Automated house awakening when there is an intruder

I want to run a process that simulates the house awakening when the mode is away or we’re asleep and motion is detected outside.

I want it to gradually turn on lights in a pattern that looks like we’re moving around.

I also want to trigger a wav on sonos in one room and then another to simulate a dog moving around the house whilst barking.

It feels like I need to make lots of rules and have one trigger another.

Any other recommends?

This seems like a really bad way to scare off an intruder. A siren and all the lights coming on to full brightness seems a lot more effective to me.
But, you can use HSM alerts as triggers in RM if you want.

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I just have all of my lights turn on. It's he surprise that gets them.

I've read stories of peoples stuff going off in the middle of the night false alarm waking up the kids, the neighbors. The time and testing it would take to get that right, just all the lights coming on and a Sig in the nightstand next to my husband seems to make us feel a little safer at night. If you do this, you should document it. Someone else will definitely ask that question. But work smart. It's a slippery slope.

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This has pretty much been my theory, to be as abrupt and unexpected as possible. I'm sure anyone doing the same with HSM has experienced it through testing or accidentally setting it off and can relate that it's kind of a stressful experience. Even when you're expecting it...

I think it's important to remember that HSM, or any alarm or smart home product is really just a supplement to the locks on your doors. Nothing will ever keep you 100% safe, but it's like a smoke detector that it gives you a much better chance at dealing with whatever set it off.

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When we go on vacation, i start a mode that randomly fires lights in random rooms at appropriate times. Makes the house look lived in. Since it's so easy to turn the tv on and off through rules now, it is a very effective tool to keep people from casing a dark house. I also have automations that turn on outside lights and lamps inside daily just for the added security of looking like you're home when you haven't arrived yet from work. I find this more comforting. Coming home to a lit house.

Yup...and that's all wonderful to help your house look "lived-in". But the OP is proposing using that type of automation as the alarm. So, rather than a siren or all the lights coming on at once, he would have the upstairs light come on, then the hallway...etc.

What I think would happen is that any burglar would think it was a person and just wait to surprise them and shoot them. then when they see that no ones coming, make off with all your stuff.

Stupid me, I bought a real dog. I didn’t realize I bought a breed from Egypt (Abyssinians) that doesn’t bark! DOH!

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I went through a similar exercise and I decided to turn all the lights on EXCEPT my bedroom. The theory is that my eyes have a few moments to adjust before the panic sets in :slight_smile:

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I have a mode called vacation. When vacation is activated, my lights turn on randomly around sunset -30, and turn off randomly around 10:30pm, in an order. I could also turn on sonos, and tv, but not gone there yet.

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Same thing for me. When in Away mode lights come on at certain lux levels and turn off at a random time around 11pm during the week and 12pm weekends.
I also have my downstairs and upstairs landing lights turn on and off at random intervals. These then trigger downstairs and upstairs toilet lights so it looks like we are moving around the house.
Will it stop intruders? No. But hopefully it will stop opportunists who are generally scanning the area.

When we are home I rely on my wife waking me up!!

EDIT. Here is the sequence of rules I use to achieve this. Maybe you could adapt these to meet your needs. You won't need the randomness but it will give an idea of how lights can trigger another to turn on.

I used this back with Smartthings -- and was brought to my attention that it can be used (as written) with Hubitat. Works great!

I'm waiting for someone here to develop a motion-tracking servo. Then I'm going to mount a targeting laser on it. Turn on the laser and turn off the the lights when the intrusion is detected. Then the speakers will announce (in the most robotic voice I can find) "Target acquired. Ten.... Nine.... Eight..."

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All of these are cool ideas but... I think you need to establish a pattern of lights that are the exact same as when you are home. That way someone scoping the neighborhood cannot tell if someone is home or not. We did this with ST and one time our neighbors called us while we were away to invite us over thinking we were home based on our lights - I considered that a success.

Also there are degrees of intrusion - if someone is just walking up to the door then that is one thing if they are attempting to go around back or enter a garage that's another. I really like my ring floodlights for this.

Interestingly I was working with a client who had ST and Ring and did NOT want the lights to come on if the doorbell rang or motion detected and he was not home. The reason was there was a mentally challenged person that kept coming over and would not leave if he thought my client was home.

With ST I had dogs barking through my SONOS in my basement. Have to say it was pretty awesome. Accidentally scared my daughter's babysitter one night when I forgot to disarm and she went down the basement steps..

Strap a target laser to a WyzePancam and set it to track movement.
Use a power outlet to power up the laser, triggered by IFTTT and the Wyzecam.
It should do what you want. :+1:t2:

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