Burglar alarm

I am building a garage which is remote from the house and mains electricity / telephone etc. I am devising a simple alarm system built around an old smart phone and a mains failure app (free of course).
In essence, it will be a car battery topped up by a solar panel (also used for minimal 12volt LED lighting) which tops up the phone via the 12volt cigarette lighter charger for the phone. When the phone charger circuit is broken, the smart phone will send me an SMS message - at the same time, a normally open solid state relay will close and sound an alarm etc.

A side benefit is that the Solar panel controller has a couple of USB sockets on it and that there will always be phone contact in case its time for coffee at the house. If the battery goes flat, at least I should get the SMS.
BobH

Good idea, make sure that you audible alarm complies with the regulations regarding length of time sounding etc. You don't want the council noise snoopers spoiling your day.

Your specification bears some similarity to the wonderful inventions of Heath Robinson, seriously though if it works it’s got to be good.

Dave W

I bought a caravan alarm for my old lockup. Worked from a 12 volt battery and with its own sim card it could be switched on/off with its keyfob remote or by text message. If activated it could text 3 different numbers and phone the main number (so that you could hear the burglars at work!). It would also inform you of which circuit had tripped. It could also activate a relay to switch on lights and/or a camera, All for £130

Martin

I do not see any mention of remote disarming if there is a repeat false alarm and you are miles from home etc?

That might be a consideration.

Edited By V8Eng on 13/03/2018 18:10:47

Edited By V8Eng on 13/03/2018 18:11:49

I don't think it will be a problem as the alarm has its own cutoff after a predetermined time.

Would also make an interesting arduino project !

As security, additional the 5 or 6 lever lock / hefty padlock, may I advocate fitting hinge bolts?

If the hinge pins are externally accessible, driving out the pins would allow the door to be lifted away from the striking plate. With hinge pins, this is much less of a possibility.

My door is a recycled fire door with a 6 lever mortice lock, but the hinge pins are just visible, externally. So anyone feeling strong could obtain entry in this way.

I made my hinge bolts by turning the heads off No12 woodscrews. The screws were screwed into the wooden door, using a drill chuck. The door was then partly closed so that the pins marked the door frame. Holes were than drilled on these marks, to act as sockets for the pins.

If you have windows, cover them, internally when not in the shop. If the lowlife cannot see what there is to steal / vandalise, they will look elsewhere, certainly if entry is going to be difficult.

Howard

Sadly my experience with such devices..a hugely sophisticated multi-bell & light alarm system, cctv etc was that the neighbours ignored it, the criminals just rammed through the door wearing hoodies and gloves and caused more damage than they got in usable goods. They were gone inside 5 mins. Plod just issues a crime number and asks if you know who did it.

A bucket of dye above the door would be better since we're not allowed to wire in really effective tomb rader type traps.....

When I first started reading ME, I think some time back in the 1960s, there was a letter from a chap who got totally fed up with break-ins at his workshop, which was in a rural location. His answer was to buy a redundant electric factory hooter, and wire it to an alarm system so that most of the sound was directed inside the building. I seem to remember that the first low-life to break in ran straight through a glass window in his hurry to get out, and the second was led out, a gibbering wreck. After that, word got around and the break-ins ceased. Pity you couldn't get away with such a trick these days!

Edited By Mike on 16/03/2018 17:54:43

Why not?

Mick

Wouldn't you be better off with a couple of webcams covering the entrances and access road? More likely to be deterred if it's clear you are being recorded. These modern cameras store the video and stills on the cloud and can also send texts (movement detection etc) and allow you to view the feed etc. If you have mobile coverage as you say, the cost of data is peanuts. Loads of people make them nowadays, a sort of fusion of connected / smart home appliances and intruder alarms. Bells and lights won't stop them but you might either deter or identify them - or at least filter out the real lowlife vandals who do most damage.

Murray

These are very effective! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D_3nAfmcqY The other deterrent to use MIG wire stretched across the workshop just above ankle height.

My garage/ workshop conversion is attached to my bungalow & after being burgled back in 2014 I have installed a separate alarm system that has PIR motion detector plus magnetic contacts on the entry door, the advantage of this system is that when the alarm goes off ( tested ) it gives out a very loud 'wow wow' within the garage itself, way above the decibel level that the human ear can tolerate, plus extra lateral bolts in the roll up door very similar to Mike's posting,... fingers x'd, so far, so good.

​George

I have 4 night & day cctv cameras that cover our yard and out buildings barn & workshop,but if they want to be in they will, you can only do your best to protect things,I got turned over a few yrs ago & lost a couple of thousand pounds worth of equipment[pre camera days] the theiving scrap men they probably got £30 for the lot also got a couple of burglar alarms too, cops gave me a crime number and asked if I wanted "counselling" hmm.

Got one of these wired up to the alarm internal sounder **LINK**

Luvly

Regards

Lofty

My youngest son has trouble getting up in the morning, I decided to wake him up with an industrial Yodel alarm, it did wake key him up but he yanked the supply out of the alarm(24V) 120dB may be a bit excessive in your bedroom.

Mike

A friend of mine was recanting a tale about one of his biking friends.

Apparently their shed alarm went off, triggering a text to his mobile and the arming of the web cams and recorder.

A couple of local scrotes in the shed got something of a surprise, when householder started shouting something about armed response, and chucked a thunderflash in their general direction.

There was further damage as well as the shed though, since one of them ran clean though a larchlap fence panel in an effort to escape.

All caught on video, and reckoned to be most amusing to watch.

Until I wired it up to the house alarm, my garden workshop housed a 10" fire alarm sounder inside the shed, which made a bit of a din.

Edited By peak4 on 17/03/2018 00:18:54

With reference to the hinge pins that Howard mentioned, another way to thwart the removal of the hinge pins, or indeed the hinges themselves, my shed has three hinges, and in line with each is a stout plate that overlaps the doorframe when the door is closed so that the door will not come out of the frame.

Some more ideas on security on this website.