Home Security

Anyone here set up X10 for home security reasons?

I was considering the wireless camera approach and wondered if anyone had ever messed with it?

nope, was looking at it but then I remembered I am renting.

Atomm wrote:
Anyone here set up X10 for home security reasons?

I was considering the wireless camera approach and wondered if anyone had ever messed with it?

As you may or may not know Home Automation is a hobby of mine. If you are going to get into SERIOUS home automation or security do *NOT* use X10 devices. The X10 protocol is subject to inconsistencies, noise on the lines can cause false on/off's and drive you nuts. Sometimes they seem to work perfect, then other times you can get devices kicking off for no reason. Mine have actually been working fine overall but I just do not trust them and i do have problems at times.

I have been using X10 stuff for a very long time now and it works okay but not nearly as reliable as I want for my home automation setup.

Now those X10 cameras are really not that great though. I would look around before I spent money on them.
To tell the truth they are kind of junk and I would put the money toward something else. The video quality and setup kind of sucks to be honest. Those annoying ads really make them look MUCH better than they are. 😉

As soon as I get some extra money and start buying serious modules, they are all gong to be the non-X10 protocol called UPB. My home automation software woks with many including this.

Well, I don't want to go all out. I want to put a few cameras on my house in Texas and set it up to send to the internet. I really want to make sure no one is messing around or casing my place.

I don't have a ton of stuff, but I don't want to loose what I do have.

Check out the slingbox.. it transmits any video feed, as in cable or component.. whatever you want.. and it transmits them fairly well.

Atomm wrote:
Well, I don't want to go all out. I want to put a few cameras on my house in Texas and set it up to send to the internet. I really want to make sure no one is messing around or casing my place.

I don't have a ton of stuff, but I don't want to loose what I do have.

I understand man. it is just that the video quality of those cameras REALLY SUCK! 😉
Think of a camera phone type of quality but video 😉
You will get them, and just say, Wow this is horrible I cannot even recognize what that blob is, I should have listened to Paladin 😉

Seriously get them and see, they may be fine for you. I am picky. Just make sure you can return them.

Well, whats a cheap, but better alternative?

I mean, I'm not filming my own porn with these cameras..... At least not intentionly....

USB cameras? cheap dimestore cameras with usb inputs.. and then get a hub set up so that the cord length is fine and hook them to a box setup for video processing? And don't forget the duct tape.

mmmm ducttape...

Atomm wrote:
Well, whats a cheap, but better alternative?

I mean, I'm not filming my own porn with these cameras..... At least not intentionly....

I say get the X10 and play with it. Just make sure that you can return it if need be. Maybe you would be happy with them. Maybe they really improved them lately. It has been a few years since I looked into them.

I bought a $40 camera from SAMS club. I use it outside so I can record a frame every 10 seconds of my driveway. I can view this from the web etc... While it works the quality sucks though.
This camera is wired and just outputs standard composite video and sound into my TV capture card. It even has IR LED's on it for night but the subject has to be very close so that is useless.

I then use a free software package that I found that is really cool. I am probably going to update to the full version at some point. You can set zones within the video image to record when there is a change in the video. best way really. I am not using this feature at the moment as I think the free version is limited or some other reason I cannot remember now. 😉

The bad part is even if I get better cameras I would need more capture cards for this type of setup 😉

So USB cameras are the way to go but you cannot just hard wire them due to the lengths of cable you would need. So we then end up with a wireless system needed that has a USB receiver that can handle multiple cameras.

I am unsure the best for the price at this point. All the cameras I want costs about $150+ minimum.

I really want to get a better setup myself and am still looking into them.

So look around for some USB wireless cameras and you can use the software I do. I will have to find out as I forget the name off hand. But it supports multiple cameras from what I remember etc...

Really, it would be nice if x10 was forced to use the image the cameras actually put out in thier ads. Its pretty bad. I picked up a wireless one to use on the front door. Can't tell if its your best friend visiting or if its a delivery man.. sheesh.

I also completely wired my house to use X10.. Everything. At the same time I helped Paladin install a filter on his circuit box to gather x10 signals to one phase. That was a hoot 🙂. Something about shorting out 220v with a capacitor still makes me cringe. I physically moved all my x10 circuits to one phase, but that didn't guarantee success. The more expensive modules worked better however than the cheaper x10's. There are a couple of knockoff co's selling x10 compatable pieces.

