Controller Security ?

[SLICK]

OK.......So I am all ready right now. But I'm absolutely paranoid someone is going to steal my controller. I only have the one this year. And I live in a very nice area of my city. I have the controller set up very close to my house behind a bush. But is there anything that you all do to secure it a little better? I was thinking of taking a long stake and driving into the ground and bolting the LOR controller to it close to my house. I would love to have mounted it in my garage. But not this year.

[Max-Paul]

There are all kinds of things you can do to slow down a pro. Some things will discourage most smash and grab types.

I had a mount made that consist of a .25" thick plate mounted to a 2"x2"x 4' angle iron. Had a 3" sq cap added to the top so I could drive it into the ground. I drilled and tapped 3 holes 10-32. And I made a RJ-45 plug with a wire shorting pins 7 & 8. When the cable comes into the house I made the cable and left the wires out for pins 7 & 8.
Then put a power supply on one of the wires and the other wire went to a relay andT then back to the other lead of the power supply. The N.C. contact are in series with an alarm. So if the circuit going out thru the comm cable comes open the relay de-energizes and the N.C. contact close and supply a circuit for the alarm.
So if some cuts your comm cable during the commission of a crime of stealing your controller, you know about it right away.

[SLICK]

Holy Crap!!! Are you for hire? LOL Seriously though.....that is a great idea! Guess I will be fabricating something tomorrow.

[Leroy Thompson]

I just mounted mine on the outside wall of my garage with anchor bolts. I can't pull it off. If you want it, you'll have to tear it up!

[Max-Paul]

thomsol,

My thoughts too. If someone wants my controller the mount will be far to hard to pull out of the ground. And I bought those Kepal boxes and got the security type F connectors that screws into the door. Need special driver to remove the connector. Do all I can to make it not worth the effort. Plus the locals know that I have guns.

[friskybri]

Most people wont know what a controller is. People are busy looking at the lights. My guess would be if someone wants to stealing it. Look for someone else that has a light display in your area. Not to many other uses for these controllers. Its far and between that you hear of someones controller being taken.

You know speaking of security. Just popped into my head. There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool.

[Bob Wingert]

Just built a little wood frame, screwed controllers into and chained it to my front porch with a padlock. My other one's are so damn hidden into my shrubs, but they too are mounted on a wood frame and cable tied around a rebar stake I drove some 36" into the ground. Thats not coming out!!



There's two controllers on this frame, one on each side

[Guest Don Gillespie]

friskybri wrote:

Most people wont know what a controller is. People are busy looking at the lights. My guess would be if someone wants to stealing it. Look for someone else that has a light display in your area. Not to many other uses for these controllers. Its far and between that you hear of someones controller being taken.

You know speaking of security. Just popped into my head. There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool.

I like this idea and so does my wife she will no longer have to sit on the deck holding the shotgun from 11pm to 6am she would be very happy LOL
But really this is a great idea how to implement is the question

[PaulXmas]

friskybri wrote:

Most people wont know what a controller is. People are busy looking at the lights. My guess would be if someone wants to stealing it. Look for someone else that has a light display in your area. Not to many other uses for these controllers. Its far and between that you hear of someones controller being taken.

You know speaking of security. Just popped into my head. There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool.

Hey I like that idea! As long as the cost was not too high.

I have all mine mounted to the side of my house behind a locked gate.

[SLICK]

Thanks for everyone's reply's! Some great ideas here! LIke I said,....I live in one of the nicer areas in our city. But that being said,.....last year I had my truck broken into twice. hahahaaaa So I am a little skittish about leaving my beloved LOR controller just sitting out there. LOL

"There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool. "

That would be pretty sweet! Something maybe that when the controller is unplugged that you would have to put in a password before it would work again. Great idea!

[Kevin Holcomb]

My box will be in my basement. I am using an old drier vent to route all my extension cords from outside down to the basement, and the vent is covered by one of those hose reel boxes. My computer room is directly above where the box will be mounted, and there is an existing phone line that is run through the wall down to that area already, so I will run my cat5 through there to the box. Everything stays inside or if outside, out of sight out of mind. It is probably 150% more than what is really needed, but I know for sure that unless someone breaks into the house, my box ain't goin nowhere!

