Re: X10 still around?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

<stuff snipped>

>Question is how much time do I have to fool with it and can I find
> someone to take responsibility other than myself. The company that did the
> security at our house for 20 years sent out a kid last time we had a
lightning
> event who did a messy job, didn't fix the problem and charged an arm and a
leg
> for me to show him what to do. Completely different experience than when
the
> owner himself did the work.

Ah - therein lies the conundrum.  For a technology to be truly useful, it's
got to be easily maintainable.  Every little fuss and fidget the
designer/operator has to work around makes the system less maintainable by a
third party.  A few family emergencies have taught me that a system will
break down when the "magician" is farthest away and least able to personally
intervene.  It may be why, in the long run, some people are better off with
COTS solutions from the big names.  It offloads a lot of hassle, perhaps at
a time when you can least afford the hassling.

Alarm techs are like cable techs are like phone techs are like PC techs.
They range from the inexperienced boob to the techs that can just lay hands
on a machine or system and know where the problems lie.  The corollary issue
you raise about "do it yourself" concerns the ability to figure out who's
who in the "for hire" arena.  How do you evaluate a good alarm tech?  Is
there any way to make sure you stay *with* that tech?

There's another problem with DIY that I've been discovering.  Cable
jockeying is not necessarily compatible with any number of fairly serious
sports- related injuries and Father Time.   Alarm system failures often
involving reliving the joy of cable laying with the ceremonial cable tracing
rituals.  Not as bad as laying, but bad enough.  I know as I get older I'll
be less and less able to do that kind of work.

Right now, the issue is CCTV maintenance.  To be useful and more immune from
theft, cameras have to be high up.  To be high up, they need someone who can
climb ladders.  God and I have a deal about ladder climbing.  If I stay off
them, he won't have to miraculously spare my life again.

PIRs have the same issue:  Too low, they can be stolen or neutralized too
easily.  Too high, they are hard to maintain.  I've found CCTV cameras to
need maintenance every 6 months, perhaps even less.  That makes them poor
candidates for *my* DIY servicing if I mount them where they would be most
useful, under the eaves.

Right now, the cameras and PIRs are concealed in 2nd floor window flower
boxes that I can lean out the window to reach, but that's not an ideal
solution.  I need a folding mast crane that pops up from the center of the
roof like the window washing robots that some skyscrapers use.

I'll bet security system maintenance has been a problem since the first
anti-tomb robbing designs of the early pyramids.  I'll bet it will follow us
into space.

--
Bobby G.