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    Z-wave House Monitoring Project - Remote Location

    Z-wave House Monitoring Project

    Need: keep track of my second home several states away.

    Time:
    • Needed to get this up and running very quickly
    • If there is a problem, I should be able to fix it fairly quickly since, on my short visits there

    Evolving Project: There will be a need to change things, as I discover potential weak spots or discover other problems when I'm away from this home. So the ability to adapt and quickly implement solution on a short visit will be paramount.


    Control: Complete control of my remote system.



    Simplicity: Keep it simple. While z-wave isn't exactly simple, my brain has learned to deal with its nuances.



    So I this is a project in the works.

    I thought I'd start a thread and add to it as I work on it. This way it won't become a huge task of documenting it in the end.




    Current plan:
    Software: HS3


    Communication Hardware: DSL with GSM Failover.
    TP-LINK TL-MR3420 - Wireless N300 3G/4G Router
    2.4Ghz 300Mbps







    Power Failure: APC 1500VA





    RF Technology: Z-wave


    Devices:
    Doors - 6 Schlage Door Locks (Access and to Arm/Disarm Virtual Security)

    Eversprings Door Sensors (open/close)


    Gate and Entrance Area - Everspring Door Sensor with Seco-Larm SM-226L-Q Mount Magnetic Contact. See Post # 6 below


    Dock/Boat lift - Everspring Door Sensor with Seco-Larm SM-226L-Q Mount Magnetic Contact.
    - Or Bosch Motion Sensor with Z-wave door sensor.

    Motion Sensors - For large areas with lots of windows & high traffic areas
    - Eco-link & HSM100

    Glass Break Sensor - For large areas with lots of windows
    - Utilitech glass break sensor

    Garage Door - Linear GD00Z-4

    Water Heater - Turns off when no one is there.
    -Aeon Labs Heavy Duty Switch

    Water Valve- Turn off when no one is there.
    - Leak Gopher Valve

    Water Leak Sensors - Bathrooms, Laundry area, Kitchen, Refrigerator
    -Utilitech Water Sensor

    Smoke/CO Detectors - Zcombo units in all living spaces, bedrooms, and garage.

    Siren - Everspring Siren with option of being powered off wall wart.

    Plugins/Scripts:
    MrHappy's(Adams) Pushover Plugin - very fast, faster then email.

    Sparkman's(Al) Lock Script - Notifies you via push of all users codes entered, tamper attempts, etc. Also keeps a log in user codes entered for each lock.

    Sparkman's(Al) Zcombo Script - Notifies you via push of all alarm alerts( smoke, co, tamper attempts, testing), maintains log of Alarm Heartbeat. Script Also turn on your z-wave siren.

    BLSecurity - this I'm still learning about. Seem very powerful. Has Virtual Alarm Keypad. Arm/Disarm/Sleep/Perimeter modes. Ability to create zones, Spoken Alerts, etc

    I'll expand on each as I work through them.
    Last edited by TomTom; January 9, 2016, 04:47 AM.
    Tom
    baby steps...starting again with HS3
    HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
    HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
    Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
    In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
    System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

    #2
    Are you going to have lots of cameras as you do now? When I was monitoring our weekend farm, before I retired, I really needed to "see" what was going on when I got an alarm. I was only an hour away but it wasn't always possible to get away from work. This was way before IP cams and I had to work to get enough cameras to cover the areas I wanted to monitor. But the more data you can collect, the better, especially being so far away.

    Don't know if it is feasible, but would consider a small auto switch standby generator if you expect power outages. Back in the day, I spent as much time worrying about remote control of the hardware/software as I did the devices. A lot has changed since then. Since I was almost totally X-10, I could have a standby box with duplicate interfaces that I could switch to remotely if needed. I used the old X-10 phone interface to reboot or fire up the second box if I lost communications. Don't know how I would do that now, with Z-wave.

    In any case I'm looking forward to hearing about your project.
    Barry

    Comment


      #3
      Two Locations via a Z-Net?

      Just interested in how others are managing two locations with a Z-Net... I've had two Homeseer systems for well over 14 years, controlling my main home and my lake house. The issue I'm now looking at is controlling both via the Amazon Echo and IFTTT channels (using MyHS). I have a MyHS Premium subscription so direct web access is no problem, but individual control via Echo and IFTTT isn't supported (as far as I know).

      Question... If I replace my HS system in my lake house with a Z-Net do those devices allow enough definition under HS to allow separate control? Location, Room, Device Name?? Are you able to delineate where the devices are located to control via IFTTT or Echo?

      Thanks!

