Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how a security guard can be
notified when sensor lights turn on? The lights may be up to a mile
away so he can't necessarily see when they turn on.
The guard will be walking around, so there will have to be
notification via radio or cellphone or pager etc.
Ideally it would be helpful for him to know which lights went on.
When notified, he can go somewhere to look at a screen. Or he could
have a laptop computer using WiFi that can show whatever he needs to
see.
I was thinking that each sensor light could have a signal wire from
the supply to the bulb or from the relay, to a central point.
Complications are that he may set off sensor lights as he is walking
around, and cats etc may set them off. So, lots of false negatives
which he must be able to discount.

"Matty F" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how a security guard can be
notified when sensor lights turn on? The lights may be up to a mile
away so he can't necessarily see when they turn on.
The guard will be walking around, so there will have to be
notification via radio or cellphone or pager etc.
Ideally it would be helpful for him to know which lights went on.
When notified, he can go somewhere to look at a screen. Or he could
have a laptop computer using WiFi that can show whatever he needs to
see.
I was thinking that each sensor light could have a signal wire from
the supply to the bulb or from the relay, to a central point.
Complications are that he may set off sensor lights as he is walking
around, and cats etc may set them off. So, lots of false negatives
which he must be able to discount.

There are probably off-the-shelf solutions for this, but they are probably
expensive. If you want to avoid false alarms de-sensitizing the costly
security guard, it might be worth spending money on these.

When I wanted to do something similar, I took the DIY approach of using IQ
PIR-controlled lights, which send a radio signal to a nearby ( 100 metres)
receiver when activated. It's fairly straightforward to interface the
receiver to the serial port of a PC which can send emails to the security
guard. Screwfix have stopped selling them, but these look similar:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...ems/index.html

Another cheap DIY approach might be to install a CurrentCost power monitor
on the incoming supply to the monitored building. These can be interfaced to
a PC's serial port, and some software could be written so that when the
consumption jumps by a suitable increment (150W, 500W ?) for more than a few
samples, an email is sent.

On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:28:47 -0700 (PDT), Matty F wrote:
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how a security guard can be
notified when sensor lights turn on? The lights may be up to a mile
away so he can't necessarily see when they turn on.
The guard will be walking around, so there will have to be
notification via radio or cellphone or pager etc.
Ideally it would be helpful for him to know which lights went on.
When notified, he can go somewhere to look at a screen. Or he could
have a laptop computer using WiFi that can show whatever he needs to
see.
I was thinking that each sensor light could have a signal wire from
the supply to the bulb or from the relay, to a central point.
Complications are that he may set off sensor lights as he is walking
around, and cats etc may set them off. So, lots of false negatives
which he must be able to discount.

IFACK there is no inexpensive way to do this. Depending on the
value of assets the guard is guarding it might make more sense
to have him NOT patrol, and monitor the sensors remotely wit CCTV.

If he really, really must patrol and receive notifications while
out and be able to distinguish false positives from actual alerts
then I'd suggest some sort of golf-cart type buggy with the tech.
(wirelesssly connected laptop) installed in that, as carrying
something like that which was ruggedished and weatherproof would
be expensive, unreliable, easy to "forget" and inconvenient.
(Plus you'd need to have another one on the shelf as a spare.)

A cheaper option might be to get a guard dog.


--
http://www.thisreallyismyhost.99k.or...0574722078.php

On 21/09/2010 16:34, pete wrote:
On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:28:47 -0700 (PDT), Matty F wrote:
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how a security guard can be
notified when sensor lights turn on? The lights may be up to a mile
away so he can't necessarily see when they turn on.
The guard will be walking around, so there will have to be
notification via radio or cellphone or pager etc.
Ideally it would be helpful for him to know which lights went on.
When notified, he can go somewhere to look at a screen. Or he could
have a laptop computer using WiFi that can show whatever he needs to
see.
I was thinking that each sensor light could have a signal wire from
the supply to the bulb or from the relay, to a central point.
Complications are that he may set off sensor lights as he is walking
around, and cats etc may set them off. So, lots of false negatives
which he must be able to discount.

IFACK there is no inexpensive way to do this. Depending on the
value of assets the guard is guarding it might make more sense
to have him NOT patrol, and monitor the sensors remotely wit CCTV.

If he really, really must patrol and receive notifications while
out and be able to distinguish false positives from actual alerts
then I'd suggest some sort of golf-cart type buggy with the tech.
(wirelesssly connected laptop) installed in that, as carrying
something like that which was ruggedished and weatherproof would
be expensive, unreliable, easy to "forget" and inconvenient.
(Plus you'd need to have another one on the shelf as a spare.)

A cheaper option might be to get a guard dog.

and train it to bark at unexpected lights.

Colin Bignell

On Sep 22, 3:34 am, pete wrote:

IFACK there is no inexpensive way to do this. Depending on the
value of assets the guard is guarding it might make more sense
to have him NOT patrol, and monitor the sensors remotely wit CCTV.

If he really, really must patrol and receive notifications while
out and be able to distinguish false positives from actual alerts
then I'd suggest some sort of golf-cart type buggy with the tech.
(wirelesssly connected laptop) installed in that, as carrying
something like that which was ruggedished and weatherproof would
be expensive, unreliable, easy to "forget" and inconvenient.
(Plus you'd need to have another one on the shelf as a spare.)

A cheaper option might be to get a guard dog.

There's an intrusion about once a month, so I think the guard gets
bored waiting for somthing to happen.

Yes I think he'd be best to monitor the CCTV. I monitor a much smaller
site and I don't wander around at night. But then I can see all the
sensor lights. I also have microphones which detect the sound of
footsteps. Actually that might be a good solution, to just broadcast
the sounds from a bunch of microphones to the guard. And the sensor
lights could go "ding ding"!

In message
,
Matty F writes
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how a security guard can be
notified when sensor lights turn on? The lights may be up to a mile
away so he can't necessarily see when they turn on.
The guard will be walking around, so there will have to be
notification via radio or cellphone or pager etc.
Ideally it would be helpful for him to know which lights went on.
When notified, he can go somewhere to look at a screen. Or he could
have a laptop computer using WiFi that can show whatever he needs to
see.
I was thinking that each sensor light could have a signal wire from
the supply to the bulb or from the relay, to a central point.
Complications are that he may set off sensor lights as he is walking
around, and cats etc may set them off. So, lots of false negatives
which he must be able to discount.


Not cheap but how about a radio transmitter at each location, connected
via your relay, each one transmits an individual code which is then
received on a portable carried by the guard.

I've put in a number of similar systems, some transmitting pre-recorded
speech idents. You can also use the guards radio to turn lights /
sounders on/off etc.



Off the shelf paging systems are available from Scope.

http://www.scope-uk.com/

Zetron produce voice announcers but these would require radio
transmitters interfacing to them.

http://www.zetron.co.uk/data/site/templates/splash.asp

http://www.zetron.co.uk/data/site/te....asp?area_0=pa
ges/menus/remotemonitoringprod&area_1=pages/products/monitoring/m1516




--
Bill

On Sep 22, 10:53 am, Owain wrote:

Some IP CCTV cameras have alarm inputs which can trigger recording
events.

Yes those are installed already.

A thermal CCTV camera can be very effective at detecting human sized
intruders in complete darkness

Lots of sensor lights do the job very cheaply, and scare off the
intruders.

what is the point of alerting the guard if he is lying unconscious
somewhere?

The buildings have monitored alarms. But the intruders can be in and
out very quickly even though they set off the alarms. I'm trying to
alert the guard as soon as the intuders climb over or cut the fence.