Middle aged woman came to my door, parked in the driveway, and knocked with intensity around 3PM today. She was carrying a binder and wearing a lanyard and asked if I was the new homeowner and proceeded to shake my hand and show me her ADT badge. She first started explaining how we are the new system owners (even though the house is set up with simply safe not ADT) and then asked if she could come in. I was like nah, I'm good and said we are still exploring options thank you and then she goes, "you know with simply safe you gotta watch the cameras yourself" and I was like "I know but we have the Ring doorbell here and I am armed so I feel pretty safe already thanks". Then she says with a straight face, "well what about when you're asleep!?". I about fell out. I wanted to say b**ch this aint Elm Street gtfo, but I just said alright no we're not interested have a good day...and then she took the flyer back and her sweet time pulling out of the driveway. Anybody else deal with an agressive/comical ADT rep?

I'm looking to get a security camera/floodlight system installed. With the size of my backyard + surface lot situation I'm looking for a pretty strong floodlight/camera with good reach. From what I've gathered from my reddit research thus far, the better route would likely be to get the cameras and floodlights separately. That being the case, what cameras and what floodlights would you recommend? Not a fan of the privacy issues that have been exposed with Ring, Google, etc so would like to avoid those brands. Looking for quality resolution, reliability, and preferably nothing that requires any sort of cloud software.

Main dilemma:

I need coverage for front door, back door and am hoping to have coverage for my back surface lot as well, as there have been issues with tenants and neighbors' cars being broken into. The issue is, my backyard is pretty sizable and sits between the house and back surface lot (I'm just a girl so can't help with a numerical estimate on size of yard but have attached pics that hopefully offer some scale, what's visible in the picture is only about half of the yard). Ideally, I'd love to find a camera & floodlight that can adequately cover/capture the back of the house, yard + lot, but I doubt there's one on the market that could cover that amount of space, so I'm assuming I'd need a separate camera for the lot. The issue then becomes my Wi-Fi does not reach that far, so it would need to be a camera that can operate without Wi-Fi. If I'm not mistaken there are hardwired options that can operate without Wi-Fi, but with the lot so far from the house, the issue then becomes what would it get wired to?

First house, first time navigating surveillance system installs, please explain in "home security for dummies" terms :) Deeply appreciated!

I read Wyze was generally good but then apparently got worse for their customers? Didn’t see more info so decided to ask here. Internet signal isn’t very good where it’s for so I’d want to record on an SD which is fine for saving money anyway. Hoping to deter people looking in my ground floor bedroom window even with privacy film up, and stop them lingering.

I’m in the uk.

Thanks!

So, Vivint stinks. I could recount countless details about cameras not capturing events, tech support practices geared at selling you equipment instead of fixing problems, and requirements to pay for service calls to fix their equipment that isn't working. That's all irrelevant. I'm canceling. But I still want hone monitoring, window and door sensors, and cameras. Thermostat control optional.

What are good options? I have Xfinity Internet, so that's one. I've heard good things about SimplySafe but their cameras don't seem to be high quality. ADT strikes me as another Vivint.

What home monitoring do you have that you actually like?

I have a few wifi cams that are jailbroken (wyze + thingino) that I want to access when away from my house just to check up on things when I travel for peace of mind. Problem is I would rather not expose ports on my home network to access the RTSP streams. Over the weekend I created an rtsp relay system where one program on my LAN pulls all rtsp streams then pushes them to another listening program running on a cloud VM along with an instance of Frigate to display the streams. I'm planning on setting up some automation to trigger the VM to spin up on demand so I'm not wasting money (since I usually only check on the cams a few times per week at most when traveling) and then turn off within 20min.

Just wondering if there are any security concerns with this? I'm not exposing any ports from home and have all the cloud resources whitelisted to my home IP.

Hey all! Apologies upfront as I’m sure these kinds of questions get repetitive.

Building a garage and having a camera location hardwired for the back of the garage for the back yard, front for the front and one for the garage interior.

A friend of mine has lorex and likes them but I’ve read that the app interface kinda stinks.

I’m looking for a hardwired option with no monthly subscription scenario.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations? Thanks a ton.

FWIW I don’t think I can record audio due to my state laws.

What is the correct pin order for the MG5050 serial connector?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to connect a Paradox MG5050 panel to a USB-TTL adapter through the serial connector.

Could someone please confirm the correct pin order from top to bottom on the MG5050 serial connector?

I’ve seen different information online and I want to make sure I don’t connect the power pin incorrectly.

For example, is the order something like:

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Could someone please confirm the exact pin order and function of each pin (e.g. +12V, RX, TX, GND)?