      John

      Comment


        #4
        doing something simalar , i use a z-net unit from homeseer, been working just great for over 6 months now.
        detail of setup in profile. Link to videos of my projects there as well. Over 300 scripts running every min and counting

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by lhfarm View Post
          Are you going to have lots of cameras as you do now? When I was monitoring our weekend farm, before I retired, I really needed to "see" what was going on when I got an alarm. I was only an hour away but it wasn't always possible to get away from work. This was way before IP cams and I had to work to get enough cameras to cover the areas I wanted to monitor. But the more data you can collect, the better, especially being so far away.
          Thanks for the input. I'm putting cams up ,10-12, but based on what you said I'm putting some up in "critical areas" so I can get a visual when needed.
          One of them is the roof: We have lots of TALL trees on the property and so during a storm a small to medium sized branch could ding the roof. So to watch for this I've got a a cam setup 30 feet up in a tree, giving me good aerial coverage of the roof. Call me paranoid


          Originally posted by johnoc View Post
          Question... If I replace my HS system in my lake house with a Z-Net do those devices allow enough definition under HS to allow separate control? Location, Room, Device Name?? Are you able to delineate where the devices are located to control via IFTTT or Echo?
          Sorry for the delay in a reply. I'm scrambling to get things set up, since I won't be back for a few months at this house. I thought about doing two separate z-nets for two different locations, but some of the issues I had read about prevented me from doing this. One is that if the power goes out at the remote z-net location or if there is a problem with z-net connecting back to the the HS system, the HS systems keeps trying to connect the the remote z-net, and I think you get a back log of z-wave errors? If I was 1-4 hours away(driving), I would think about a second z-net. Being many states away, I need to have full control of the house and the ability to fix things remotely, do a complete restore, etc, if things go crazy bad. So two full HS3 systems was the way to go for me. Also if you're using a z-net only for your second home should have full control of your remote home through IFTTT/Echo.
          Last edited by TomTom; January 9, 2016, 04:00 AM.
          Tom
          baby steps...starting again with HS3
          HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
          HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
          Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
          In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
          System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

          Comment


            #6
            Z-wave House Monitoring Project - Remote Location

            Gate

            So the gate is the main point of entry along a very long driveway. Concrete walls up front with rest of the property has fence. The other side of the property is a large river, so no one is coming in that way.

            Motor: Gate Opener is connected to a Dry Contact Z-wave switch. Which simulates a push button opening/closing of the gate.


            Sensor : Seco-Larm SM-226L-Q Mount Magnetic Contact
            The walkin gate, and the drive way gate both have these magnet contact switches. These are connected to an gen 1 Everspring Z-wave Door Sensor. These are about 230ft from the z-net, but the notification time is very fast. For the driveway gate(2 arms) the sensor is located one arm and the magnet on the other arm. These sensor and magnet can be as far apart as 2 3/4 inches so this will take into account heavy winds that could move the gate arms apart.


            Motion Sensor:
            Bosch BDL2-WP12G connected to Z-wave Door Sensor.



            Monitoring:
            3 cameras monitoring gate entrance area, road, and sides. Some of these cameras are 25 up in a tree providing good aerial coverage. Running cable to these locations where the most daunting and labor intensive. The cable runs, cat 6, where about 250-300ft. Due to the fear of voltage drop, I installed a separate power supply at the end of the runs so power source would be close. I'm using 24volts and with gauge wire I'm using I could have powered these cams from the wiring closet(beginning of the run), but just wanted to extra cautious and future proof the setup.

            IR Lighting: For extra nighttime viewing with the cams, I installed extra IR lights. These are also about 25 feet up, pointing down. Ebay items.
            Last edited by TomTom; January 9, 2016, 05:13 AM.
            Tom
            baby steps...starting again with HS3
            HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
            HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
            Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
            In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
            System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by TomTom View Post
              Thanks for the input. I'm putting cams up ,10-12, but based on what you said I'm putting some up in "critical areas" so I can get a visual when needed.
              One of them is the roof: We have lots of TALL trees on the property and so during a storm a small to medium sized branch could ding the roof. So to watch for this I've got a a cam setup 30 feet up in a tree, giving me good aerial coverage of the roof. Call me paranoid
              Not paranoid to be a good home owner. I came to think of HS as my "farm hand", doing chores and generally keeping an eye one the place when I wasn't around. Back in the dial-up modem and no auto-switch backup generator days, I had HS email me the log from the previous 24 hours every morning at 6AM. It was my "heartbeat" test, but more importantly a bit of a security blanket too.

              I was even able to manage some improvement projects with the aid of the cameras. I remember how shocked the guy working on my driveway was when I called his cell phone and told him I was watching him from work. Later, when I showed him the video from the cameras, he was amazed and I think a little intimidated. That wasn't my intention, but I don't think it hurt to let him know that I was "around" even when I wasn't there. I'm still using the cameras for that today. Last year, needed a roof replacement and the contractor needed to do the job while we were on vacation. I agreed, but told him that I would be monitoring the job with my cameras. He was fine with that and his crew would occasionally wave at one of the cameras.

              So, I don't think you are paranoid, I think you are smart.

              Comment


                #8
                IR Lighting: For extra nighttime viewing with the cams, I installed extra IR lights. These are also about 25 feet up, pointing down. Ebay items.
                FYI Tom, I installed extra ebay IR lights around my remote house and over a period of 5 years I had 2 of the IR lights become unstable, meaning that they flashed on and off at irregular intervals. This of course drove my cam monitoring software crazy and it triggered for every flash. Since then I powered the IR lights individually via ZW Appliance Modules so if they go unstable again I can remotely switch them off until I can get there to replace them.
                All Z-Wave, #101 devices, HomeTroller Series2, HomeSeer2 v.2.5.0.81, & 1x Z-Troller

                Comment

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