Home Security System - Part 4

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Home Security System -Part 4

When using the magnets I bought at Radio Shack for testing, I found that:

• The sun-room, which has 5 windows and 1 exterior door: all windows and the door were wired individually, with the 6 wires being pulled down to the security box.  None of the window nor the door have magnets in them; just the sensor in the frame.  So I'll have to drill a small hole to insert and glue some magnets (I bought some smaller ones from Staples at 6 for $3.00 that are smaller than the ones from Radio Shack).
• The dining room, which has 2 windows, had a sensor on each window, but the test revealed that the wire from the left window never made it into the security box.  So I pulled the sensor up out of the window frame, cut the wire, and patched it into the wire for the sensor on the right window.  So now these two windows are daisy chained (series) wired together.  I tested this at the security box and they are good to go, but I'll have to add the missing magnets into the windows as noted above for the sun-room.
• The living room has 2 windows, and they both tested OK, but are missing magnets, so they will get the same magnet install treatment.
• The front door does not have a sensor on it.  I'm going to buy a simple door/window sensor.  I'll pull the wire from the nearby living room window and splice it into that wire, so the left window and the door will be on the same circuit (daisy chained) while the right window will be on its own circuit.  However, I'm thinking about putting a PIR detector in this area, so I may have all three (2 windows, 1 door) on one wire (daisy chained) and the other wire going to the PIR.
• The den has two windows.  They are missing sensors.  The exterior door into the den does not have a sensor.  I'm thinking about pulling a wire from the closest sun-room window to the two den windows and the door, so they would all be on the same circuit together.  

At first I thought I would just ignore the door and window sensors and just go with PIR devices, but then I realized that, during the daytime when we are moving around downstairs, we would have to take the PIRs out of service to avoid alarming on our movements.  But I want to be able to alarm if someone is coming in, so that meant I needed to be able to take PIRs out of service while leaving the windows and exterior doors in service, so I need to get the windows and doors going.

I'm moving along pretty nicely.  Tomorrow I hope to drill and glue up the magnetic buttons over all of the sensors.

Also, during my 'Quick Hitter', I bought some fake exterior cameras.  I intend to install some real cameras, but I wanted more time to do some research before committing to a brand, so I bought these fake cameras.  I mounted 2 of them today.  They have a blinking red led on them, and are actual cases for actual cameras, so they look real enough.  It took about 10 mins to mount them.  I put them where they would be easily seen, as I'm wanting to deter someone from breaking in.  The 'video surveillance' signs should be coming soon...

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