Thanks for the comments. I like hearing different people's take on how they'd approach this project. Please keep in mind that what I've presented in this video is just an example. The main concept is the use of the Raspberry Pi with PiFace for inputs and outputs. The rest is really up to you. All of the suggestions made here can certainly be done. I have other parts to this system that I have not presented here, simply because it's my home alarm system and would be a tad silly to share exactly how it works with the public! Remember, don't lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Connect up some speakers and have an MP3 file play if someone breaks in..."GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, I've called the cops and they're coming now! Honey, Where's my shotgun? Oh OK, got it." You know, something like home alone :)

great work as always! It's quite a nice system! As for the garage waiting period, may the logic be: once the garage door is closing, have any "arm requests"(button/app) "add to queue" until the garage door is closed, clear any previous queue if garage/unarm buttons are pressed, and check if anything is "queued" after the garage door finishes(aka arm system then empty queue). or... some magic with the time module and a global "action queue" with actions getting pushed back if the garage door is in a transition state.

Heya, You have a good start on the system. With a few options it could be a good opensource alarm system. 1. Li-ion cell for the backup, you could also monitor it via the Pi as well, then you know when it's time to replace it. 2. Enable the entry and exit timer. 3. A few years ago I was toying around with an idea of using a wearable RFID for a tracking pendant, so that when the system is armed, and the pet was inside the system would basically ignore the pet. 4. Have the option for different sensors Eg, a Heat sensor in the server room in case of a fire etc. 5. Also a insect option so if a sensor is triggered it would wait for another zone with x seconds to be triggered, otherwise it could be a moth. 6. Support for a door strike as well so that, you can use a button on the remote and disarm and open the front door so that you could get inside quickly if required. Personally I think the extra line of "there is motion somewhere" is redundant, as the previous line stated where the motion was. Otherwise nice setup :)

Soooo... here I am again. Through a chain of random clicks doing some research, I ended up on your youtube channel yet again. I guess we are both Aussies, drive a model S, and stuff about with electronics. I've had a Raspberry Pi sitting around for a couple of years, meaning to update my Picaxe based house security system. Finally getting around to it! Thanks for showing us your setup and thoughts. Cheers.

Thanks for posting this overview of a home based security system that doesn't depend on a third party. For me I have a cat so it looks like I'd have to keep my cat in one area of the house, while at work so that the motion sensors don't go off as she moves about.

Great video. I had a similar setup using a PiFace with some Python scripts. Since migrated over to a Konnected board (which is effectively an 8266 board with some custom software). I’m now using node red and home assistant to interface it all. The PIRs now act as motion detection for the alarm and presence detection for rooms to bring on lights and adjust heating requirements. I found with the pi face to sometimes get false triggers, turned out to be electrical noise from adjacent cabling running by the sensor wires, easily filtered out in code, similar to debouncing.

Cool project. Most off the shelf home alarm systems are stupidly simple. Building it yourself (if you have the knowledge) makes total sense.

I have had a similar alarm in mind. Having a regular alarm center with added pi. Concept, with all on pi adding smart functions like presence level (How many in what rooms etc) and nice map to phone. Without internet revert to regular alarm. Just a ide, thinking alarms might have some sensor intelligence that not having to reinvent. Great work, wish I had the time to do mine :-)

This really cool. Although I lack the knowledge to do this. This seems like a fun project.

Add a backup mobile network incase your attackers jam your internet that way your attackers are screwed unless the app also has a connection count with app say if it send a a ping to the alarm but phone dont hear back then it will alert your device phone etc etc. With mobile and app option that will be hard for attackers to attack you but perfect for being secure. You need the app to communicate with the alarm system every few seconds for it to do job but if you can do that then perfect. Really good set up by the way love this. Thanks

I would like for you to be my mentor. :) I can honestly say this video of all the videos I have watched on YT to date, makes me want to learn about electronics and programming. :)

Smart to put a alarm system into protect your WIFI. This got me thinking that I can use this approach for some outdoor LED lighting around the pool. Nice video

Nice work. Don't worry about the mess, prototypes are never finished products until you get it working the way you want and only then is it rewrired the way you want it to look. I was back in Australia and had issues with my home alarm as well as the battery needing replacing. Decided when I go back home again (was there for leave but work in Seattle), I was going to replace it with a PI as well and use 18650's for battery backup. Interesting PI hat you got. I was thinking to use I2C or SPI to control devices. You could make it arm once the door is shut, just need to somehow tell it to close and arm. LOL, you're like me, don't like middle man systems and yet I work for Amazon.haha. if the middle man has issues or is hacked, you have no control.

