Instructables user [willnue] wanted to build a DIY Tweeting alarm system from the ground up, but reconsidered after taking a close look at the scope of such a project. He settled on using an off the shelf security system, taking care of the Twitter interface on his own. He bought a GE 45142 Wireless alarm and promptly disassembled it to see how he might retrieve status messages from the unit.
He figured that monitoring the alarm’s LEDs would make the most sense, so he used a bit of Ethernet cable and wired all of the system’s indicators to his Arduino board. He hooked up an Ethernet shield to the Arduino, then wrapped the pair up in a plastic project box that closely matched the look of the security system. Once that was done, he wrote some simple code for the Arduino that monitors each of the alarm system’s six status lights, sending updates to Twitter via the ThingTweet service.
With this system you might not get your status messages in time to foil whoever is carrying off your plasma TV, but at least you will know what to expect once you get home!
If you want to keep tabs on [Will’s] security system to find out the best time to rob him see how things are going, check out his Twitter feed here.
I would love to see how to rig a up atracphone… i need to do somehting like this myself… howeverwe dont have any kind of telco/dsl/cable
It’s ThingTweet, not TweetThing :-)
Actually, this seems rather simple, but I think it’s ingenious! If you are away and your neighbors see that your broken in they can check. Kind of a real world application of a virtual network. Nice.
ur house is being robbed lol
It is pretty simple, but sometimes that’s all you need! Also, don’t just think about it in terms of a security system. If you don’t set the alarm the sensors still inform the base station of their status so you can use the sensors for anything ie. add a door/window sensor to your mailbox, point a motion detector at you door for deliveries, dog door, bird house etc…
Tony, Instead of a track phone you could substitute the Ethernet shield with a Cellular shield and have it send SMS text messages instead of tweets.
Thanks for posting my project HAD!
Mah. First thing most clever thieves do is cutting telephone and ethernet wires. So if you alarm system fail this won’t help either.
I think it is too much trouble to create something not foolproof.
So, if you were to recommend a vendor for what you’ve described above, who would you go with? (given that we’re talking about companies inside the continental USA)
If you check out the Intstructable the first page includes links to all of the places to buy the parts and they are all in the USA.