Home Security/Automation

[therealmjl]

Good morning folks.

Have been recently researching home security solutions and am not sure what to go with. There are several options out there and it can be overwhelming. Don’t really want to sign a contract, and want some sort of smarthome automation to be included...does anyone have any input on security systems? Any good experiences? Has anyone put together their own? 

Also, in before

“herp derp my security system is my 12 gauge and muh Rottweiler!1!1!!”

Go!!!

[d-dave]

There are pros and cons to all of them.  To me it boils down to two approaches:

1. DIY with Nest, SimpliSafe, etc.  This costs a lot more up front, and you are your tech support, and you still pay a monthly monitoring fee.  But you save over the long term, own your stuff (can move with you), and you can make it as custom as you want.

2.  Going with a "big company."  This costs you less upfront, but more long term.  They do all the leg work and install, they monitor, they support your gear, and they basically take care of the whole thing.  The main issue is that you're paying a pretty penny.  I have CPI.  I've been pretty satisfied with it.  The costs aren't too horrible considering they will replace stuff that breaks, and the app has been rock solid since 2015.  

If I were doing it again, I would probably go DIY.  I would like some more things on my own terms and control than CPIs.  I'd just have to make sure they all played nice with each other.  Then again, I'm not too upset with CPI's product.  Except whenever I want to add an item, I have to buy it out right, and they are charging like $300 for a camera and stuff...

[Scrumtrilescent]

I have CPI for alarm only, once the smart door lock and doorbell camera were on my home network, I then moved control of them to my personal home automation environment.  The rest of my automation is DIY.  IFTTT and Alexa can integrate into CPI/alarm.com's control of the alarm to completely integrate them all.

[dave-o]

Put a sign out front...

[Happy Panther]

Good question.

We installed ring this year and it's relatively cheap and pretty cool for your front door. Video goes to your iPad. Sucks when your wife gets 4 packages from Amazon daily. 

Got ADT but haven't done the upgraded packages.

Got a dog but no guns. He will bark at you until you pet him.

If you come in my house and hesitate shooting me you will get hit with something 12 inches and really hard.

I gave all my signs to my uncle in OBX as dave-o suggests.

 

[therealmjl]

Thanks for the responses. At this point I’m leaning towards a barebones solution—

definitely smart doorbell with some IFTTT automation in place if someone comes into the vicinity...possibly a base level monitoring with a company such as CPI or ADT...and of course if nothing else sign off eBay for about $10 bucks lol.

there are just several ways to go about it and reading about how you want to create the element of second guessing breaking in rather than trying to catch the intruder once they’re in (BC at that point it’s too late anyway). 

There are loads of posts on reddit for this stuff if anyone else is interested as well

[Happy Panther]

I am literally getting ADT home expansion kits ads now.

But to @mjligon I would also ask what the crime is like in your neighborhood...

[SmokinwithWilly]

I'm doing simplisafe because it's DIY and saving $35 a month is going to add up really fast. Less than a year and I've paid for everything I bought. 

[uncfan888]

I have a shotgun and a Rottweiler