Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

Bill Pretty

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781783559602
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Hardware
• Index: Computer Science

In Detail

One of the best kept secrets of the security industry is just how simple the monitoring hardware actually is - BeagleBone has all the computing power you need to build yourself an extremely sophisticated access control, alarm panel, and home automation and network intrusion-detection system. Security companies make a fortune each year by charging exorbitant fees to their customers. You will learn how easy it is to make an alarm system with Beaglebone.

A company-maintained-and-monitored alarm system has its place - your dear old mum is probably not going to be creating her own system any time soon. But if you are reading this book, you are probably a builder or a hobbyist with all the skills required to do it yourself. With Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone, you will learn everything you need to know to develop your own state-of-the-art security system, all for less than a years worth of monitoring charges from your local alarm company!

You will start by building and testing your hardware and open source software on an experimenters prototype board before progressing to more complex systems. You will then learn how to test your new creations in a modular fashion and begin to utilize BeagleBone. Once your system is built and tested, you will install some of the professional-grade sensors used in modern alarm systems and learn how to use them. You will also discover how to extend your alarm system in a variety of different ways. The only limit will be your imagination.

Approach

Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone is a practical, hands-on guide for practical, hands-on people. The book includes step-by-step instructions for assembling your own hardware on professionally manufactured PCBs and setting up the software on your system.

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who is interested in alarm systems and how they work; for hobbyists and basement tinkerers who love to build things. If you want to build the hardware described in this book, you will need some basic soldering skills, but all the parts are of the thru-hole variety and are very easy to put together. When it comes to software, you can just run it as-is, but if you want to modify the code, you will need knowledge of Java and IDEs.

Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

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Table of Contents

Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code and image files

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Alarm Systems 101

Door and window switches

The PIR – passive infrared sensor

Glass break sensors

The temperature rise sensor

Summary

2. Our Very First Alarm System

Zones

The hardware

The LM339 comparator

The EOL – End Of Line resistor

The software

Summary

3. Bigger and Better

The planning phase

Step 1 – the walkabout

Your dream home

The first floor

The second floor

Step 2 – the layered-defense technique

Step 3 – the installation

Switch contact wiring

Window and door contact wiring

Active sensor wiring

The software

Adding more outputs

Adding more inputs

BeagleBone I/O pins

Summary

4. Building the Hardware

Zone monitor PCB

Isolated output PCB

Connecting devices to the board

BeagleBone adapter PCB

Mechanical PCB assembly

Wiring harness assembly

Test harness

Summary

5. Testing the Hardware

The test equipment

Visual check

The zone input board

Power check

Troubleshooting power problems

Zone input tests

Alarm output board tests

Testing

Summary

6. Automating Stuff

The low-current solenoid driver

The DC-motor driver

The web page interface

Summary

7. Protecting Your Network

MyTraceRoute

Trace route examples

IPTraf

Configuring IPTraf

Summary

8. Keeping an Eye on Things

Yaler

Installing YalerTunnel

Enabling web access

SSH access

Configuring PuTTY

WiFi monitoring

Wavemon

Bluetooth monitoring

Summary

9. Going Further

An RFID reader

A fingerprint scanner

A geophone sensor

A barcode scanner

Summary

Index

Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2013

Production Reference: 1101213

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78355-960-2

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Bill Pretty (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Bill Pretty

Reviewers

Toni de la Fuente (Blyx)

Naoya Hashimoto

Jaime Soriano Pastor

Norbert Varga

Kelli Waxman

Acquisition Editor

Sam Birch

Commissioning Editor

Amit Ghodake

Copy Editors

Roshni Banerjee

Mradula Hegde

Dipti Kapadia

Deepa Nambiar

Karuna Narayanan

Kirti Pai

Lavina Pereira

Technical Editors

Shubhangi Dhamgaye

Pratik More

Nachiket Vartak

Project Coordinator

Akash Poojary

Proofreader

Ting Baker

Indexer

Tejal Soni

Graphics

Ronak Dhruv

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Adonia Jones

Cover Work

Adonia Jones

About the Author

Bill Pretty began his career in electronics in the early 80s with a small telecom startup company that eventually became a large multinational. He left there to pursue a career in commercial aviation in North Canada. From there he joined the Ontario Center for Microelectronics, a provincially funded research and development center. He left there for a career in the military as a civilian contractor at what was then called the Defense Research Establishment, Ottawa. That began a career that was to span the next 25 years, and continues today.

Over the years, Bill has acquired extensive knowledge in the field of technical security and started his own company in 2010. That company is called William Pretty Security Inc. and provides support in the form of research and development to various law enforcement and private security agencies.

While this is Bill's first book, he has published a...