But they are just too 'iffy'. Will they work today? Will I come home to 30 lights all on or not?

In my new house now for a year plus and I haven't thought twice about reinstalling any of it either, and we are now in a much more urban setting than before.

Atomm wrote:
I mean, I'm not filming my own porn with these cameras..... At least not intentionly....

hmmmmm. riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight..... LOL 🤣


I think you all might be a tad paranoid... I use the old home security methods... Shoot first, ask questions later... 😉

All the more reason to have enough weapons.. though I think my seven shotguns need to be supplemented by a few pistols or rifles one of these days. Bah -grumbles- I need to go skeet shooting.

Seriously get some surplus USB cable.. run the lines inyour ceiling to a repeater/hub in your attic and then to your computer set up with a piece of software like Paladin is suggesting. Otherwise you are going to have to get some kind of reciever that will input all those lines, or get a CCTV box.. though I dont know the cost on those, probably pretty pricey if my memory serves. That is if you dont go with the x10 design.

sindy wrote:
hmmmmm. riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight..... LOL 🤣
I think you all might be a tad paranoid... I use the old home security methods... Shoot first, ask questions later... 😉

Hahaha, ya got that right. I'm not much on security anymore. I haven't locked my truck or garage since I moved here. Couple of sensor lites go off when needed. Otherwise, it can be a bit much.

Paladin, have you ever considered getting a gate with barbed wire accross your driveway? They even come electrified. 🙂

lexx wrote:

At the same time I helped Paladin install a filter on his circuit box to gather x10 signals to one phase. That was a hoot 🙂. Something about shorting out 220v with a capacitor still makes me cringe.

See now this is the kinda hobby I can support. ;-) My father used to have a great time rewiring the house with me, I would be in a crawl space, ask him to shut off a circuit and he would let me guess whether he did or not. That was until I started carrying my multimeter with me everywhere. My wife still wonders why I have such an atttachment to it.

Bubbaspanky wrote:
See now this is the kinda hobby I can support. ;-) My father used to have a great time rewiring the house with me, I would be in a crawl space, ask him to shut off a circuit and he would let me guess whether he did or not. That was until I started carrying my multimeter with me everywhere. My wife still wonders why I have such an atttachment to it.

Unbelievable, same here. My dad would ask me to move 220v heaters in his house and never hit the right breakers. Lost 2 linemans pliers and got knocked off a ladder once. After that I would use an ohm meter that you could loop around the romex to measure current within.

Must be some kinda generational gap there.

lexx wrote:
Unbelievable, same here. My dad would ask me to move 220v heaters in his house and never hit the right breakers. Lost 2 linemans pliers and got knocked off a ladder once. After that I would use an ohm meter that you could loop around the romex to measure current within.

Must be some kinda generational gap there.

Are we brothers?? :-) Didn't figure anyone else had that sort of experience with their folks

Silent Cold wrote:
All the more reason to have enough weapons.. though I think my seven shotguns need to be supplemented by a few pistols or rifles one of these days. Bah -grumbles- I need to go skeet shooting.

Seriously get some surplus USB cable.. run the lines in your ceiling to a repeater/hub in your attic and then to your computer set up with a piece of software like Paladin is suggesting. Otherwise you are going to have to get some kind of receiver that will input all those lines, or get a CCTV box.. though I dont know the cost on those, probably pretty pricey if my memory serves. That is if you dont go with the x10 design.

Another reason I am a Republican. No one is taking my gun from me. 😉

At one point I was going to get web cams and use the USB repeater idea myself. My problem is you need one every 10 feet or so. Then with all the extra cabling and cost of repeaters everywhere and finding places to plug them in. Not worth it. 😉

Paladin wrote:
Another reason I am a Republican. No one is taking my gun from me. 😉

At one point I was going to get web cams and use the USB repeater idea myself. My problem is you need one every 10 feet or so. Then with all the extra cabling and cost of repeaters everywhere and finding places to plug them in. Not worth it. 😉

Oh heck, just buy about 4 of those fake camera with flashing leds and put them on the four corners of your house. Its the perception that protects you, not what you might see or gleam from a security tape.

