Ambitious Video Security System

**SnyperBob** · 12-31-2006, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by RetroPlayer

I forgot to address that. Well, the best answer I can give is that hopefully, when/if the car is recovered, they will have not figured out the video security system and I will have the evidence. Although, actually stealing my car would be difficult at best. I have 2 levels of immobilizers, and a chip in my key.

Another layer of security would be to also record the video remotely since it will be streamed inside anyway. This of course would be of no help if it happened away from home.

Obviously complete theft of the car would be worst-case scenario. I was just throwing some ideas out there.

I think remote video (camera mounted on your house looking at the car) would be best for that. The immobilizers and chip don't work when they just tow your car.

Most of the time they tow it to a building to strip it, somewhere that security systems can't phone home or transmit. Out of satellite view for cell phone transmission, onstar, lojack, etc..

But I don't think you have to worry about that, lol

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by SnyperBob

How exactly is all of this going to tie together? Is the ucontroller going to 'power' the entire system.

ie...the ucontroller uses sensors to detect/determine what is going on. Then it activates the cameras and wireless video transmitter and kicks off the transmission?

I think you mentioned it before, but when the video is transmitting, have it pass thru the DVR to record inside the car in case you're away from home?

The ucontroller will control the power to the various parts of the system, yes. It will go into sleep mode when it senses that it running of only the battery. Using interrupts from the sensors, it will wake up and power (using latching relays) the components needed based on what event happened.

And yeah, the idea is that the passthrough on the DVR is what is wirelessly transmitted. The system will be standalone and the remote part of it will only work when it is sitting outside my home. This will allow me to monitor it inside my house, adjust/change settings because the onscreen menus for the quad and DVR would be transmitted as well,and upload new firmware. I can always just remote trigger everything to come up and let me look around my vehicle anytime I want, start recording from one or some/all of the cameras, etc..

WAY WAY down the road, it may even be possible to even create a portable control system (I have a nice MEGAVIEW 20GB portable multimedia player with video recorder and 3.5" screen.) Of course, that is WAY beyond where am I at in planning.

**SnyperBob** · 12-31-2006, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by RetroPlayer

The ucontroller will control the power to the various parts of the system, yes. It will go into sleep mode when it senses that it running of only the battery. Using interrupts from the sensors, it will wake up and power (using latching relays) the components needed based on what event happened.

That doesn't sound too complicated. Definately is do-able. I've done a lot of work with the older yet somehow still expensive Motorola handy boards.

I've been trying to come up with any sort of 'project' to have an excuse to work with them again, lol. I guess I'm not the only one that gets the itch to tinker.

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by SnyperBob

I just don't see incorporating a ucontroller into something like this. That means you'll not only have your existing car alarm, but your own system as well.

You'll have to cut into the car to place your own sensors, you'll have to splice into the car's wires to monitor things, and you'll have to design it to be standalone. The amount of time and hours it would take to fully complete this is really high.

I'm assuming by the time you could develop this, you'll either have moved to a better part of town, built a garage to park your car in, or gotten a different car altogether.

I guess the only advice I can give is to try and design it to work with any car. In case you end up switching vehicles down the line, you don't want to spend all this time designing something that only works with that car.

I understand the fun of tackling a project like this (I'm a computer/electrical engineer as well), but I think it's easier to find a solution that's already out there and adapt it to your needs.

Check this out and let me know what you think:
http://www.bladox.com/prod_motion.php?lang=en

Well, this would only supplement my existing alarm, not replace it. I am not looking for shock sensors, etc.. for this. The sensors would consist of stuff like switches to tell if the facia was removed, the stereo has been removed, the alarm is triggered, doors opened, key in the ignition, etc.. Fortunately (or maybe not) the wiring for my car brings nearly ALL the signals I am interested in to an ETAC(?) on just a couple of harnesses. And this is located behind the crash pad and above the fuse box. Should be easy to get to. T-Taps will make it easy to tie into. There is even an 'engine running' discrete at this location!

The two biggest parts of the 'alarm' part will be tieing the 'remote wakeup' to one of the alarms unused channels, and figuring out how to get the controller to arm/disarm the main alarm. Sensing that it is armed or not should be fairly simple (just tie into the indicator LED.)

The unfortunate part is that it wouldn't likely be that easy in another vehicle. But, I will keep that in mind. Might be enough to make the inputs just general purpose 12V discretes or open-collector. Then I could tie whatever I want into them, and change a few lines of code to accomodate.

But, yeah, the wiring itself is the most overwhelming aspect. That is why I am hoping for good planning before install.

**MRVJ245** · 12-31-2006, 07:50 AM

you can always do what my mates did, they had some chicken wire installed into their seats
and they had an custom ignition lead wired to it, when they parked they would change the lead from the coil, instead of going to the distributor, they connected it to seat pan

would zap them pretty good

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by SnyperBob

Check this out and let me know what you think:
http://www.bladox.com/prod_motion.php?lang=en

Very cool and possibly useful for my system if I want to add anti-theft measures for the entire vehicle. Might help trigger something to upload the video stream off the DVR before they find it and destroy it. Now, just to figure out how to tie the phone into my system, while retaining it's use for internet and GPS on the carpc.

Sigh...