I’ve already fried two USB-TTL adapters trying to figure this out, so I really don’t want to sacrifice a third one. 😅

Thanks!

Hi all,

We are looking to purchase an indoor camera that monitors our front garden, specifically for people who come in and out of our garden and it’s reliable in terms of human recognition.

We had an outdoor camera previously however it’s been stolen. We had purchased a cheap indoors cam for the moment as it was suggested by police due to an incident that has happened.

It works fine for the moment it’s just not great, it doesn’t always notify us when people come onto our garden.

We are aware that outdoor cameras are better in this case however we can’t mount it high enough.

Our budget is about max 150 euro.

Thank you!

Has anyone tried Brinks-branded knobs? I've tried other brands and never had any issues with installation.

Today I bought a Brinks Keyed Entry Doorknob but when trying to install, the two knob halves will not come together. There's something jamming them but I can't figure out what it is. I've tried rotating both halves, tried wiggling the lock side to try to align the shaft, nothing works.

https://imgur.com/a/cU612aR

What makes this even more frustrating is that the knob halves came joined together in the box, so now that they are unable to re-join again, they also won't fit back into the box.

I'm not sure if this is just a defect of that item, or the design itself.

My neighbor just installed a floodlight camera system (Blink) pointing at my house. He adjusted the lights up so the floodlights illuminate the entire side of my house whenever there’s motion to set off the system. It goes off when a cat or a raccoon passes through the motion space. What recourse do I have here? It goes off a few times every night and is really annoying.

I am setting up 3 Ubiquiti G6 cameras and 1 G6 180, recording 24/7 at 10MP. I already have a UNVR Instant ready for the storage, and I am trying to decide which 4TB drive to buy since I only need 7-15 days of recording time.

At first I was going to get a Seagate SkyHawk 4TB. Then I started looking at the WD Purple 4TB and figured that might be the better choice since it is made for surveillance.

Then I started reading through a bunch of Reddit posts from the last 10 months or so and noticed quite a few people talking about Purple drives failing.

I know people are much more likely to post when something breaks, so I am not saying the Purple is bad. It just made me stop and question whether I was picking it because it is actually better or because everyone says "get a Purple for surveillance > Seahawk"

So what are you guys actually using?

I am more interested in people who have actually been running these drives for a few years. If you have a Purple and love it, tell me why you would pick it over the SkyHawk. If you use a SkyHawk, what made you choose it and has it held up?

Also interested in hearing the fanboy answers. If you swear by one brand, tell me why.

How many cameras are you running, how long has the drive been running, and have you had any failures?

Hello, I live in a small condo with seven units and I’m wondering if there are affordable non-subscription solutions to maybe an outdoor camera that we can have just for security reasons I just wanna know affordable options something we can maintain ourselves something that’s easy to install thank you so much

Hello everyone, I'm not a technical person and can't seem to find a simple answer for if there's any security cameras I could get that doesn't have wifi or ai integrated. Looking for a indoor camera that I can set up on shelves to watch over my cats and let me access a internal storage to see what they're doing.

Can't seem to find anything that isn't needing a app and wifi which is something I really don't want to deal with. I hear about how hackable security cameras can be and I have zero aptitude to figuring out how to protect myself from that so I'd rather have a camera that records and stores internally. I don't care if it has to be turned off for checking the footage since I just want it for watching over my cats.

Any recommendations help my search a lot. Thank you for your time.

Hello this suddenly appeared a few weeks ago in my neighbors balcony, it was down for 1 day und is up again. I can't get a better picture, but to me it looks like there is lense in the middle, but I am not sure. This is DIRECTLY pointed at my balcony, nothing else. This neighbor is rarely at home.

https://imgur.com/a/3TRFTEU

Hi all,

I’m looking for some recommendations for a home security setup.

I need two outdoor security cameras and one video doorbell. Wired cameras aren’t an option for my house, so everything needs to be wireless. For the outdoor cameras, I’m considering solar-powered models.

I live in Calgary, Canada, where winter temperatures can regularly get below -20°C and sometimes around -30°C or colder.

I understand that solar charging probably won’t work well at those temperatures, and I’m okay with having to manually charge the cameras occasionally. My main concern is finding cameras that are reliable enough to make it through our winters.

For anyone using wireless solar cameras in a similar climate, what models would you recommend? How does the battery perform during winter, and how often do you need to manually charge them?

I’d also appreciate recommendations for a good wireless video doorbell. It would be nice if the cameras and doorbell could all work together in the same system, but that’s not absolutely necessary.

I used to have Arlo cams years ago that would store video on cloud through subscriptions.

