got the remotes. We don't seem to use them often, but we have to keep them with us at all times. We can't leave them at home because it provided thieves with a means of deactivating the alarm once they're in. So we're stuck with them and we'll have to be more careful about leaving the remotes where the buttons can't accidentally be pushed.

Provided for the info of anyone who stumbles across this thread and is looking to get a burglar alarm.

good to hear your happy about it. that always sucks to get scared by the alarm. not just by the fear that some one my be trying to get in, but the obnoxious siren! haha.

the remote have batteries right? You could always take the batteries out and hide them really good. or you could get the installers to come back out and just deactivate them so they don't work, but you'll still have them incase you want to reactivate them later.

 

[BellBottomBlues]

why get an alarm when you can shotgun trap the front door

 

[JNowiski]

why get an alarm when you can shotgun trap the front door

i saw something on tv where i guy did that, and some kids tried breaking into his house or something. and it killed one of them and he ended up going to jail...that would suck balls.

 

[BellBottomBlues]

what did he go to jail for protecting his house?

I can see the newsfeed

Mother: Oh little timmy! That man should be put in jail for killing my baby! He was an angel! A sweet heart! Never did anything wrong!

Reporter: Excuse me ma'am you are aware that your son was killed robbing a house right?

Mom: Oh my poor sweet innocent baby!