**SnyperBob** · 12-31-2006, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by RetroPlayer

Well, this would only supplement my existing alarm, not replace it. I am not looking for shock sensors, etc.. for this. The sensors would consist of stuff like switches to tell if the facia was removed, the stereo has been removed, the alarm is triggered, doors opened, key in the ignition, etc.. Fortunately (or maybe not) the wiring for my car brings nearly ALL the signals I am interested in to an ETAC(?) on just a couple of harnesses. And this is located behind the crash pad and above the fuse box. Should be easy to get to. T-Taps will make it easy to tie into. There is even an 'engine running' discrete at this location!

The two biggest parts of the 'alarm' part will be tieing the 'remote wakeup' to one of the alarms unused channels, and figuring out how to get the controller to arm/disarm the main alarm. Sensing that it is armed or not should be fairly simple (just tie into the indicator LED.)

The unfortunate part is that it wouldn't likely be that easy in another vehicle. But, I will keep that in mind. Might be enough to make the inputs just general purpose 12V discretes or open-collector. Then I could tie whatever I want into them, and change a few lines of code to accomodate.

But, yeah, the wiring itself is the most overwhelming aspect. That is why I am hoping for good planning before install.

I think it'll be good just having your own mcu in the car. Once you get that up and running, you'll be able to expand beyond anything we can imagine.

Hell, you could add in a Ford-style keypad on the outside of your car for keyless entry/disarm.

You could add a keypad to the inside that will disable everything. Have the system wait 5 seconds from initial sensor detection of intruder before sounding the alarm. That way, if it's just you getting into the car, you can key in the passcode and disarm in time.

Something like this:
http://www.apogeekits.com/ignition_kill_switch.htm

My cousin had one of these in his early 90's trans am (back when it was new) and back then, this had the super cool factor going, lol. Now, it's not so advanced. His I thought was from JC Whitney.

Anyway, you could just add something like that inside the car to allow you to shut down everything via your mcu, add coolness to it, yet make it hard on intruders (as opposed to trying to hide a switch somewhere that disables everything, that they find anyway)

**SnyperBob** · 12-31-2006, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by RetroPlayer

Very cool and possibly useful for my system if I want to add anti-theft measures for the entire vehicle. Might help trigger something to upload the video stream off the DVR before they find it and destroy it. Now, just to figure out how to tie the phone into my system, while retaining it's use for internet and GPS on the carpc.

Sigh...

That bladox thing also has inputs for sensors and such. Also support for "air conditioning". I'm not sure what that means.

I'm still trying to figure out how those Bladox things work, and how they send the messages (ie...if you plug your real sim card onto their board, and that's all it needs to work)

I think it would be nice and portable for any vehicle. It has a tip sensor, and they say it's sensitive enough to tell if someone is trying to steal your tire, so it might be sensitive enough to tell if someone sits in the car. Just wire a sensor to each door, and have it SMS you when the door is opened. I always hear my cell phone when I'm sleeping.....for some reason I don't hear anything else, lol

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by MRVJ245

you can always do what my mates did, they had some chicken wire installed into their seats
and they had an custom ignition lead wired to it, when they parked they would change the lead from the coil, instead of going to the distributor, they connected it to seat pan

would zap them pretty good

Interesting! Though, how did they get the charge to jump through the fabric of the seat? Edit: not to mention that the jumping charge through the seats would likely also burn a hole in the seat, possibly catching fire to the car.

Wouldn't work at all with my leather seats, though some strategically placed studs in the seat might work. Being on the outside of the seat fabric means I wouldn't come outside to a roasted car.

And I don't know, but I don't think that would work on an EFI vehicle. A seperate stun gun (actually just a trigger coil, storage cap, and oscillator) would probably work as an offense device.

Besides, chicken wire does not sound very comfortable to sit on.

**RetroPlayer** · 12-31-2006, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by SnyperBob

I think it'll be good just having your own mcu in the car. Once you get that up and running, you'll be able to expand beyond anything we can imagine.

Hell, you could add in a Ford-style keypad on the outside of your car for keyless entry/disarm.

You could add a keypad to the inside that will disable everything. Have the system wait 5 seconds from initial sensor detection of intruder before sounding the alarm. That way, if it's just you getting into the car, you can key in the passcode and disarm in time.

Something like this:
http://www.apogeekits.com/ignition_kill_switch.htm

My cousin had one of these in his early 90's trans am (back when it was new) and back then, this had the super cool factor going, lol. Now, it's not so advanced. His I thought was from JC Whitney.

Anyway, you could just add something like that inside the car to allow you to shut down everything via your mcu, add coolness to it, yet make it hard on intruders (as opposed to trying to hide a switch somewhere that disables everything, that they find anyway)

Yeah. I am trying to be careful not to get TOO far ahead of myself. The first step will just be getting power controlled, sleep/wakeup, and control of the DVR and QUAD. Then I will work on the sensing/tieing into the vehicle wiring. Then the alarm. And sub-finally, working on a nice convenient remote panel.

All of this will be prototyped and simulated in my workshop.

That keypad looks kinda ghetto

But, yeah, something like that might work.

I am planning to also install a bluetooth car kit permanently into the dash. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?Inv...at=CEL&cpc=DSP (Wow, glad I grabbed one when I did. Can't get it from geeks anymore.)

It has a keypad, and caller-ID screen. It also has a battery and external power. It can pair with up to five different phones, so my friends can use it too when they are in the car. I have already cracked it open and it looks like it may work perfectly (the LCD screen is remoted and not part of the main PCB.) When I do it, I will make a write-up for it.

Not sure why I just mentioned that, but it had something to do with tieing into it for the disable/enable portion....oh well, I'll eventually remember!

Scott McDonnell