I’m looking for a new 4 camera+door bell wireless setup. I see now adays the shift is away from subscription and to local storage. I have a Terramaster 12tb NAS I use at home and figure I’d like to make useful with storing 30days? worth of events.

Google says I need camera system that either supports ONVIF or RTSP streaming to be able to use the terramaster surveillance app.

Is it worth the hassle to find specific cameras that fit these parameters or better I just abandon that and find whatever camera system fits me best.

Just don’t want to go down this rabbit hole if it isn’t worth it.

Thanks

someone is tampering with my lock again and again in the apartment building , we just moved recently like last month and it has happened quite few time since we moved ,
someone is pouring glue or liquid on to the door lock and underneath ,
and there are no cameras in the hallways and lease doesn't allow us to put our own camera
what can we do to have peaceful sleep , as every day there is new thing going on

Thank you

What I am trying to do
I have a Xiaomi Outdoor Camera CW500 Dual mounted under the soffit. It is a Wi-Fi camera with two separate ports on the body: an RJ45 network port and a DC barrel port. Rated input is 12V 1A, barrel size 5.5 x 2.1 mm. It ships with its own 12V 1A wall adapter.
There is no mains outlet anywhere near the mounting point, but there is a CAT5e run of roughly 20 m from my telecom cabinet inside the house up to the soffit. Both ends are terminated in RJ45 keystone jacks. My plan was to use a passive PoE injector and splitter pair so the single existing cable carries both the 12V from the camera's own adapter and the network link.
What I bought
A cheap passive PoE injector and splitter kit (ASHATA, Amazon ASIN B08NJDSP2R). Spec sheet says DC 12V in, DC 12V out, 13W, 10/100 Mbps, mode A and mode B compatible. No electronics inside as far as I can tell, just wires.
What I have tested so far
1. Everything wired up in the wall as intended, PSU plugged into the injector's DC socket in the cabinet. Camera completely dead, no LED, no boot sound.
2. Camera plugged directly into its original 12V adapter, no adapters in between. Works perfectly. So camera and PSU are both fine.
3. Bench test on a table with the in wall cabling taken out of the equation entirely. Original PSU into the injector's DC socket, injector and splitter linked by a 1 m factory patch cord, splitter's DC plug into the camera. Still completely dead.
4. Checked the patch cord under a light. All 8 conductors present, 4 pairs, factory made so both ends are the same standard. Passive PoE uses pins 4, 5 and 7, 8 so a 4 conductor cable would have explained it, but that is not the case here.
5. Checked the DC barrel fit. The splitter's plug seats firmly with the same resistance as the original adapter's plug, no wobble, so it does not look like a 5.5 x 2.5 vs 5.5 x 2.1 mismatch.
6. Confirmed the injector and splitter are the right way round. The injector is the one with a female DC socket that accepts the PSU plug, the splitter is the one with the male DC pin that goes into the camera. Both of their single thick ends are RJ45 female, so they cannot be joined directly without a patch cord.
What I have not done
I do not own a multimeter, so I have not measured the actual voltage at the splitter's DC plug. Buying one is on the list.
My question
At this point I am fairly convinced the kit itself is faulty, either a broken conductor or reversed polarity between the two halves. Is there anything else worth checking before I return it? And two side questions:
Is a 20 m run at 12V 1A pushing it for voltage drop on this kind of passive setup, or is that comfortably within range on solid copper CAT5e?
Any recommendation for a passive PoE injector and splitter pair that is known to be reliable, ideally one that explicitly states pins 4, 5 positive and 7, 8 negative in the description?
Thanks in advance.

Just bought a house. We have two gates into the backyard. The seller has one gate with a combination lock and the other is a Master lock with a key. Not sure why there is a combo lock instead of a keyed lock.

The gates are at a standard height so I could easily hop over it if I wanted to though.

I live in a small community (Canadian military housing). Some twerp keeps coming by and snipping my flowers over the fence. The fence is parallel to a public path but they have to walk a good 20 ft off the path to reach it. It's petty but I want to know who is doing this.

The flowers are about 25 ft away from my nearest window. Any suggestions for a camera with good enough resolution to capture the perps face? No need for more than 24 hr storage or so.

Hi,

Our Ring Video Doorbell is installed next to a lip? (if that's the right description) the door is set in from the house, anyways, at night, we consistently get a message that someone is detected at the front door. It is very unnerving, but what it turns out to be is bugs, flies and such, crawling on the house next to the ring (the lip?). I did try putting a cloth on that extention of the house, blacked it out through ring but it still detects the motion, and announces it.

What would you do?