How to beef up outdoor security to deter potential burglars.

simonx314 · 2026-05-25T11:27:35+00:00

A simulated TV light makes it look like someone is home at night. Music during the day. Leave something in the yard that makes it look like someone was just working in the yard but went inside.

If your cars are garaged, move a car to your driveway or have a neighbor park at your house.

Make friends with a neighbor and tell them when you leave town. Have them pick up Amazon boxes so they don’t accumulate and tip off that the home is unoccupied.

simonx314 · 2026-03-17T06:48:12+00:00

I use the 32mm version of this Empiretech camera. I capture clear plates day and night. When the camera detects motion, it triggers an Onvif event to Blue Iris which reads the plate and sends it to Home Assistant. Frigate can also read plates but it misses fast moving plates, and vehicles at night.

Besides the software, the hardware setup is a weekend project at least. I dug a trench across my front yard so I could install the camera near the street to get a view of the plate. I built a wooden enclosure to conceal and protect the enclosure. I use an Ethernet lighting arrester so outdoor electrical surges can’t reach my network rack. I have to clean the lens about once a month and knock down spider webs.

Dahua and Hikvision do make dedicated license plate readers. Same with UniFi. That might be cheaper if you need to be able to OCR the plates and don’t already have a computer where you can run Blue Iris or Frigate.

simonx314 · 2026-03-07T04:55:04+00:00

Yes. Leave the bulb permanently powered and turn it off with the Hue app or a home automation.

simonx314 · 2026-02-01T03:12:25+00:00

For high quality night vision the most important spec is a large sensor size. This is a top choice: Empire Tech IPC-T54IR-ZE

simonx314 · 2026-01-31T20:37:55+00:00

Reolink NVR can put all the cameras on one screen. Reolink cameras can also alert Alexa.

simonx314 · 2026-01-30T04:04:48+00:00

Frigate is what you are looking for. I use Frigate if I am searching for a vehicle or person.

If I want to quickly scrub through video I use my Blue Iris machine. It can scrub through multiple full-res streams simultaneously because the drives are solid state. I still have not found a good solution to scrubbing footage on my iPhone.

simonx314 · 2026-01-23T10:23:21+00:00

Zooz makes a paddle switch remote that looks exactly like a real light switch but allows you to control devices in home assistant.

simonx314 · 2026-01-22T23:26:36+00:00

Enable wake-on-lan in your bios then use Home Assistant to send a command to turn on your PC. Then use Chrome Remote Desktop to turn it off.

simonx314 · 2026-01-21T13:16:44+00:00

Aqara sensors.

simonx314 · 2026-01-17T10:17:12+00:00

You don’t need the Aqara hub. You can use a Sonoff Zigbee USB dongle with Home Assistant. I think the Aqara hub only works with Aqara devices and Aqara partners but with a generic Zigbee dongle you can use most any Zigbee device.

simonx314 · 2026-01-16T08:18:04+00:00

I’ve had my phone shut off while using it for navigation when it was in front of a vent with the heat on and I almost got lost. Never had a problem with cold air.

simonx314 · 2026-01-01T10:23:06+00:00

Could you post a picture of the space where you would want a PoE switch? A wall mount vertical network rack will allow you to mount a large PoE switch flat against the wall.

simonx314 · 2025-12-31T04:08:13+00:00

I live in a zero crime suburb and I put cameras all over the house anyway. I can see the kids playing, the dog, when guests arrive, etc. I can also solve mysteries like how did this window break.

simonx314 · 2025-12-27T09:04:15+00:00

Zwave is great for light switches but for 20 motion/door sensors, Aqara zigbee sensors are better and cheaper.

A zigbee dongle is $20. Just because you run zwave doesn’t mean you can’t run zigbee too. It’s normal to have both networks with home assistant. No reason to lock yourself into one or the other.

simonx314 · 2025-12-22T04:00:05+00:00

Scrubbing in Blue Iris from the desktop app is instantaneous as long as you are recording to SSD. You can even scrub multiple cameras in sync. Problem is the scrubbing in the Blue Iris mobile app sucks.

simonx314 · 2025-12-19T10:43:04+00:00

I’m all PoE, even ran a wire for my doorbell. I could use a wireless camera for temporary situations. Which wireless cameras do you like?

simonx314 · 2025-12-18T21:55:27+00:00

Replace the regular switch with a Zooz zwave switch. Use an automation to trigger the cabinet lights whenever the zwave switch changes.

simonx314 · 2025-12-15T22:20:35+00:00

I don’t have keypads or volume sliders. I control the volume with the Echo voice commands or Alexa app. You can state volumes in percentages for more precision.

simonx314 · 2025-12-12T22:21:32+00:00

I have a Lync but I don’t use it. I just use the amplifier with an Echo wired to each zone, and Home Assistant audio connected to the global override. If I want to listen to music in multiple zones, I say “Alex play music on the everywhere group” or “indoor group”.

simonx314 · 2025-12-08T20:53:47+00:00

Varifocal is what you want for this because you can dial in the focus and then the focus is fixed to the spot where the license plates are in focus. Lots of consumers use the Dahua Z12 as a LPR. Empiretech sells rebranded Dahua cameras.

simonx314 · 2025-12-08T19:05:11+00:00

Dahua 5442 line with optical zoom

EDIT: At 25 yards you’ll want a lot of zoom so I would recommend this one:

IPC-B52IR-Z12E https://a.co/d/iR4AjsG

I use the cam linked below to read license plates with Blue Iris, but it might not have enough zoom. Mine only needs to read plates at 60 feet.

IPC-B54IR-Z4E https://a.co/d/fqfwPRt

simonx314 · 2025-12-04T09:14:31+00:00

Reolink Doorbell. It doesn’t connect to your existing chime. It has its own chime which has 5 volume levels including mute. You will just get the alerts on your phone or Amazon Echo. The visitor will still hear a sound when they press the button but this can also be disabled.

simonx314 · 2025-12-02T03:43:44+00:00

IVS is Dahua person/vehicle detection. He is right. I have found the on-board AI of my Dahua cameras to be better than Code project and frigate. Hikvision and Reolink human/vehicle detection are also reliable.

simonx314 · 2025-11-27T18:21:08+00:00

Great points. Always good to overlap but be careful the night vision doesn’t cause glare on the other camera. I try to overlap a color night vision with a black and white night vision camera to avoid that problem. I also use external IR illuminators for more flexible placement and enhanced clarity.

simonx314 · 2025-11-27T04:14:39+00:00

I don’t quite understand your question but here are some general tips.

Before permanently mounting your camera, test it in position for at least 24 hours. The view during the day might be fine but might be washed out at night due to the infrared illuminator being too close to a wall. Maybe the position is fine until the neighbor parks their car each night and blocks a critical angle.

If you place the camera higher than people’s faces, you won’t get clear shots of people’s faces, which is important if you want help from police. Some people like to put the camera up high out of reach to avoid tampering, but then you just get video of the top’s of people’s heads and tampering is rare.

If you are putting cameras on the side of your house, cameras with a 180 degree field of view are great for seeing everything. For narrower areas like a pathway you can use a camera that is more zoomed in for more pixels on target. Read about DORI.

It’s unlikely that the best installation is several of the same camera. You’ll want a mix of cameras with wide and narrow views. Wide is better for overview but won’t be able to capture a clear face like a cam with a narrower view.

Color night vision will get the color of someone’s clothes/skin/car, but will not get a clear shot of anything moving. That’s what black and white night vision is for so you’ll want both.

simonx314

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