Ambitious Video Security System

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 05:53 AM

The system is meant to be standalone when away from my house and remote controlled when parked out front.

Some ideas:

1. I am looking at going with the boost mobile phone for internet in the car. It would be neat to somehow interface this with my system to call me, the police, or both on 3-way (of course, calling me first.) Perhaps also providing a description and the location of the car (I am less worried about someone stealing the CAR, but it would 1000% times worse than just stealing my system if it happened.)

2. The dome camera in the car ceiling is probably overkill. It most came about because I had the fourth video channel and wanted to use it. Though it would come in handy if the thief entered through the passenger side, or as it was in my case before, there is more than one thief in the vehicle.

3. I am still up in the air what to do with the second audio channel on the wireless sender. I really like the idea of using it to relay the alarm, decoding that tone, etc.. Or I could actually use it as a modem and send data modulated to audio and then demodulated on the receiver side. This could make everything much more intelligent.

4. Continuing with above. I initially plan to just use the IR remote features of the devices as is and just locate them so that the IR extender in the video sender can control them. However, I could just as easily send serial data over this for more advanced control. With this and the audio channel, I would have a bidirectional serial connection with the system.

5. The in-car computer I have has a CD burner. I am planning to connect the USB from the DVR up to a switch that I can activate to copy the videos off the DVR. If the computer is still in the car (hopefully) I can then just burn a CD of the video for the police. I could also use the internet phone thing to act (temporarily) as server to get the video. The USB would of course also allow me to perform file management on the DVR without having to remove it. And finally, it could (and will) be used as a backup HDD. The reason it needs to be on a switch, though is because USB mode turns off the DVR function.

6. Given the above, I may work out a way to make the DVR removeable (hard) or at least the drive (easy) and having that face the easiest to get to location of the difficult to get to location. At least then I would not need to remove the whole system and open it all up to get to the DVR.

7. I may also feed the video from the cameras (either all four or just the final stream) into the car computer for some unforseen reason or project. A 4 channel USB video capture device is around $65. Cheap enough for 'just because I can.'

In the end, I have insurance for my system, car, and any vandalism that may occur. So be it. They may get my system anyway, but there is no reason for me to make it easy for them. Also, it is my hope that this system will help them get caught if they do somehow succeed.

It isn't the money. This system will probably cost me nearly as much as the computer system itself. It is the principle. It is the inconvenience of dealing with the police, the inconvenience of coming out to my car in the morning to discover what happened, and the ****ed of factor that somebody stole my hard earned money and they got away with it. I am an electrical engineer, therefore I make pretty decent money (nothing to brag about) and would find building something like this to be fun and rewarding. It is also just the geek factor.

Since this is so early in the design phase, given the components I have, and the controller I plan, I am interested in some ideas for the functionality of the system either on the remote side or the vehicle side. I am mostly looking for things I should monitor, offense devices I can activate, modes, and convenience features I could use it for when it is not acting as a security system. If I can manage to keep the entire system self contained, the possibilities should be limitless. Since it will be located in a place very difficult to get to, full control will be a neccessity.

Thanks for reading.

**SnyperBob** · 12-31-2006, 06:08 AM

Questions:
Did you already have the car alarm when your system was stolen or did you get that after?

Why go thru all of this?

What do you plan on doing when you hear your alarm go off in the middle of the night?

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just bolt down/weld the **** out of your carpc to make it virtually impossible for them to remove from the vehicle without heavy tools?

Wouldn't a better option be to not spend/put more money into the car just so it can get jacked again?

Better yet, is there somewhere else you can park your car that is more secure?

Thoughts:
I think your best bet is to not tell ANYONE of your carpc install. I told a bunch of my friends about mine years ago when i worked at a Sears. I drove a crappy car that no one would suspect at the time, and WOW my **** was jacked.

No one knew about it but my friends, my car was the only one broken into, and it was obvious that someone was tipped off....

I think it would be easier/cheaper to buy one of those car alarms that pages you when there's a problem and buy a hand gun to go with it.

If you live in that bad of an area, you may just want to consider a different alternative. Perhaps a removable laptop that you can just pop out of the car and bring in at night

Most people can tell you have a nice system even when you're hiding it with a fake faceplate. All they have to do is see you driving down the street at night. Your screen shines bright and can be seen at night thru the tinted windows. They follow you to your home, cha ching.

Issues:
What happens if/when they steal your car?

Have you thought about your alarm scanner attracting more attention? Some car burglars are more attracted to the cars with scanners. I'm guessing they think "Hmmm, now why what is inside this Hyundai that makes them want to keep me out?"

As already pointed out, I think they'll just break your windows, have trouble getting your stuff and leave. You'll still be inconvenienced by the broken windows which probably isn't covered by the deductible. Not to mention having to get the new window re-tinted

Now don't get me wrong, I always root for projects like this, but I still have yet to see anyone actually follow thru with anything like this. If you can carry out what you say, I think you will have a formidable defense for sure. I'm sure you've already checked out the other security threads with similar ideas. I think the strobes and possibly some sort of smoke inside would be sweet. Good luck and keep us posted!

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by DIGItonium

Sweet idea, but why 3 separate posts?

Also, if the thieves really want it they'll do whatever they can within their abilities to steal from you. If not, they'll vandalize. The more difficult you make it, the more damages your vehicle will receive.

Flashing LED won't work. They'll ignore it.

Heck, I'm bold enough to leave my car parked without an aftermarket security system. The worst my car has received other than door dings was getting egged.

I did several posts because it was going to be so long. And because people may be interested in one part but not another. This allows them to read the parts that they want and skip the rest. Of course, I wasn't expecting a reply before I finished!

Different folks, different strokes, but what is the point of making it easy for them?

Other than the car computer getting stolen, the worst that has happened is that someone threw a half eaten candy bar on my moon roof under the scoop. It was positioned, I can only assume, so that when I opened my moon roof, the bar would fall into my car. Ha ha... Well, that didn't happen, but it did melt and was a pain to remove without damaging my paint. It did succeed in annoying me if that was part of the intent.

Anyways, I answered the rest of your questions in the succeeding posts, so I won't do it again here. Thanks for the feedback!

Scott McDonnell

**MRVJ245** · 12-31-2006, 06:43 AM

why not devise a installation way that means you can only pull it out with taking out the dash...like welding brackets to everything and having them needing to take out the WHOLE DASH and wiring harness out to unbolt it?

I welded the screen housing to my firewall

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 07:05 AM