Thanks for being a customer! And sorry that your first unit was a dud. Sometimes we have a couple random lemons in the mfg process. Glad all is working well.
Oh yeah@@rossradford5767 we don't want anyone to receive a dead unit or have the product sit on a shelf, which is why we offer full refunds. Rather refund the customer and sell it to someone else who will benefit from it.
Is there an alert for loss of signal (delayed heartbeat, etc.)? I haven't looked into such technology; but given that you're a physical pen tester, it seems it should be a part of the discussion. What happens if someone cuts the antenna lead, for instance.
If someone cuts or unplugs the antenna, it'll immediately switch to the onboard antenna (that you can't see) on the sensor. There is no alert for loss of signal because the device is not connected unless an alert is triggered. So there is no persistent connection. We've generally found cellular to be orders of magnitude more reliable than WIFI, which is why it uses a high performance 4G global modem to send all alerts.
@@SimtekSensors in the example where its in a safe, the external antenna is key. so its nice it switches to a onboard one, but if it can't send a signal through the shielding, thats a very very easy way to defeat the device.
@@randomviewer3494 I don't disagree but in their defense, if the safe is breached that's a signal path. Could you avoid that, sure, I expect wrapping everything in metal screen as you go would be sufficient. But it's not nothing, and at the very least it's a telltale that helps prevent covert entry.
@@jdmillar86 problem is you now give thieves all the time they want to open it. Once its open, its easy to empty out and run before the owner sees the text and gets there.
It would be nice to see it have a passive ultrasonic sensor too. From my experience doing work on vault security systems, PUS systems kind of give you the only advanced warning that your vault is being attacked and the sensors are cheap. Also: why not wifi? It would be nice to see it have two methods of getting information out. Three really. A hardwired data cable would be good, even if it's just USB. Also also: can I identify this thing with a cellular packet sniffer like a cheap USB SDR? That would be real bad, because even if I can't tell *what* it's sending, I can figure out every building with one of these sensors in it and guarantee myself some high value firearms. Kind of a catch 22 here. If it doesn't have some sort of dead man's switch, it can just be jammed. No texts get out. If it does have a (relatively) constant alive signal, it can be located. Not to jump down your throat, but those are some immediate issues I see. A couple of obvious competitive devices would be an RPi with a POE hat and camera or POE camera with wifi that just integrate with with open source home security software and alerts. If I have to drill a hole for the antenna, I can drill a hole for power and data at the same time and POE is a great way to do that.
Thanks for the feedback. There's a lot to unpack here but will try to keep it brief. Why not WIFI? Many reasons, but the biggest is that it's easy to defeat (unplug router, cut power to house) and unreliable (prone to service outages, packet loss) and easy to hack. Cell packet sniffer? Maybe. It uses a roaming simcard so you would have to try different bands and not only that but know exactly when the device was alerting (there are only 20 seconds from detection to receiving an alert, so you'd have a window of maybe 10ish seconds to sniff the packet and hope you hit the right bands? Not impossible but also pretty improbable. Also, if you've got someone sniffing cellular packets near your firearms safe you have bigger problems on your hands. There are probably way cooler and higher tech products that can be made. But we tried to make the most simple, most reliable, safe alarm / cellular motion alarm on the market that anyone can use anywhere in the world.
@@SimtekSensors First off: thanks for responding. I always find it really encouraging when a manufacturer representative bothers to take the time to keep a finger on the pulse of what people are saying. Paclock did the same thing and it was really appreciated. I wasn't proposing wifi as an alternative to cellular. Just as another line of communication. Looking at other people's comments, that seems to be their concern too. What you said about the cellular was kind of interesting though: it implies that there is no dead man functionality, so a cellular jammer will just take it out. I kind of expected that since it's battery powered. If it doesn't constantly ping cell towers, then it can't be effectively detected. That's a plus and mostly what I wanted to know. I kind of want to ask what chipset you're using but I'm guessing you're using a commercial cellular module and some flavor or ARM processor rather than a monolithic processor and cellular chip like something from broadcom or you'd have the option for wifi built in. If it was up to me I would probably increase your BOM by an order of magnitude and have literally every GPIO connected to something. You gotta draw the line somewhere. I'll keep an eye out for future updates.