[Kevin Holcomb]

Double post.

[Guest guest]

Kevin Holcomb wrote:

My box will be in my basement. I am using an old drier vent to route all my extension cords from outside down to the basement, and the vent is covered by one of those hose reel boxes.

Ok, so had to comment. All power for my controllers, etc. is coming from an unused dryer plug (split into another sub-panel with a couple breakers and GFCIs), and routed thru an unused dryer vent. And gee, I thought it was unique...

To stay on topic, I am pretty rural. Cannot see my neighbors thru the woods, house sits back from the road, controllers in keptel boxes are mounted on a steel framework I built, and that will be nestled back in an area between hedges and house. You would definitely need to look for it. Could someone steal it? Yea, but the effort to find it, cut everything, and then extricate it from the bushes is a lot. Small gamble, hopefully I won't be eating my words in a month or less...

[Kevin Holcomb]

DonFL wrote:

Kevin Holcomb wrote:

My box will be in my basement. I am using an old drier vent to route all my extension cords from outside down to the basement, and the vent is covered by one of those hose reel boxes.

Ok, so had to comment. All power for my controllers, etc. is coming from an unused dryer plug (split into another sub-panel with a couple breakers and GFCIs), and routed thru an unused dryer vent. And gee, I thought it was unique...

To stay on topic, I am pretty rural. Cannot see my neighbors thru the woods, house sits back from the road, controllers in keptel boxes are mounted on a steel framework I built, and that will be nestled back in an area between hedges and house. You would definitely need to look for it. Could someone steal it? Yea, but the effort to find it, cut everything, and then extricate it from the bushes is a lot. Small gamble, hopefully I won't be eating my words in a month or less...

You must be a really smart guy!

[Guest guest]

Kevin Holcomb wrote:

DonFL wrote:

Kevin Holcomb wrote:

My box will be in my basement. I am using an old drier vent to route all my extension cords from outside down to the basement, and the vent is covered by one of those hose reel boxes.

Ok, so had to comment. All power for my controllers, etc. is coming from an unused dryer plug (split into another sub-panel with a couple breakers and GFCIs), and routed thru an unused dryer vent. And gee, I thought it was unique...

To stay on topic, I am pretty rural. Cannot see my neighbors thru the woods, house sits back from the road, controllers in keptel boxes are mounted on a steel framework I built, and that will be nestled back in an area between hedges and house. You would definitely need to look for it. Could someone steal it? Yea, but the effort to find it, cut everything, and then extricate it from the bushes is a lot. Small gamble, hopefully I won't be eating my words in a month or less...

You must be a really smart guy!

Great minds think alike...

[SLICK]

You know,....The worst part of all this is, I have my brother in law that is a master electrician that keeps telling me that he is coming over to give me some new circuits for these controllers. Yet, I have not seen him come over here all year long for electrical work. But I know he seems to like the beer in my fridge!!!! LOL

I really would like to route everything to a secure area that I don't have to worry about it. But this year,....I will be living on the edge. LOL Although with a few ideas and comments here,.....I have fabricated something that will slow them thief's down.

[Guest guest]

PaulXmas wrote:

friskybri wrote:

Most people wont know what a controller is. People are busy looking at the lights. My guess would be if someone wants to stealing it. Look for someone else that has a light display in your area. Not to many other uses for these controllers. Its far and between that you hear of someones controller being taken.

You know speaking of security. Just popped into my head. There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool.

Hey I like that idea! As long as the cost was not too high.

I have all mine mounted to the side of my house behind a locked gate.

I like that idea as well. it could be based on your registration key perhaps?

All 5 of my controllers are pretty visible, mounted in several places, controller 1 & 2 are on each end of the garage wall (far left and far right sides), controller 3 is mounted on the outside wall where the den is under one of the porch lights just left of the porch, controller 4 is mounted next to the porch on the right side and finally controller 5 is mounted on the far right side of the living room window and is sort of partially hidden by the hibiscus bush. All are anchored to the walls with 6 bolts that require a socket to remove, then all 5 are screwed closed and padlocked, each with its own key. So it'll take a thief some real heavy duty pulling to get my controllers and if they do, then they have to UNLOCK them to be able to remove the cat5 cable that interconnects them, not to mention the gazillion zip ties on the power cords and cat5 cable along with the hundreds or thousands of screw down cable clamps I use to hold power cables, cat5 and even the Christmas lights in place.