Wondering is you have looked at something like Home Assistant and MQTT with EspHome or Tasmota firmware? Love your videos, thank you.

This looks awesome and has got me interested. I have an old alarm system in my home that doesn't work, yet has all the PIR, Strobe, Siren etc. Now I am thinking about installing a PI to manage this. Thanks for showing the video, it really goes to show that you don't have to follow the norm and use devices in its "supposed" fashion. PS. sure I have seen the Tesla around town ;)

Love this project. I'm currently collecting the components to have a go myself. I'd love to see more about how exactly the Android app communicates with the Pi. I've been pondering using Firebase as a cloud service so that I can use authenticated accounts to access it, but obviously you've set out to avoid 3rd parties so I'm curious about how it works. Thanks for the vid. :)

One of the important benefits of remote monitoring that you overlooked, is that if you're attacked and hit a panic button - who then monitors your alarm to call the police? About your system's layout it almost would be better to feed your IO into a pub-sub backend (Redis, MQTT, etc.), then apply your security code as a stand-alone subsystem. By splitting the IO from the security code, it allows existing sensors to be used for home automation as well (simply subscribe to the sensor's feed). Your simple IO also missed a chance for senor tamper detection and wiring fault detection, this may lead to false alarms down the road. I do also have to wonder why you put in that unsecure Chinese junk RF set, when you already have a TLS capable wifi display module in your pocket...

My guess Your audio sometimes is going through Your mixer. I had one of those once, and I had the same problem with the static :) ...You always do awesome videos, thanks for sharing. :)

I have watched your videos for a long time now and they are very educational, Thanks for great quality videos I look forward to seeing more.

need a magnet sensor on the garage door to know if its open, and maybe an alert sent to your phone if its open for to long, for the times you leave in a hurry and it doesnt trigger the door.

I did a similar thing, but to simplify life I modified the PIRs to contain an ESP8266 and a small buck converter, saves a load of wiring and complexity.

Very nice. Thank you for your time in sharing this. May I ask, in the panel... The devices coming in... Why didn't you put a Inline fuse on each or a small breaker point? Or is this not needed... I'm not knowledgeable yet on small electronics... I am however interested and taking a small course through Adafruit. Your system is very clean.. I love it. I hope to achieve the same soon... Like you said, and I agree... Got to keep that data home. 😊.

You should consider full home automation, I use homeseer. You can write events to do anything. For example I never have to manually set the alarm because the automation runs a timer when there's been no internal movement after a period of time plus vocally prompting anyone who may be inside to move around. Now once you automation knows nobody is home has set the alarm, it can look for other things susch as water flowing when unoccupied or gas flowing when no heating is on and turn on bright flood lights if external motion is sensed.

This is fantastic. Can you share the scripts you have running (without compromising your own security)? A generic version of the scripts would be great. Also, can you share some info about the hardware? What receiver is that? Thanks.

This is amazing... Had this idea for a while now but lack the know how to get it done

I just say wow, what a wonderful IoT system is that I am very interested to know some futures what you are done on your home, Thanks for your time and knowledge.

Does the remote have a rolling code? I think most of those modules lack a rolling code

A garage door closer with a open and a close as a separate circuit would make it be easyer to code as you can set it that if you arm the house it closes the garge door and if not closed with in a specific ammount of time it informs you also i would sudjest you make it as a sepret network in your home with vpn so that its more secure but all in all great job

This is exactly what I am doing to my house alarm system. I have the same motivation and design. Great to see this working! As for sensors I am worrying about false alarm evets, is it reliable enough to have them connected dirrectly to raspi? are there tricks needed like resistors?