@@SimtekSensors I'm glad you used an Atmel (Microchip) chip instead of a broadcom one.or a no-name Chinese one. I hope people understand that you guys went out of your way to use parts that are more expensive but that you know (as much as you can today) are secure and don't contain malicious microcode. Just a simple, zero cost suggestion for future versions or flashes (if you can), alerts on a temperature or humidity preset would be nice. I've got a dozen or so pre-civil war guns and not living somewhere like AZ, I have to worry about the humidity getting to high. You know, since the sensor is already there.
It sounds like a handy little product. I’ll give it a try myself. Let me know what you think the battery life is. I suppose we can always add extended battery to it. I would mount the antenna on the back of the safe and push your safe up against the wall so that it’s not obvious, and it will require some movements to get to it. Let us know what you find out for battery life
Nice and simple device with a nice and simple job definition to satisfy an ubiquitous need. Only problem is in my head I am am already adding scope, complexity, and cost like: Humidity alarm? Temp alarm? Wi-Fi alternate/backup connectivity?
Even esp32s sometimes have micro USB If you bought them at the wrong time.. Or wanted to save 30cents a unit... Plus the esp has WiFi and Bluetooth..so actually yeah it's probably an old Arduino uno R3... Else it'd have a wifi app and ble to let you know someone broke in your basement safe while You're 3 floors up... Oh and that they're armed(depending on what's in your safe)
"can you folk get my location from my serial number" man the way some of these people operate i bet they can get it from the shadows from your studio lights
I just run a Wyze cam in my safe with motion alerts. Safe has power in it, and I have a backup USB power supply inline. Anytime the safe is opened I get an alert and can watch the video of the event. Plus I can check my safe anytime I want. $30 for the camera, 15 for the battery. Works on my WiFi network, with no issues, even in a big fat safe that is not really that close to my router. I can also use that camera and USB battery for mobile use, in a hotel say, by using the hotel WiFi. Or, if one wanted to, you could connect to your own WiFi hub.
Wi-Fi as you know if prone to service outages (weather related, service related) in addition to being hackable and unplugable. Not to mention wifi honey pots and more. There are good systems folks could make like yours, but many customers and ourselves included just know that Wi-Fi as a whole is fundamentally not as good. The signal of WiFi at 2.4ghz to 5ghz is typically not able to get through a safe as well as our lower cellular bands either. That said, there is no 1 single solution and its all about layers of security and defense, as you are doing.
Hey Dev, have you had a chance to play with any of the Unifi access stuff? I remember to talk you mentioned you didn't have much time with it. I know from a consumer perspective it's definitely one of the easier systems to set up but that also makes me worry that it's full of vulnerabilities
Would be nice if you could customise the unit's name. So different vaults can be customised to unique names. And your SMS for this alert are easy to understand. Hopefully cutting the antenna doesn’t defeat the unit’s ability to report.
Yep you can customize the name of each sensor, in addition to the alert message you receive. Garage Safe or Candy Jar or whatever you want. Cutting antenna does not defeat it. Auto-switches to internal onboard antenna.
Is there some way to "name" the device -- the text alerts seemed generic (so how would you know if the alert was from your home unit or your office unit, for example).
@DeviantOllam I wonder if I'm unable to register your device to a new account only because there is a protection mechanism for the already registered devices, or I just live in a country where they have no coverage for sms
@@andrasmakai yes anyone can subscribe to the device if you have the QR code or serial number, and would just see the alerts and mostly non-personally identifiable info. Even the location isn't super granular (it's not GPS). The device is only unidirectional so it can't be hacked but you can just the alert activity if you have that serial #. What country are you in btw?
@@SimtekSensorsIt's Hungary... I never got the code in sms from app, not even the confirmation using the last chance sms command to add the device. I managed to add the device with a USA based anonymous sms number to the app, but then I got full access in the app, and eventually I saw my own phone number added also. BTW I have seen Dev's registered phone number in the app... You are right about the approximate location, but the owner's phone number is more than nothing...
