Home monitoring and security PLC controlled

snowyo

Hi people, I am in the VERY early stages of designing and integrated home monitoring and security system for my Nan (Shirley) Bless her she's a diamond.

I am thinking of using a PLC to monitor and control various things in and around the house mainly for the safety of my Nan and piece of mind for the family that love her.

6 Years ago she was diagnosed with Encephalitis. She suffered major swelling in the brain causing her to be In a coma for months. After coming round it was evident we had lost the Nan we all loved. She could not remember much at all and struggled to make sense of the world.

My Grandad (Jim) cared for her for years dedicating all his time to helping her pull through. After years of very slow progress we began to get part of the Nan we loved back. She could remember my name and face, responded well to my family and started to enjoy life again. Although suffering with severe dementia her character was back.

After the death of my Grandad we considered moving her into care. Nan being as stubborn and headstrong as she always was would never agree to leaving her marital home. If she had she would always be asking when she was going home.

Now mainly my mother and step father care for her.

There have been many many issues raised concerning her welfare, things which I think could be helped by some sort of monitoring system. Not only for her safety but for piece of mind for the people who care for her.

This where I need your help..........

I have basic background knowledge of PLC's and electrical systems. I have very limited knowledge of Siemens and Mitsubishi programmable controllers. I have got my 17 edition regs cert and spend a lot of time working with plant and machinery with my job. I grab the concepts and theory and dare say I could pull together a basic programme. Its the hardware selection, design and implementation I really need advice on.

Problems we have encountered with Shirley:

1) Leaving the house and deciding to go to Marks and Spencers for those short bread biscuits she loves having no idea how to get home from town. Ok I know I cant track her down but some sort of indication of her leaving the house would be useful. (Txt over GSM maybe?)

2) lighting and heating circuit breakers tripping. In the past she has been allowed access to the circuit breakers but sometimes gets confused and turns random ones off. Its now locked up but when one trips we are only able to know when we visit which is no more than 2 days usually. Would be nice to have some sort of heads up if there was a problem.

3) Central heating issues. Would be nice to know she's warm enough during the winter and not baking in the summer.

4) Nan being Nan trusts everyone and often lets strangers into the house, Jehovah witnesses, salesmen and window cleaners. Would be nice to have some sort of alert. Realise this might take a bit of thinking. (front door opening- 2 pressure sensors in the floor??? I don't know!! maybe CCTV viewable over the net or smartphone. My mum would love that.)

5) Leaving her keys in the front door.

6) Would be good to have PIR sensors in various rooms monitoring her movements throughout the day. If possible look at trends and after a while have enough data to recognise odd behaviour or periods of inactivity. How would I get the data from the PLC into a format that could be monitored to a point where I could set up alerts?

7) garage being left open

8) The TV is often left on full blast into the early hours much to the joy of the attached neighbours. Could I get some sort of programmable IR sender to turn down the TV after a certain time? Would I need some sort of mic on an analogue input to determine this?

9) Could I monitor and amend the programme over the internet?

10) leaving lights on all around the house.

Obviously there is a lot to think about, I really need some guidance and help on these issues if they are achievable.

If you can think of any other ideas which might be beneficial i'm all ears..

Thanks for reading, hope you can help.

JillyQ

You should ask the mods to move this thread to the home security forum its better suited to it.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Moved to Home Security Systems.

altor

Boards.ie: Niamh wrote: »

Moved to Home Security Systems.

Might be better off moving to the electrical forum.
The lads would have a better understanding of PLCs and what they would be able to do.

delly

Moved from HSS to Electrical forum.

snowyo

Thanks.

2011

This requires some thought.
Will reply when I get a chance, very busy at work right now.

2011

Sorry for the late response, I have been very busy. I have made a start, and will come back to deal with the other points as soon as I can.

snowyo wrote: »

1) Leaving the house and deciding to go to Marks and Spencers for those short bread biscuits she loves having no idea how to get home from town. Ok I know I cant track her down but some sort of indication of her leaving the house would be useful. (Txt over GSM maybe?)

Have a look at this. These are used for people with dementia and other cognitive conditions.

2) lighting and heating circuit breakers tripping. In the past she has been allowed access to the circuit breakers but sometimes gets confused and turns random ones off. Its now locked up but when one trips we are only able to know when we visit which is no more than 2 days usually. Would be nice to have some sort of heads up if there was a problem.

MCBs, RCDs etc should not trip unless some sort of fault condition is present. Get this checked out by an electrician. If they keep tripping the wiring may be in a dangerous condition.

dingding

http://www.tunstallemergencyresponse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Vega_guide_EN.pdf

The manual for the Vega braclet as mentioned in the previous post. Could solve some of the issues listed. Other things to consider.

Installing a number of IP cameras to monitor the house with suitable phone viewer.

Look for belkin wemo devices, you can power on and off devices remotly and there is a sensor which can be set up with IFTTT.com to perform certain actions such as emails / sms etc if it detects alerts. It can also be used to take a picture from certain ip cameras on trigger and saved to dropbox.

Many TV's can be set up with a mode to limit the volume, such as "hotel mode".

snowyo

wow. that's brilliant lads. looked at all the above recommendations. We've looked into the GPS tracking devices before but came to no conclusion as my nan will not wear a bulky watch and uses a different handbag every time she goes out so the option of putting some sort of tracking device on her is next to impossible.

I love the idea of getting the IP cameras set up but feel its a little intrusive and my mum would be constantly looking at them. I feel the only answer would be to have some sort of monitoring system in place that would allow us to see that things were normal without being so intrusive. Maybe an IP camera at the front door would be a good idea to monitor guests/random callers..... ive seen there are now smart lock systems you can buy that allow you to see when a door is being used. Think this will be beneficial to monitor when the front door has been left open for a sizeable amount of time.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions so far. Its proving a massive help.

snowyo

looking into the Belkin wemo I think that would be great for the issues with the late night/early morning tv. Thanks.

snowyo

so... I still want a PLC wired in just to monitor movement in the house.... HELP....

2011

I think that a PLC is not the solution.
It would add a layer of complexity and can not add anything that can not be achieved with something more suitable.

I think that most of you issues can be addressed by using an intruder alarm, IP cameras, a timer or two and the remainder by the reply in post #8.