quarryworks

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me sort out a CCTV/alarm system for our timber store. Firstly, a bit about our situation:- •I live in a flat directly on top of our workshop. •The timber store is built on the side of the workshop, therefore not directly underneath the flat (difficult to hear things going on in the store) •Access to the flat and the timber store is in the back of the yard, away from houses, the main road and street lights. •At the moment, access to the timber store is an ancient roller shutter, the chain sort that allows people to see in. This, combined with being away from neighbours' eyes and ears makes it a bit of a haven for thieves. •The flat has no windows to the back of the yard which means I can't see what's going on without opening the front door. I'd rather the thieves do not realise I live there. Now, what I would like is some sort of CCTV system in the timber store, viewable in my flat. If anyone is sniffing around or breaking in to the timber store, I want some sort of soft alarm to wake me so I can check the CCTV and call the police if necessary. We're very strapped for cash at the moment, so I want a cheap and cheerful method that is going to do the job. How would you go about this? I was thinking of maybe motion-triggered flood lights inside and outside the timber store, along with one of those cheap (~£100) four camera wireless eBay systems, positioning cameras at all the crucial points. Instead of using the probably rubbish night vision, the lights would come on and the system start recording. But how would I be woken up? Would I hook the camera system up to my PC through a DVR card and use surveillance software with motion detection (if so, which package?), or would it be better to get some sort of standalone recorder? (If so, would they have some sort of alert function and what would you recommend?) One thing that concerns me about these wireless systems though is if the signal would be good enough to reach my flat. On average, the cameras would have to send a signal approx. 10m to me in the flat, through a stone wall. I also understand these tend to run on 2.4GHz, which is the same as my wireless access point. Perhaps wireless would not be the best option? I hope I've made things clear and sorry if the post is a bit long-winded, any questions please ask and I'll do my best to explain. Looking forward to reading what you have to say, thanks in advance!

Thanks for the ideas guys, particularly the napalm. I think beams outside and PIR inside would be a good start. What would you suggest for a low budget CCTV system?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I recently got hold of a load of floodlights on CEE plugs, just need to get some sensors to activate them now. I'll take a look on eBay and see what I can find. In the meantime, do you have any particular sensor recommendations?

Any ideas? I was hoping to get a system in place for the weekend. We had a break-in both Saturday and Sunday night last week and I'm wondering if they will come back this weekend. Fortunately they didn't make it away with anything valuable - on the Saturday attempt they tried to take our industrial car battery charger but couldn't fit it under the shutter they had jacked up. We realised the next day what they were after and moved it. We fixed the shutter as best we could, then weighed it down with a 4 ton forklift truck! What we didn't account for was the thieves coming back with bolt cutters the following night and literally cutting themselves a door. This time they couldn't take the charger so they got away with a few other things of no real value to us. Unfortunately I didn't hear them to call the police. Replacing the shutter would be obvious, but we don't have a lot of cash at the moment and to be honest there are so many other points they can break-in with ease. I think an alarm and CCTV system would be the best bet at the moment, until we can secure the whole place properly.