This scene looks calm enough. That’s your’s truly, laptop on the table in front of me, Harriet asleep on the chair to my left, a stack of Star-Advertisers waiting to be bundled and dropped off for recycling at Kaaawa School. It’s the view from the new security camera I installed yesterday (it’s an Axis 1031W wireless network camera, the second camera I’ve installed). Now that I’ve got it working, I have to experiment with where to place it. Luckily, it is very portable and easy to move from place to place.
I’m half way to solving the set-up mystery. The cameras are set up to detect motion, like someone entering the room or walking through the house. Each camera then independently begins sending photos to a private site “in the cloud,” as it’s referred to these days, where I can view or retrieve them. The new camera even sends me an email alert–“motion detected on camera #2”, or something like that.
These cameras don’t require a computer, and instead link directly to the internet, which is a nice touch.
There are still some rough edges. Take the motion detection. You don’t want the threshold too low, where bushes moving in the wind outside the window or cats walking past will trigger the cameras. But you don’t want it so high that it misses the appearance of people. I thought I had it set just about right, but apparently normal motion bounces just around that threshold. And each time motion is detected, it sends another alert email. When I did several tests, walking through the room with the camera ready to go, my mailbox quickly filled with dozens of motion alerts. I don’t have a good theory yet for getting that under control, so I’ll just have to put up with it for a while.
I do, however, have a great collection of candid pictures of sleeping cats.
And I haven’t yet figured out how to access the cameras over the internet for a live view when I’m away from the house. It’s a key feature that I’ve never managed to implement. The instructions are way over my head, and from the many pleas for help on various message boards, it’s clear that I’m not alone. There’s something about port mapping, fiddling with my the Apple Airport Extreme that powers our home network, etc.
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Thank you for this post. Please continue reporting on this – I am hoping to find an inexpensive way to use my computer and/or the internet to monitor my home also. We’ve had way too many thefts from our yard.
Interesting and all, but do you think burglars don’t read blogs? Or is this just fair? warning to potential illicit visitors. Sort of like those labels on the door that warn that the place is wired with alarms or whatever.
Well, I don’t think this kind of burglar does any online research into potential places to break into. And, yes, if they do, then it is fair warning.
I like my security alarm that is wired to the jalousie windows and exterior doors of my house.
I just press command 1 and it is on. I do this whenever I leave the house and also before bed time.
Later, I punch in my code and the alarm goes off.
Once, the smoke detector malfunctioned and the alarm center in Washington called the fire truck to our house after they couldn’t contact us. It was a false alarm triggered by a dead gecko inside the smoke detector.
Another time, a man tried to proposition me thru my front door. He was so manacing, I punched command 9 and the alarm blared. The alarm center conacted the cops, who came in 5 minutes and investigated my property. By that time, the guy had fled when he heard the piercing alarm.
$25 per month to the alarm center.
$3,300 for installation.
Money well spent, methinks.
We considered an alarm system. But we decided that it wouldn’t make much sense out here, where police often take a long time to respond to a call.
You sound happy with your service. What company do you use?
Alarm Center, Inc. dba Custom Security Systems.
They are headquartered in Lacy, Washington, but have an office in Hawaii.
Thanks for the info!
How does it work at night? Do the cameras have integrated IR illumination?