Electric fence question

[Vetplant]

1 hour ago, shova1 said:

With regards the COC, your local municipality will probably require one in the event of ownership transfer should that happen. Importantly, you should check with your liability, property & home contents insurance if it's required. It could get nasty if injury or damage occurs as a result of the fence & there's no COC. 

Interestingly, we sold our house in 2016 with an electric fence. No requirement for a CoC from the buyer or the Municipality. Two months after transfer, agent phones me and asks for the CoC. I go looking in the rules and bylaws and basically: if it is written in the OTP, then a CoC needs to be provided for electric fence by the seller. If not, then the seller has no obligation to provide one. Told her to go jump.

PS. This is in Tshwane. Other municipalities are probably different.

[Stoffel76]

I guess it depends on the criminal... If they want to get in they will, but it is a good deterrent.

 

We had countless intrusions onto our property even after we raised the walls.  But after we put up the electric fence, we've had only one that I know of and they got in by forcing the driveway gate.  In our area, it's mostly local tikheads causing most of the problems who are probably looking for an easy score, so I guess its effective against them...

 

We installed it in 2018. It's been fairly low maintenance. One wire broke on a connection point, but that was an easy fix. Been through a couple of batteries, but that's probably mostly thanks to loadshedding!  

[Mojoman]

1 hour ago, Stoffel76 said:

I guess it depends on the criminal... If they want to get in they will, but it is a good deterrent.

 

We had countless intrusions onto our property even after we raised the walls.  But after we put up the electric fence, we've had only one that I know of and they got in by forcing the driveway gate.  In our area, it's mostly local tikheads causing most of the problems who are probably looking for an easy score, so I guess its effective against them...

 

We installed it in 2018. It's been fairly low maintenance. One wire broke on a connection point, but that was an easy fix. Been through a couple of batteries, but that's probably mostly thanks to loadshedding!  

Thanks everyone, ja, we have the same problem here...The Nyope Boys....
Not much deters them. Im kinda sick of it though...

[Mojoman]

4 hours ago, Eddy Gordo said:

Yes, indeed. A friend of mine had constant issues with his. He had the one in the nylon sleeve. The guys would shock themselves all the time, alarm goes off etc. Eventually they just throw a blanket or carpet over the wires or a brick to break the wires. Barb wire and some serious spikes also work. Agreed at the end of the day, if they want to get in, they will!

Ja, I have 6 dogs, but at 3pm on a sunny afternoon none of them seem to think we would have visitors and sleep very soundly....????
To be honest I didnt expect my last unannounced visitor either at 3pm...he can see the car and hear the radio from my office area but that didnt bother him at all..

[Long Wheel Base]

During lockdown last year we had a few incidents in our suburb of fence jumpers and all of them broke into cars parked outside garages or took gas bottles visible form the road etc. The guy across from me doesn't have a garage anymore(it's now a flat) and all his cars park in his front yard and his lightie left a laptop in the car and they smashed the window and took it. So one of the local security companies sent a message saying these type of incidents are on the rise during lockdown and these guys just take the path of least resistance so as bad as it sounds you just need to have a bit more than your neighbor and they will just go next door(but targeted premeditated robberies it doesn't matter what you got).

So as soon as we were allowed out of our houses I went off to Nemtek and bought everything needed(think it cost me like R12k). I installed it all myself according to the law requirements. I don't have a COC but I would need one if I sell my house. Colleague of mine recently sold his house, he never had a COC as he had also done it himself. He called an electrician, the guy asked him to whatsapp pictures of certain things. Electrician asked him to change a few things(he had to add 1 extra earth spike and put one earth wire in trunking). He did that and sent the guy pictures. The electrician sent an invoice for R1100, it was paid and the next day the COC was in his post box.

I have it for basically a year now, have had to fix a wire twice(first time the stupid flashing light thing they sold me to let you know there is power was arcing and it melted the wire and the 2nd time was my fault when I was trimming the tree on my pavement and a branch swung down and fell on the fence) but I bought a big roll of the stainless wire so have plenty to do repairs. The alarm has gone off 3 times. A bird fried itself as well as a lizard(the bird must have hit live and earth and the lizard was on the live and then earthed himself to the pole) and then a branch from a shrub thing in the neighbors garden which he now keeps trimmed.

