Light Controller Security

[blearning]

What has worked for me ... razor wire fence, it bloody well serves them right!

A few dead bodies in the yard ...  "never hurts to show results"

A sign that says "Protected by Smith and Weston"   you can only get away with this in the south.

High Voltage signs through the display.  Normally serves to keep all but the Darwin Awards folks at bay.  (this one actually works well for some folks)

The neighbors pitbull has the run of the display at night.   He is grouchy if he gets woke up ... and don't you dare surprise him either.  We keep him fairly well tranquilized during the day time 

Lawn lights are a method I use to slow them down so I can use my tire iron on them .....

Taping razor blades to the controllers ... this has some obvious flaws in case YOU have to work on them ...

POP out snakes compressed into the enclosures ... old folks have a hard time with this one. 

pound several rebar stakes throughout the yard, and lots of fishing line. 


and My favorite is free DONUTS and coffee, and unlimited WIFI  for the local law officials all night long ..

I really just stick them around the yard on stakes, if someone really wants them I am glad to help out .... 

seriously I make a point of going to the Police head quarters and make sure that they all know that they are more then welcome to come by with a special invitation to them. I also DO supply coffee and donuts to them ...  they often come by and do their paperwork and make themselves very visible.   When they do come around I MAKE A special effort to  go out and visit with them for a while.  Almost every night we have a marked vehicle out on the street watching the light show.

[jnealand]

Last year I had someone steal a lighted reindeer so I took some small chain and ran it to the remaining 5 and zip tied the chain in two spots per deer and then zip tied the power cords to the chain and to each other.  They can still be stolen, but the thief will certainly be slowed down.  Most of my controllers were screwed to a board mounted to my front porch, but his year with more controllers and probably putting them out in the yard I'm think of more small chain and zip tying everything in reach together.  I also have a big motion light covering the front yard which lights up everything.

[smartcontrols]

Mine is much like jnealand. But instead of small chain, I ran a single 16 AWG wire thru everything in a big loop. I drilled small holes thru my pvc and things. So the wire actual goes thru everything. On the few items I did not want to drill, I used small U-bolt cable clamps for steal cable. I run 12 vdc thru it and back to an ice cube relay. The relay is connected to my doorbell. So if anyone breaks or cuts that wire, my doorbell rings repeatedly. This year I got a big 8” fire alarm bell to use for it, so the neighbors and thief can hear it too. Just in case I am not at home. I don’t know if it worked, but no one has stolen anything since I started doing this. Maybe the neighborhood is just getting better.

This year with all of the controllers I am adding. I use the enclosure that RJ recommends; I will just run my alarm wire in one of the wire holes and out another.

Jeff