Install Your Own Home Security System
October 2005
A home security system can run into thousands of dollars, involve miles of wiring, a professional installation and a monthly monitoring fee or it can cost a few hundred dollars and you can set it up yourself in an hour or two. It all depends on what you want and what you're willing to invest. For this issue's DIY installment we elected to run through the installation of a simple wireless security/home monitoring system.
We used Motorola's PC-controlled HMEZ1000 Easy Start Kit which includes a wireless base station and a wireless motion detection camera. In addition we added one HMWS1060 wireless water sensor, one HMDS1040 wireless door/window sensor and another wireless camera. The cost for the hardware/software ran about $500, and the whole process took about a hour to set up and configure. Information about the products and additional accessories can be found at www.motorola.com.
If I wanted to go further with this system, I'd probably add about six more door/window sensors and an alarm. This system uses e-mail alerts to let you know what's going on when you're away and keeps an archive of all recorded events. You can't sit at your office computer and watch live video of your living room, but that feature will probably be added to the system at a later date.
A home monitoring system can be used to detect intruders, notify you of a leaky basement, or let you watch what the dog does when you're out of the house. If your cell phone is capable of receiving e-mail, then you can even get the system's activity alerts on your cell, though you won't be able to view the attached images taken by the remote cameras.
Step 1: Install the software
Unpack the Starter Kit box and locate the CD, the gateway, the wireless camera and all the accompanying AC adapters and the Quick Start Guide. Place the CD in your computer's CD or DVD drive. If your PC is configured to auto play, the software will launch automatically. The Motorola Home Monitor software must be installed on your PC before anything else is connected. After a few installation questions, the installation wizard will prompt you to connect the gateway.
Step 2: Install the gateway base station
First remove the back panel from the gateway, plug in the AC adaptor and attach the gateway's USB cable to your PC. Windows will announced that a new USB device has been detected and will attempt to locate the appropriate driver. In my case the driver wasn't found automatically, so I had to instruct the wizard to look in the installation CD—at which point I was informed that the driver wasn't approved by Microsoft. Go ahead and install it anyway (it won't work if you don't). If you use a Wi-Fi network, the software will ask you to tell it what channel your existing network uses to make sure the new LAN doesn't interfere (go to Window network connections to find the channel). After the driver is loaded, you'll be ready to start installing the monitoring devices.
We used Motorola's PC-controlled HMEZ1000 Easy Start Kit which includes a wireless base station and a wireless motion detection camera. In addition we added one HMWS1060 wireless water sensor, one HMDS1040 wireless door/window sensor and another wireless camera. The cost for the hardware/software ran about $500, and the whole process took about a hour to set up and configure. Information about the products and additional accessories can be found at www.motorola.com.
If I wanted to go further with this system, I'd probably add about six more door/window sensors and an alarm. This system uses e-mail alerts to let you know what's going on when you're away and keeps an archive of all recorded events. You can't sit at your office computer and watch live video of your living room, but that feature will probably be added to the system at a later date.
A home monitoring system can be used to detect intruders, notify you of a leaky basement, or let you watch what the dog does when you're out of the house. If your cell phone is capable of receiving e-mail, then you can even get the system's activity alerts on your cell, though you won't be able to view the attached images taken by the remote cameras.
Step 1: Install the software
Unpack the Starter Kit box and locate the CD, the gateway, the wireless camera and all the accompanying AC adapters and the Quick Start Guide. Place the CD in your computer's CD or DVD drive. If your PC is configured to auto play, the software will launch automatically. The Motorola Home Monitor software must be installed on your PC before anything else is connected. After a few installation questions, the installation wizard will prompt you to connect the gateway.
Step 2: Install the gateway base station
First remove the back panel from the gateway, plug in the AC adaptor and attach the gateway's USB cable to your PC. Windows will announced that a new USB device has been detected and will attempt to locate the appropriate driver. In my case the driver wasn't found automatically, so I had to instruct the wizard to look in the installation CD—at which point I was informed that the driver wasn't approved by Microsoft. Go ahead and install it anyway (it won't work if you don't). If you use a Wi-Fi network, the software will ask you to tell it what channel your existing network uses to make sure the new LAN doesn't interfere (go to Window network connections to find the channel). After the driver is loaded, you'll be ready to start installing the monitoring devices.
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