The biggest single concern should be lighting around your property that comes on with motion detection.

This is my security force.




btw, it's a myth that democrats want to take your guns away. There are more important things out there that need to be dealt with.

Paladin wrote:
At one point I was going to get web cams and use the USB repeater idea myself. My problem is you need one every 10 feet or so. Then with all the extra cabling and cost of repeaters everywhere and finding places to plug them in. Not worth it. 😉

Ahh.. yes for some reason I was thinking that was 150'.. silly me messing up decimal places, now if only this was addictive and the payroll girl caught it.

So thought for a second and looked it up to make sure and found that not only does USB have a max of 15' between hubs and unless you kick up the juice there is a max of 80' feet for the total length even with repeaters... than thought well, what about firewire? The standard once again has a limit of 15 feet between each repeater although it will go to a max of ~235 ft and the newer 800 sems to go to ~325 ft.

Then again if you can't find good wires at a decent price, or cameras that are decent either both methods are a wash. Perhaps you can find a nice usb reciever that outputs video signals? or rig something else together, splicing the wires on the usb and runing seperate repeaters on it to send the signal longer distance in regular lines before you twist them back into the USB connection at the end of the line.

Silent Cold wrote:
Ahh.. yes for some reason I was thinking that was 150'.. silly me messing up decimal places, now if only this was addictive and the payroll girl caught it.
So thought for a second and looked it up to make sure and found that not only does USB have a max of 15' between hubs and unless you kick up the juice there is a max of 80' feet for the total length even with repeaters... than thought well, what about firewire? The standard once again has a limit of 15 feet between each repeater although it will go to a max of ~235 ft and the newer 800 sems to go to ~325 ft.

Then again if you can't find good wires at a decent price, or cameras that are decent either both methods are a wash. Perhaps you can find a nice usb reciever that outputs video signals? or rig something else together, splicing the wires on the usb and runing seperate repeaters on it to send the signal longer distance in regular lines before you twist them back into the USB connection at the end of the line.

Wired video/Ethernet or wireless cameras (either Ethernet or video transmitting) are really the only way to go here. Anything else is a kludge.

When I can I am going wireless Ethernet cameras as long as the transmission can be encrypted. Of course any good 2.4Ghz jammer can defeat them. 😉

Paladin wrote:

Wired video/Ethernet or wireless cameras (either Ethernet or video transmitting) are really the only way to go here. Anything else is a kludge.

When I can I am going wireless Ethernet cameras as long as the transmission can be encrypted. Of course any good 2.4Ghz jammer can defeat them. 😉

True True, now if only I could remember wher I got my cables from, some bulk suppliey was cheap as heck per ft compared. Bah prolly out of business now was some obscure link that turned out alright. Generic nam like bulke wire depot.. Either way, you get some ethernet cameras and you would be in business...

EDIT-bah I need to stop playing BF2 at night the lack of sleep is killing my spelling, 'nam like bulke' I got through two whole words before finishing the preceding one.. wtf mate. - notes: I don't seem to spend every waking moment playing, more like every sleeping moment.

*note to self* cancel all planned raids on Paladin and Silent Cold's houses....


Anyway Atomm, having been to where you are going to be living, I don't think you should have that much of a problem. It is a nice area. My brother has lived there for several years with no problems. 😀

sindy wrote:*note to self* cancel all planned raids on Paladin and Silent Cold's houses....

..hrmm.. and thats without even knowing that I specialize in explosives/mine warfare and detection? Bonus..


Btw Atomm, another item that you might look into if you are a member of the weapon bearing population, home defense rounds. They are made for any gun and quite nice, there are shells that are specificaly designed to go through cloth and skin of the typical perp but will fragment and not penetrate drywall so there is no reason to worry about shooting Suzy in the curly hairs while she is sleeping in a room down the hall.

hrmm.. I just realized that if you are moving to Dallas you will be able to pick up a FiOS connection..

That would be cool.

I only have a 22 Mini Mag Revolver. It's the gun my grandfather taught me to shoot with. However, I do have a high load home defense round in it. It's like a mini shotgun shell with tiny bb's in it.

Atomm wrote:
That would be cool.

I only have a 22 Mini Mag Revolver. It's the gun my grandfather taught me to shoot with. However, I do have a high load home defense round in it. It's like a mini shotgun shell with tiny bb's in it.