I am not worried about something going wrong or the system shocking someone unnecessarily as I may not be a qualified electrician but I know how this stuff works so there is nothing wrong with my work. I have also done the job probably better than some "qualified" installers. For eg All my lugs onto the earth spikes are soldered and shrink sleeved whereas I am pretty sure most guys don't do that. 

All I need to do now is hook it up to my alarm system as it is currently separate and I or my security company don't know if it goes off if I am not at home. I wanted to let the system run and sort any potential niggles before I have the guys at my house every few days due to a branch setting it off.

Also, some sort of remote activating/deactivating device would be nice. The unit sits in my garage and if it goes off in the middle of the night I will have to go outside as my garage is not part of my house. I am not sure if you get anything like that, still need to find out.

 

[Vetplant]

5 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

 

Also, some sort of remote activating/deactivating device would be nice. The unit sits in my garage and if it goes off in the middle of the night I will have to go outside as my garage is not part of my house. I am not sure if you get anything like that, still need to find out.

 

Sounds like a solid installation you did there.

W.R.T. the remove activation/deactivation:

Most of these energizers have the option to wire something in that does that switch for you. From a NEMTEK manual I retrieved this image. Seems they have a "SWITCH" terminal, but they just bridge it out with a physical wire by default.

 

From a logic point of view, you just need a relay that latches open and closed on that wire.

CENTSYS NOVA single channel Remote Receiver can be programmed to Latch, so you just wire it in there and use one of the buttons on your CENTSYS remote to enable and disable it.

 

Just a suggestion, many ways to have a relay that latches. You can even get something that can give you feedback if it is triggered as well. CENTSYS G-ULTRA is the marquee option, obviously at a huge price. https://www.centsys.co.za/g-ultra/

[Long Wheel Base]

1 hour ago, Vetplant said:

Sounds like a solid installation you did there.

W.R.T. the remove activation/deactivation:

Most of these energizers have the option to wire something in that does that switch for you. From a NEMTEK manual I retrieved this image. Seems they have a "SWITCH" terminal, but they just bridge it out with a physical wire by default.

 

From a logic point of view, you just need a relay that latches open and closed on that wire.

CENTSYS NOVA single channel Remote Receiver can be programmed to Latch, so you just wire it in there and use one of the buttons on your CENTSYS remote to enable and disable it.

 

Just a suggestion, many ways to have a relay that latches. You can even get something that can give you feedback if it is triggered as well. CENTSYS G-ULTRA is the marquee option, obviously at a huge price. https://www.centsys.co.za/g-ultra/

Thanks for the info, luckily my gate and garage door are both centsys nova so it might be easier than I thought.

[Vetplant]

25 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Thanks for the info, luckily my gate and garage door are both centsys nova so it might be easier than I thought.

Just something to remember:

Some of these Nova receivers are channel locked on the buttons you can learn on them. ie. Channel 1 on some of the receivers can only be activated by Button 1 on a 4 Button remote. (Stupid, I know. Would like to know who thought that is a good plan)

The Gate receivers are usually not fussed about it. So Learn your Gate Motor on Button 4 for example, Garage on 3, Alarm on 2 and Fence on Button 1.

The issue comes in if your Garage Door Motor Receiver is already locked to Channel 1, then you might need to get a Two channel receiver for the fence to enable you to learn Button 2 on it.

This is if you want a single remote to do it all. Alternatively, just buy a single channel receiver and a single channel remote and leave it as a dedicated tool. But I like a single remote to do it all.

[Long Wheel Base]

5 minutes ago, Vetplant said:

Just something to remember:

Some of these Nova receivers are channel locked on the buttons you can learn on them. ie. Channel 1 on some of the receivers can only be activated by Button 1 on a 4 Button remote. (Stupid, I know. Would like to know who thought that is a good plan)

The Gate receivers are usually not fussed about it. So Learn your Gate Motor on Button 4 for example, Garage on 3, Alarm on 2 and Fence on Button 1.

The issue comes in if your Garage Door Motor Receiver is already locked to Channel 1, then you might need to get a Two channel receiver for the fence to enable you to learn Button 2 on it.

