DIY Home security

[black]

I'm reasonably annoyed at our home security. It was a legacy system when we bought our house.
Issues keep appearing, sensor fails, new install 150$, new master panel to allow for cellular not a land based service ( 500$)
mystery alarming, alarm goes off by accident but after 90 seconds police aren't called.

Id like to get a DIY hom security like this
Amazon.com: Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit: Home Improvement

Needs are window sensors, maybe motion sensors
Wireless cameras to check on dogs
Remote temp monitoring, add in a water sensor for pipe bursting etc, smart light fixtures

I'd like something simple i'm not a computer genius. The Foscam cameras Iglu used were way above my intellect in setting them up.
I'd like to be able maintain the video somewhere also

Big thing is I need monitoring. I just dont want to be notified, I want the popo or fire equivalent called.

[SRTie4k]

If you want idiot proof cams, Dropcam is probably the way to go. Cloud based solutions are not the most secure, but they're simple.

[rice_rocket]

I'm curious myself.. my new place is biger and alarms/alerts is nice. I have video feed etc which is nice, but completely useless unless I get a notification and call the cops myself.

[audiojeff]

Id like to get a DIY hom security like this
Amazon.com: Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit: Home Improvement

...

Big thing is I need monitoring. I just dont want to be notified, I want the popo or fire equivalent called.

Home automation kits aren't built to be tied to alarm monitoring, but there are quite a few alarm systems that include automation. I think that the best if these is the ELK M1 Gold. There is an endless amount of information on setting one of these up yourself, the setup software is available to end users, and you can subscribe to a monitoring service of your choice. The drawback is that the ELK is a premium priced alarm system.

The best of the low cost systems at the moment IMO is 2Gig. These units are targeted at large professional alarm installers (Vivint, ADT, etc) because they are low in cost and setup in minutes. But, there are some resources available if you want to do it on your own. The largest of these is an online group of DIY 2Gig users, 2GIG DIY Forum