Great videos. Inspiring to do more with home automation and security. Is there a security issue having the sensors and Raspberry Pi using the same POE power source, i.e. if you short one of the 12v sensors will it remove power from the entire alarm system?

Hi, I’m putting together my own system using yours as a starting point. I have email notifications and the wireless key buttons working. Now, I’m at the point of coding a web interface and working out a UPS. I was just wondering had you planned a circuit for the UPS you mentioned in your video?

Awesome love it! Pi’s are so darn powerful.

Love the diy stuff you. Encourages me to also experiment. Thank you

Cool system. I know you said it is up to you how you wish to script it, but any chance you can share your python script(s) so we have a baseline to go off? It would help as a I'm a pure beginner.

Looks good. :) Have you thought about putting a sensor on your garage door so the system is aware of its position. That way you could have it so you can arm the system and if the door is open it will close it first and when it detects it is closed it can then arm the system. Also you could show the status on your app.

Hey, great video, lots of great ideas. I’ll hopefully be looking to implement something similar to the house I will be moving to. Could you please provide a link for the DC converter and POE splitter?

A lot of work. Thank you!

You could find a way to program a remote function that arms/disarms and opens/closes the garage door and then you could put that in the tesla automatic garage door opener

God bless.

I have seen this video several times and I am amazed by it each time I watch it. Is the camera feed stored anywhere other than the micro SD card? I want to have a home security setup to a pi-based NAS.

How do you communicate between home and phone? Plain socket? Rest? Is there VPN involved? SSL? SASL maybe?

I'm trying to design a system that is almost identical to yours but with one difference, The cameras and motion detectors will be wireless, Their transmission system will be wifi and radio simultaneously (dual mode), They will send their data in wifi and uhf, like uav or rc planes (fpv system) I could secure a huge area, and place the camera and detector anywhere and hide them to avoid sabotage or brouyage

you have an interesting monitor setup are all of the lower ones linked as one monitor ?

Looks nice, i also would like to set up a similar system but i will get into trouble with my wife and kids, they will by mistake sabotage or break the system.. Btw i would ups the poi switch and connect ups-alarm to the pi, you'll be able to control the system even when the mains power is out(ups=redundant to powerwall)

Building something similar but more on the house automaton side. Doorbell, fridge door open alarm, balance lithium batteries etc. I'm using node red did you consider that as the software base. I really like the modularity and visual aspect of it.

Awesome video. im on the way to create something similar and i want to know what kind of cables you use for sensors and secondly you are supplying them with 12v but this is not a problem for inputs? (because raspberry pi works with 5v) Also think about using GSM/GPRS for notifications in case of phone line problems

This is great was wondering is this was possible sine home alarm is just a bunch of sensor this was exactly what I was looking for

nice setup !! Are you going to share how to setup instructions with parts list?

Statistically, you will know the person who breaks into your house, within 2 (at most 3) degrees of separation. Neighbours sons friend etc.

I want to do the same. Some of my additions will be a heat sensor, probably a thermistor but maybe a heat button. I will also send a text message to my phone and my room mate's phone when a urgent matter occurs such as intrusion or smoke.

Nice System!

The only problem with the Raspberry Pi is the SD card has a lifespan of 6 months with constant read/write. I had to change mine out for a small SSD drive connected on USB. The Raspberry 3 can boot from USB so no need for an SD card and no corruption after 6 months. I'm using Home Assistant to control my house and alarm system

hell yeah!! thats awesome!!

Nice system. Do you use a battery backup?

Hi like this video etc and want to do something myself also how would i make the pir sensors wireless or recomend any wireless ones. Also could you do a how to video on how you did this excluding the bits that compromise your home security. And is the code avalible.

How can I get a alarm sound from a piezo speaker? I think I'm gona have to build a circuit.

Great video, have you looked at home assistance on a raspberry pi great software that open source

I'd like to hear more about the 'app' to communicate to the pi remotely.

