The main dashboard consist of four (4) sections: Alerts, Messaging, live video feeds from cctv or monitoring drones or response drone, and Neighbourhood Monitoring Centre Message.
PANIC, NS PANIC, and UNKNOWN Alerts are pre-programmed to transmit alert messages when pressed while SENSOR alerts are automatically transmitted when a sensor is triggered. Clicking on SENSOR will show a list of active sensors.
PRIVATE MESSAGES allows members to send message to a specific member within a Neighbourhood Watch network. PUBLIC ANNOUCEMENTS allows members to broadcast message to all members within a network. An example of a PA is broadcasting an upcoming yard sale.
SERVICES allows members to tell members what services they offered such as babysitting, handyman, etc.
*** The option to block any and ALL members’ messages and alerts are available.
HOME ASSISTANT NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
We believed in the KISS principle so keeping Shared-Notification service simple as possible is promomount. Our DIY projects are mainly focus around Home Assistant so if you’re a fan – dig in.
One of the numerous Shared-Notification application is developing a proper Neighbourhood Watch Program. We will go through step-by-step the processes of deciding the type of neighbourhood you desire.
STEP #1: Decision – type of group/network
- If you want to start a neighbourhood watch and make money on the side then Private Network Neighbourhood Watch is the way to go. It gives you complete control – meaning you setup or provide instruction on how to setup smart home devices for anyone in your neighbourhood watch. For the option, you can charge a setup fee.
- If you have the initiative to start a neighbourhood watch program and isn’t interested in setting up other neighbour’s devices within your group then this is one (1) option for you. You’ll be assigned a network identification (NID) which every member within your network group must use for registration and device communications. This is known as an Exclusive network.
- The other option to start or join an existing neighbourhood watch program is similar to Exclusive network except this group isn’t based on NID but on your desire radius in which you want to transmit and received notifications. Notifications are alerts, alarms, and messages. This is known as Open network.
- The last type of neighbourhood watch that you can start or join is based on a combination of Exclusive and Open network. If you believed your existing neighbourhood watch is too large and still desire to join, you can reduce ‘your’ neighbourhood by limiting ‘your’ operating radius. This is known as Enhanced network.
- For those you who wish not to start of join a neighbourhood watch program but interested in recording their smart-home alert history to sharednotification.com server, you can register for a Data-Logging Network account. This is type of group is mainly used to reduce your home insurance or personal data reviews.
STEP #2: Registration – get access info
- Decide on the type of neighbourhood watch network group
- Have your confirmation number ready
- Visit sharednotification.com to register for an account.
- After successfully registering, check your email for setup info.
STEP #3: Connection – communicate with sharednotification.com server
- If you have Neighbourhood Assistant then login into your dashboard and click on ‘SharedNotification Settings’
- If you don’t have Neighbourhood Assistant, please read our blog on ‘Implementing Neighbourhod Assistant on Your Home Assistant’.
- The sample image above shows the following:
- Broadcast Name: THE BLACK GUY – the name appears if and when you transmit an alert or message. Most likely, this person is known to everyone within the neighbourhood as THE BLACK GUY. Most often, residents uses their address or surname like as broadcast name.
- Addess is not shown to other members. Only broadcast name, time, type-of-alerts, message, and services.
- Hardware Identification (HID), Network Identification (NID), and API Key are assign to you upon a sucessful registration. Enter your assigned values here. Please note that this is NOT an OPEN Neighbourhood Watch since radius isn’t shown.
- webhook: Shared-Notification server transmit alerts/messages to your Neighbourhood Assistant whenever a member within your network sends it.
- Periodical Check (sec): If webhook is empty, then Neighbourhood Assistant poll Shared-Notification every user-specified seconds for new data.
- PANIC ALERT ! (RED button): The message neighbourhood members would see is “Susan press PANIC ALERT button”. Residents would see that this message was from THE BLACK GUY. Obviously, a member in the THE BLACK GUY household named Susan pressed the panic alert button. The physical red button, when press, would also send this message.
- Unknown Alert ! : Similar to panic alert button, Unknown Alert message is function in the same way.
- Anti-retaliation button (BLUE button): this feature was recently implemented due to popular demand. In some neighbourhoods residents are afraid of relatiation if they blab about a current violent crime so the blue button(Non-Specific Address) is a possible solution.
STEP #4:
- Preform test.
- Enjoy