Even for a PRO, my set up would have them cursing up a storm in short order becaue it would take far too much work to get ANY of my controllers OR decorations! I even zip tie the lights to the bushes in various spots. Great thief deterrent, just won;'t stop anyone that would just want to vandalize a display because they felt like it, but the security lights help with that too.

[Bernie]

Max-Paul wrote:

There are all kinds of things you can do to slow down a pro. Some things will discourage most smash and grab types.

I had a mount made that consist of a .25" thick plate mounted to a 2"x2"x 4' angle iron. Had a 3" sq cap added to the top so I could drive it into the ground. I drilled and tapped 3 holes 10-32. And I made a RJ-45 plug with a wire shorting pins 7 & 8. When the cable comes into the house I made the cable and left the wires out for pins 7 & 8.
Then put a power supply on one of the wires and the other wire went to a relay andT then back to the other lead of the power supply. The N.C. contact are in series with an alarm. So if the circuit going out thru the comm cable comes open the relay de-energizes and the N.C. contact close and supply a circuit for the alarm.
So if some cuts your comm cable during the commission of a crime of stealing your controller, you know about it right away.

Roger that Max. That's what I did with my expensive yard decorations...--- The alarm thingy....

[Kevin Holcomb]

Orville wrote:

PaulXmas wrote:

friskybri wrote:

Most people wont know what a controller is. People are busy looking at the lights. My guess would be if someone wants to stealing it. Look for someone else that has a light display in your area. Not to many other uses for these controllers. Its far and between that you hear of someones controller being taken.

You know speaking of security. Just popped into my head. There could be a security measure built into the chip of the controller that would make the controller not work for another network. Unless your network LOR software released it to work under another PC. Like putting in a code from your LOR software that your pc would send to make the show work. Now that would be cool.

Hey I like that idea! As long as the cost was not too high.

I have all mine mounted to the side of my house behind a locked gate.

I like that idea as well. it could be based on your registration key perhaps?

All 5 of my controllers are pretty visible, mounted in several places, controller 1 & 2 are on each end of the garage wall (far left and far right sides), controller 3 is mounted on the outside wall where the den is under one of the porch lights just left of the porch, controller 4 is mounted next to the porch on the right side and finally controller 5 is mounted on the far right side of the living room window and is sort of partially hidden by the hibiscus bush. All are anchored to the walls with 6 bolts that require a socket to remove, then all 5 are screwed closed and padlocked, each with its own key. So it'll take a thief some real heavy duty pulling to get my controllers and if they do, then they have to UNLOCK them to be able to remove the cat5 cable that interconnects them, not to mention the gazillion zip ties on the power cords and cat5 cable along with the hundreds or thousands of screw down cable clamps I use to hold power cables, cat5 and even the Christmas lights in place.


Even for a PRO, my set up would have them cursing up a storm in short order becaue it would take far too much work to get ANY of my controllers OR decorations! I even zip tie the lights to the bushes in various spots. Great thief deterrent, just won;'t stop anyone that would just want to vandalize a display because they felt like it, but the security lights help with that too.

I think you got it right. I am not so worried about someone stealing my controller because, unless they are doing the same thing, a person probably wouldn't even know what to look for. I am more concerned about someone vandalising my display(teens) just for the heck of it. At any rate, my neighbor is the nosiest woman on earth! She is always watching out her window, and it would be likely that she would see someone before they got too into it.

[friskybri]

At any rate, my neighbor is the nosiest woman on earth! She is always watching out her window, and it would be likely that she would see someone before they got too into it.

LOL your neighbor must be related to Garnet across from me. She is up from 2pm and goes to bed about 4am. Sitting in her kitchen window always watching over at our house. Nice lady I always stop by and talk with her. Her dogs always barks when a car parks in our driveway that isn't mine. Her 3 dogs kind of protects us. One day my dad was here and he was chasing my kids around the yard and they came over and tripped my dad. Didn't bite him but stopped him from chasing them. Then they saw me and went home.