Very nice. How can you increase the number of sensors though? The Pi only has a limited number of pins. I would want to go to 32 "zones"

Hi thanks for your nice video one question the pirs are 12 volts are able to read them as inputs because of the pi face ?

Why not disarm the alarm when you open the garage door ? You could also do a similar thing in Node-red for folks who don't know python

That is awesome ! I would love to build my own but I am not very good at coding from the start did you happen to upload the code to gethub or any thing?

hello, have you got any ups systemo or battery for power interrupts?

nice, any more detail on your remote access setup for the app?

do you know if i could do something similar but instead of doing the coding myself on the pi, i could use hassio with a piface?

Ah quite interesting I like it

Is the python script just a while loop checking the state of the relay(switch)? If so, how often do you sleep between loops? Is there such thing as checking (i.e. sleep .2) too often that would overwhelm the pi? Any help anyone could offer would be great.

Is there a way you can make the system "tamper proof"? As in if a wire is cut the pi can sense it and start alarming?

How much current can you draw through the 12V output from the POE breakout box? I'm surprised you've got enough POE power to run the RPI, sensors, sirens, receiver, etc..

you could get a pico ups unit for the battery

Since PiFace has no analog inputs, how do you manage to read motion sensor data using digital inputs?

Really like those project of yours... but what i do like more however is that monitor-stand. Could you link me up to that model? Keep posting this awesome kind of tech-stuff, big inspiration, @CWNE88

Nice...

I would never use a combustible back plate. Either metal with stand offs, or nylon such as a cutting board.

What is the name of the android app you use to interface with the raspberry?

….THANK YOU! …..i want to set up my own home security system with wireless PIR-Motion-Detection-Sensors! I need email or push notification to my smartphone even if there is no Internet (via LAN and WLAN). Is there a already finished kind of UserInterface or Program i could use? I am not a programming expert , but i really would like to use the RaspberryPi :-(

can you coneckt it to home assistant so you have all your IoT devices on 1 hub?

interesting I have an old alarm system I don't use much, maybe I could modify it and replace with this kind of thing.

Can you install apps on the giant display in the car?

You didn't mention whether the was a loudspeaker output that could have any number of sound files played through it - for example "You have 20 seconds to comply!" from Robocop.

Does the Raspberry pi recognise a 4-state PIR using EOL resistors?

Hi, What if I have more than 8 inputs? (ie. Door and window sensors, movement sensors, smoke sensor...) - PiFace has only 8 input and 8 outputs. What could I do? Also... could you share some more code? - Arm/disarm part, processing part and notification part? Many thanks Rudolf

5:14 blank plate needs more LCD

Can u please provide whole project

great work. How will you handle SD card fail in raspberry pi?

can you go over the python script you are using?

can anyone unlock your house alarm if they use that same generic remote?

Can you give a link of that dc-dc buck converter? I need that one.

Why would you do this? a Pi is way to unstable for a security system. You can install a system that has this + way more like the ELK M1. In Australia I am a Security Tech and have my home fully automated with lighting + AV + retic + would wide access with the M1 gold, and bitwize, Cbus, and Alexa, full voice control .

Hope you still have the EOL resistors.

Is there any chance you showing me your program

Github link to code on raspberry pi?

How do you protect your raspberry pi's from SD card corruption , you use them so much , and no issues with that , I use raspiries quite often and i always get some segmentation faults , and other crap that indicate SD card corruption , tried to go through setting the system into RO mode , to no avail because i missed some steps maybe , if you be so kind to enlighten me and the rest of the community with your countermeasures thanks

Where can we find your app?

Those remotes are really insecure and probably not very reliable. Consider using something with KeeLoq or similar technology, it is slightly more expensive but at least can't be hacked that easy.

Can you post the code in python ?

This is funny, you have removed one of the best systems available on the market (Bosch solution 6000) just to do exactly what the Bosch system you removed can do and way more. Fyi the siren is probably a horn.

Why not NodeRed. Node.js, java script instead od Python ? It gives you more possibilities when building costom ui in browsers .

to enter your home illegally would require shutting off power to your home.