This is if you want a single remote to do it all. Alternatively, just buy a single channel receiver and a single channel remote and leave it as a dedicated tool. But I like a single remote to do it all.

Thanks, good to know. I don't think mine is locked but will investigate. All my remotes are 4 button at the moment. 1 is gate open/close, 2 is gate open half way with auto close after time period(I use this when leaving on the bike), 3 is garage door open/close and 4 is the light in the garage door motor which I have removed the bulb because it decided it didn't want to switch off anymore no matter what I pushed or did so I will look into reprogramming button 4.

[The Ouzo]

4 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Thanks, good to know. I don't think mine is locked but will investigate. All my remotes are 4 button at the moment. 1 is gate open/close, 2 is gate open half way with auto close after time period(I use this when leaving on the bike), 3 is garage door open/close and 4 is the light in the garage door motor which I have removed the bulb because it decided it didn't want to switch off anymore no matter what I pushed or did so I will look into reprogramming button 4.

otherwise go the smart option and wire in a Sonoff basic to trigger a relay that can handle the amperage of the system

[Mojoman]

Just now, ouzo said:

otherwise go the smart option and wire in a Sonoff basic to trigger a relay that can handle the amperage of the system

Have you used these Sonoff products? Are they any good for this sort of a set up?
Or being able to activate lights/stereo etc when you are not home?

[Long Wheel Base]

2 minutes ago, ouzo said:

otherwise go the smart option and wire in a Sonoff basic to trigger a relay that can handle the amperage of the system

I will have to do some research into this. As a mechanic I am not too clued up on relays etc but I am sure I will grasp it once I look into it.

 

PS: I haven't seen you on the bike for a while? Am I just late for work or you wisely staying at home where it is warm?

[The Ouzo]

1 minute ago, Mojoman said:

Have you used these Sonoff products? Are they any good for this sort of a set up?
Or being able to activate lights/stereo etc when you are not home?

I've got a few of them on various things around the house.

Pool pump operates of a TH16 as it can handle 16amps and has temperature sensor.

Geyser is a TH16 (because I could not get a TH10 at the time) that triggers a relay to turn the geyser on or off, I have the temp-sensor in place of the thermostat so I can see what the temp of the geyser is and have automated on/off based on temp readings.

Have a few sonoff basics around handling a couple of lights.

They are all operating with native software and the ewelink app, so far no issues. But the most common thing is people flash them with better software and run better dashboards

[Mojoman]

Just now, ouzo said:

I've got a few of them on various things around the house.

Pool pump operates of a TH16 as it can handle 16amps and has temperature sensor.

Geyser is a TH16 (because I could not get a TH10 at the time) that triggers a relay to turn the geyser on or off, I have the temp-sensor in place of the thermostat so I can see what the temp of the geyser is and have automated on/off based on temp readings.

Have a few sonoff basics around handling a couple of lights.

They are all operating with native software and the ewelink app, so far no issues. But the most common thing is people flash them with better software and run better dashboards

A few years back I satarted messing around with Arduinos linked to my router/wifi and using relays to turn things on and off etc but life took over and the project collected dust...These Sonof things seem like a good buy though at the price?

[TNT1]

11 minutes ago, Mojoman said:

Have you used these Sonoff products? Are they any good 

Terrible piece of garbage.

For heavy lifting these days, CBI Astute is my go to. For everything else, there's Xiaomi.

 

Astutes are cheaper and more reliable than sonoff, and also local.

 

Oh, and both CBI and Xiaomi apps talk to Google Home, so one consolidated interface with that.

Edited June 10, 2021 by TNT1

[The Ouzo]

3 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

I will have to do some research into this. As a mechanic I am not too clued up on relays etc but I am sure I will grasp it once I look into it.

 

PS: I haven't seen you on the bike for a while? Am I just late for work or you wisely staying at home where it is warm?

give me a shout if you need help, but since you were able to do the electric fence yourself you will grasp the concept pretty easily.

 

Part laziness, part cant get myself to go out into the cold. Also the days I do go out I'm trying to get out 5-10 minutes earlier to do a slightly slower ride.

Have also setup the IDT in the shed but still cant seem to get myself onto it to often.