Successful arrest in Waihi.

November 23, 2012

Successful Arrest of Fuel Thieves in Waihi

Safe and Sound Security, one of our installers, in Waihi, called today with the following success story…

“Over the weekend a customer of ours with a Parabeam® six beam-set system, had left their son to monitor the property while they were away.  The son was monitoring the farm using a secondary receiver at his property close by, and heard the alert from one of the six beam-sets.  On investigating he spotted a Utility parked near the diesel tanks and two men in the process of stealing fuel.  He contacted the police and pursued the men, who were eventually apprehended and arrested”

Russell from Safe and Sound Security can be seen next to the Parabeam detector that has raised the alert.

Solutions For Theft In The Forestry Industry

May 11, 2012

Battery powered beam-sets

Solar powering a Beam-set in a forestry or dense bush application is often impractical unless there is a reasonable sized clearing in the bush that will allow the solar panels to see enough sky to receive an adequate charge. If there is any doubt, battery powering the Beam-set is the answer.

Fully charge Li-Ion batteries having a capacity ranging between say 2200mAh – 10,000mAh allow operating durations of around 20-90 days respectively. This will vary slightly depending on the number of daily beam activations and the IR Emitter’s beam strength setting, which may be adjusted in three steps ranging from 10m to 40m maximum. Using the 2200mAh example, the physical size of the cell is only 75mm long by 19mm diameter, making it easy to locate near the base of the mounting post without being noticed.

In the case of a 10,000mAh battery pack, a much larger external waterproof housing is needed. (Approximately 80x80x55mm) Regardless of size, external battery packs are connected via a cable to the underside of each beam-unit with waterproof ‘twist-lock’ male and female connectors for easy swapping or removal.

A complete Beam-set kit comprises of a Beam Emitter, Beam Communicator, two or four battery packs and a charger, as well as all mounting hardware and cables.

To help avoid activations from wild animals it may be better to mount the Beam Units slightly higher than the usual recommended height of 800mm above ground. It may also be useful to consider steel poles to help deter possums from climbing them.

Alternatively, a stainless steel band could be fitted around a 100×100 wooden post to help prevent this. Although beam alignment is easy undertake and test, it will be far more important in this kind of remote setting.

Communication via GSM

Assuming there are one, two or several battery powered detection beams deployed, the next question is; how do we communicate beam activations to whoever will be monitoring the site?

If there is GSM coverage in the area there will be very little challenge. All Beam-sets communicate to standard Parabeam® Base Receivers which provide individually zoned trigger outputs to a GSM Communicator. The GSM Communicator then sends an SMS (text message) or makes a phone call to the monitoring personnel, informing them of any beam activation.

The type of GSM unit supplied will typically depend on the number of Beam-sets deployed and how the communications hardware will be powered.

Low Battery Warnings

Though our current GSM technology does not allow remote reporting of a low Beam-set battery, the Base Receiver indicates any low Beam Emitter or Beam Communicator status. Upon observing the battery status, you will have plenty of time to recharge the batteries before a beam-set stops working.

When a fully charged 2200mAh Li-ion battery pack used on each Beam Unit, for example, you will have an estimated 20 days minimum use before a low battery indication is generated, after this you will have around seven days to recharge or swap the battery before the unit stops working. This allows plenty of leeway for maintaining a fully functioning installation.

Communication via Radio

If there is no GSM coverage, a suitable communication solution will need to be devised on a case by case basis. It may be that radio links involving boost antennas and signal repeaters are needed to send the alert signals to a location where there is GSM coverage.

It may also be the case that the site is so remote that communication is almost pointless because of travelling times involved in a site visit. Some kind of local visual and audible deterrent may be used instead of, or as well as communications to hopefully deter trespassers.

Portable cameras such as our high quality RECONYX™ range can also be deployed for a more complete approach.

This article is intended to be an introduction to the kinds of solutions available; however requirements for outdoor, remote situations always vary widely so please contact us directly for a solution to best suit your needs.

How To Tell If A Gate Has Been Left Open 2km Away

January 26, 2012

A Parabeam® Beam-set is excellent for generating a reliable alert signal whenever a vehicle or person has passed through its precise detection beam – the base receiver will also tell you visually and audibly that whatever interrupted the beam is still there. For example a car may have stopped mid-way through the beam, blocking it and preventing it from restoring.

But what if you want to know whether a gate on your property is open or closed right now? A beam-set is not really appropriate for a few reasons.
Stock may need to wander nearby and would continuously activate it, and even though you could in principle use an open gate to block the detection beam, the beam could never tell you that the gate is fully closed against the gate post. It would need to be so close to the gate as to be vulnerable to being set off on a windy day.

A better solution is a magnetic reed switch attached to the gate and gate post to sense whenever the gate is opened and left open. Our new switch-link communicator has been designed to handle this very application, and any other application requiring real-time monitoring of any binary state: open-closed / on-off.

When a gate is open the zone LED at the base receiver changes from Green (closed) to Amber (open) – an output also switches on for as long as the gate remains open. You can use this to switch on some kind of audible or visual alert that continues until the gate is closed. This could be something like a strobe light or buzzer.

You can also reverse the polarity of the sensor with a simple jumper (link) inside the ‘switch-link’ unit, so that now the output at the receiver is active when the gate is closed and vice-versa.

The connectivity range of the switch-link communicator is the same as a standard beam-set: 800m maximum, but may be extended dramatically with boost antennas or signal repeaters. Many kilometres connectivity range could be achieved using a combination of repeaters and boost antennas if needed allowing you to tell whether a gate is open or closed right now.

The current model base receiver will monitor two gates, and a switch-link communicator can be enrolled to say zone 1 while a standard beam-set is enrolled on zone 2.

We Have Poor Vodafone Coverage – Will Your SMS Unit Work On The Telecom XT Network?

November 26, 2011

“We have poor Vodafone coverage – will your SMS unit work on the Telecom XT network?”

The short answer to this question is no – SMS devices compatible with the New Zealand Telecom XT network are very hard to source and expensive if you can.

However, all is not lost. If you can get useable coverage outside your house on the Vodafone network – and particularly if you can get good coverage in an elevated location such as on the roof of your house, then there should be no problem making our system work on your property.

In these situations we would supply the SMS unit in a watertight outdoor enclosure. This is supplied with a 15-20m long 6-core alarm cable and incorporates a mounting bracket similar to that of a small television antenna (U-Bolt/V-Block arrangement).

Why can’t the SMS unit stay indoors and we connect an outdoor antenna to it instead? The answer to this is: You can but there will be little advantage and several disadvantages to this approach.

Outdoor cellular antennas are expensive and specialized. Signal losses in the coaxial cable connecting to an outdoor antenna mean only short lengths are recommended or you will lose some of the gain from the antenna itself – this limits the possible mounting locations of the SMS unit.

Coaxial cable at cellular frequencies tends to be very thick and rigid making it difficult to run, whereas thinner, flexible alarm cable can be run much greater distances with ease and is more forgiving if there are kinks in the cable.

In summary, the outdoor SMS is the best solution providing you have first checked for reasonable signal strength at the intended mounting location. The SMS unit has a superior antenna than the one inside your phone, which is designed more for aesthetics than function – this means it will automatically have better coverage than your phone.

If you require more clarification please contact us.