Hmm. I just use a Thomson Contender with a .410 barrel. The ammo is cheap 🙂 Also I think its the only legal pistol with a 10" shotgun barrel.

lexx wrote:
Hmm. I just use a Thomson Contender with a .410 barrel. The ammo is cheap 🙂 Also I think its the only legal pistol with a 10" shotgun barrel.

Holy Cow!!!

I'm holding out for a S&W .50 cal, but they are still pretty expensive... So, I guess I'll have to wait. 🙁

Bah.. that is such a waste get the Raging Hornet the sheer size makes it worth it. An 10" Barrel.. looks like the Dirty Harry beast.. but shoots a .22 round

Silent Cold wrote:
Bah.. that is such a waste get the Raging Hornet the sheer size makes it worth it. An 10" Barrel.. looks like the Dirty Harry beast.. but shoots a .22 round

Got one of those for my Thomson too. Its a pussycat compared to my groundhog barrel, a .223 14" with a stainless scope. The .410 barrel will also accept a .45 long, just in case a squirrel is rading your bird feeder. 😉

Sindy, whats the prairie dogs like in your area? I always wanted to hunt in TX but never made it there yet.

Lexx, are those sharp shooter competition guns?

Atomm wrote:
Lexx, are those sharp shooter competition guns?

Its only one pistol, but has several interchangable barrells and stocks. I have a .22, .410, .223, and the 30/30 ones. Its used that way, but only by the same class.. modified pistols I believe. There are a couple of dozen cals to choose from avail in 10 or 14" lengths and with/without scope mounts.

Its kinda pricey, about $350 for the base, and the barrels are priced by material and length. With a good scope its accurate to about 100yds.

Here, I took a quick shot of mine shown with a .223 and 30.30 shells.

30/30 shells in a pistol? whoa, cool.....

My first rifle after I learned to shoot our .22 was a 30/30 lever action with bottom ejecting cartridges. This was important because I am left eyed and shoot a rifle with my left hand. Most 30/30's right eject, but that would shoot the shell across my face. Man, I miss that gun. Maybe it was too many episodes of the Rifleman, but there is something about shooting a lever action rifle.....

I have a 30/30 Winchester. You cannot physically hold it, fire, and reload with it to your face. Way too much kickback. Its a light and short rifle. Since its off your face, the right eject wouldn't bother as much as say a .9mm semi auto. I had to buy that special hand grip cause the 30/30 kicks like hell!

Out of 2 dozen firearms, that contender is by far my favorite 🙂

Silent Cold wrote:
Bah.. that is such a waste get the Raging Hornet the sheer size makes it worth it. An 10" Barrel.. looks like the Dirty Harry beast.. but shoots a .22 round

That's pretty kewl. the only thing that ruins it is the .22 round thing...

And Atomm, how do you know whether you are left or right eyed? I'm left handed, but I don't know about eyes...

And Lexx, we have lots of prairie (that doesn't look like it's spelled right to me...) dogs and ground squirrels. Best thing to hunt out here though would be rattlesnakes. They aren't as cute. 😛 I think we have lots of wild hogs too, that might be your best bet.

To check your dominant eye there are a couple of methods..

Other than just knowing you can do this:

Hold your hands out straight in front of you with a thumbs up. focus on something in the distance and then close one eye.. then switch which eye is closed.. when the thumbs 'jumps to the left or right' then your dominant is the other eye.. typically lefties are left-eyed as well, unless they were taught how to shoot rightie at a young age.

When I was young, my grandpa had me try shooting using each eye. I was more acurate with my left eye and it felt comfortable, so I went with it.

I hold a pistol with my right hand, but it's pushed to the left. That's probably why I prefer rifles over pistols. I'm all crossed over myself.

See I am fortunate... I can shoot either way. Because my father is left handed and I am right. But he taught me everything left handed. So my shotgun is bottom ejecting and sitting in a tree stand I can shoot over a full 180. Most people have trouble shooting across 90 degrees.

As for dominate eye, I have never done a dominant eye test and had it work
I always end up in the middle

I don't think the test worked on me either... That or I'm in the middle too... About the only thing I do left handed is write. I can shoot either way. It usually just depends on which side I'm comfortable using a particular gun.