Morepork - Spark home security

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2098 posts

Uber Geek

#1365551 13-Aug-2015 13:34

What do people expect for the outlay? A traditional wireless alarm minus all the connected stuff is similar price?

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#1365567 13-Aug-2015 13:47

wasabi2k: What do people expect for the outlay? A traditional wireless alarm minus all the connected stuff is similar price?

Except the alarm would not tie you to one particular ISP and wouldn't cost you $30 a month to monitor it yourself.

I think they have a great product but I fear the price has been set so high that it will fail. Only time will tell.

estebaan

15 posts

Geek

#1365603 13-Aug-2015 14:32

antoniosk:
sbiddle: What are the legal implications of people self installing security equipment that currently is only permitted by a registered security technician? They're potentially breaking the law.

More importantly, how will your insurer consider self-installs?

This depends on whether you are actually installing an alarm-type system to get a discount on your Insurance premiums I would suspect. In my case we have an alarm already, but I have told our insurers that we don't. There was not a lot of discount at risk anyway, and I figured that it would be just my luck I wouldn't 'arm' the system & get broken into & have a ship-fight with the insurers because of it.

If *I* was going down this path, it would be to self-monitor/check/deter/call the police rather than for insurance purposes. YMMV.

kiwipawl

273 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1365631 13-Aug-2015 15:02

Hi all.

Not in the same league but a great app.

All you need is a 2 Android phones. One as the security camera and the second as a remote if you want to remote into it. I have used it and it worked really well, phone battery provides backup power and can use SMS or Wifi for notification. The only problem I had was my Wifi went down and before I realised it I had used all of my small pre paid account balance up sending me SMS's.

Also you cant select dead zones so every time the tree outside moved I got a notification that the tree had moved. The company is aware of this issue and are working on a zone selection option and I think the no Wifi then to SMS could have been operator error on my part.

http://www.salient-eye.com/

sir1963

3265 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1366081 14-Aug-2015 09:12

graemeh:
wasabi2k: What do people expect for the outlay? A traditional wireless alarm minus all the connected stuff is similar price?

Except the alarm would not tie you to one particular ISP and wouldn't cost you $30 a month to monitor it yourself.

I think they have a great product but I fear the price has been set so high that it will fail. Only time will tell.

Time is the important thing here.
Both Apple and Google are pushing into the home automation market.

Give it a couple more years and there will be a huge number of products that will go way beyond an alarm system.
The IOT is just the start.

To use an analogy, we are currently at the Cellphone era in home automation, we are about to enter into the smartphone era.
All of those competing incompatible standards will fall by the wayside.

Me, I am willing to wait a couple of years to have a truly better system with low/no monthly overheads.

Suckerpunch

124 posts

Master Geek

#1367717 17-Aug-2015 08:16

Don't you think the alarm should at least come with, or have the additional purchase option for an external siren if it was to act as a deterrent? (maybe even window stickers would be nice)

If for some reason you're unable to self monitor at the exact moment someone enters your home, the alarm proves worthless. At least if you had an external siren the neighborhood is 'alerted' and the intruder is under more pressure and knows their time is potentially more limited.

Flickky

303 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1367719 17-Aug-2015 08:28

Suckerpunch: Don't you think the alarm should at least come with, or have the additional purchase option for an external siren if it was to act as a deterrent? (maybe even window stickers would be nice)

If for some reason you're unable to self monitor at the exact moment someone enters your home, the alarm proves worthless. At least if you had an external siren the neighborhood is 'alerted' and the intruder is under more pressure and knows their time is potentially more limited.

It comes with 3-4 stickers in the pack as far as I'm aware.

In fairness, the control gets pretty loud when the alarm goes off - in my place when it's gone off our neighbours have been able to easily hear it. Differs for every house on where it is though I guess.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

wasabi2k

2098 posts

Uber Geek

#1367778 17-Aug-2015 09:51

Suckerpunch: Don't you think the alarm should at least come with, or have the additional purchase option for an external siren if it was to act as a deterrent? (maybe even window stickers would be nice)

If for some reason you're unable to self monitor at the exact moment someone enters your home, the alarm proves worthless. At least if you had an external siren the neighborhood is 'alerted' and the intruder is under more pressure and knows their time is potentially more limited.

Was discussing this with the wife, if you can visibly see someone in your house (via camera) surely you could call the police?

While I am sure the cops aren't going to visit if you ring and say your alarm went off, if you can ring and say "People are in my house, right now, stealing my stuff" that could possibly motivate a visit?

What would the call out people do if they found someone still in your house? The last one we had was a slight indian gentleman. Very polite and well mannered, but unlikely to deter your stereotypical crim.

Bung

6502 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1367803 17-Aug-2015 10:31

The Police would put it in the queue to be dealt with after the calls regarding assaults of various types against people. If you were in the house and someone broke in it would be more urgent.

wasabi2k

2098 posts

Uber Geek

#1367815 17-Aug-2015 10:50

Bung: The Police would put it in the queue to be dealt with after the calls regarding assaults of various types against people. If you were in the house and someone broke in it would be more urgent.

That would be acceptable to me - who cares about a TV if someone is being hurt.

I don't see much value in sending a security guard out - what would they do if they actually caught someone?

steve98

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1367824 17-Aug-2015 10:58

We have a traditional wired security alarm system in our home, but rather than pay the $30 per month to have it monitored, I bought a couple of IP cameras and had the alarm programmed to ring my mobile when it triggers. When I receive such a phone call I simply fire up my phone, check the streams on the IP cameras to verify that it is indeed a false alarm, and then decide for myself whether I need to attend site or just leave it. Works well for zero ongoing costs.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#1367841 17-Aug-2015 11:20

Suckerpunch: Don't you think the alarm should at least come with, or have the additional purchase option for an external siren if it was to act as a deterrent? (maybe even window stickers would be nice)

If for some reason you're unable to self monitor at the exact moment someone enters your home, the alarm proves worthless. At least if you had an external siren the neighborhood is 'alerted' and the intruder is under more pressure and knows their time is potentially more limited.

external sirens are probably the least deterrent factor of any alarm.

Everybody knows that people (neighbours etc) just don't tend to respond to the external alarm. Or, if they do, it's only because it's a nuisance and they are more likely to call noise control instead of the police.

The police also know that house alarms go off incorrectly all the time. An alarm being sounded (with no other evidence of naughtiness) is one of the lowest priority kind of call they probably receive because they know it probably isn't a genuine problem.

On the other hand, (as mentioned above) I imagine they would respond a bit more quickly when you are on the phone with them telling them you can see an intruder right there on your camera. (and if you wanted to get an even faster response, you could probably say you think a family member is home and under threat of assault, even if that might not be true)

Not only will they respond quicker, they will probably also be called quicker too, because you don't need the info about the alarm being tripped to go through a third party who tried to contact you before dispatching anybody - it goes straight to your phone. so you can check you camera and call 111 within seconds of the alarm being tripped.

About the only benefit of professional monitoring is for times where you cannot practically access the service (e.g. you're on holiday, or maybe you work in a place with no internet and mobile coverage. But you can presumably set up multiple users with different levels of access - e.g. neighbours, relatives, etc who can check up on it during those times.

Suckerpunch

124 posts

Master Geek

#1367845 17-Aug-2015 11:28

What I'm meaning is an External siren is better then no external siren, in the situation where you can not self monitor. e.g. can't view the cameras etc.
Of course if you're able to view the cameras then an external siren is not needed.