00:00 📦 The device shown is the Simtek "StealthAlert" safe monitor, designed for gun storage. 00:26 📡 The device uses SMS-based alerts for motion, light, and vibration detection in a gun case or safe. 00:41 🔌 The external antenna helps improve signal reception, especially in a steel safe. It runs on a rechargeable battery. 01:10 🔄 Useful for scattered gun collections, offices, or other locations. Can be used in vehicles for added security. 01:51 💼 The presenter purchased the device and it's not a sponsored review. They express genuine interest in the product. 02:20 📱 The accompanying app provides information on battery health and overall status. Charges via micro USB. 02:48 💸 Subscription is available for extended services, which includes infrastructure costs for SMS alerts. The annual cost is less than $50. 03:41 🔒 The presenter plans to test the device for reliability and its effectiveness in enhancing safe storage for firearms. They emphasize safety for viewers.
@@AkiSan0yeah this reads like it was not written by a person, so I’m gonna report it as spam. AI can be cool and all, but I don’t think it has a place in RUclips comments section
Yes, autoswitches to its' onboard internal antenna. The internal antenna is hidden and not quite as robust or good as the external one, but if the safe is open it'll still get the job done.
So is this WiFi or cellular? If I'm breaking into your house one of the first this to do is knock out local wireless coverage as that is instant defeat to a wholeLOT of d3vices.
It's cellular! And uses different bands/providers so you'd have to be aware someone has this cellular based device and know exactly when it will alert (it's not persistently on) to try and jam it. Would be exceptionally tough. Exactly why we did not pursue WIFI -- which is easily sabotaged (not to mention constant outages from providers, passwords changed, packet loss etc.) Our product is superior to any WIFI enabled alarm in the same category for that reason.
@@SimtekSensors The question is why is there not a persistent connection? The type of people who would be found here are a little more concerned than usual folk regarding security.
@@nonnymoose7005 Given the size of the device, it could have a whole lot of battery capacity - far more than typical cell phones. Or, since one is already running the external cable for the antenna, running power for the normal use case is a minimal additional effort, with the battery acting as a UPS. For even more redundancy and lower power, one could go with WiFi or LoRa as the usual data link, and then the device would only failover to the more power-intensive cellular modem if packets were lost. If someone is cutting the external antenna, you are moments away from a catastrophic situation with any usual gun safe. Most are not tool/ torch resistant for any appreciable time (and an actual TR/TL30 safe is an order of magnitude more expensive than many commodity gun safes). If you wait until the safe is open for the device to re-establish a connection with the internal antenna, which is what has already been said is the expected mode of operation, that catastrophic situation has already occurred.
seems cool, maybe not perfect though i'm a fan of an indoor wifi camera with motion detection and a battery pack.. under $100 (i picked one that works with the other cameras around the house and the app i already have) lasts 4 months+ and then i just swap out battery pack. I get a notification if the object it's in ever moves around, or if the object is opened. (also get video uploaded if it's opened) that would be useful if i didn't have wifi around the things i want to protect. the motion sensor on that is prob designed for someone trying to rip something off wall/floor, whereas the camera will likely only alert if the object it's in actually comes loose and moves. guess it depends on your threat profile and risk acceptance vs pocket book and do you want another account somewhere / monthly upkeep fees. i'm a bit surprised it doesn't have gps and geofencing (does have cellular triangulation)
Certainly not perfect and will never be perfect but it's reliable and works every time. Much better than any WIFI based safe alarm on the market. The added benefit here is that it's a totally self reliant closed system that can't be easily hacked (WIFI is easily sabotaged, and prone to outages). And you can use it on the road, traveling, in your truck, etc. Thanks for the feedback
@@SimtekSensors completely agree with the reasons you built it the way you did, and recognize the fail points of the current solution i use. (and the situations that just don't work for my solution, but where yours is awesome)
This is a really good piece of tech especially for electric switcgesr cabinet. I would want the option to use my own SIM card and WiFi as a data option.
@felonov you can technically use your own sim as long as it has texts and data. But our plan is only $4.20 / month or $3.85 / month if prepaid annually and also includes more advanced features like location triangulation, which you lose if a diff simcard is popped in.
Cool idea, but realistically, the last thing i need is another subscription. If this had z-wave, zigbee or, matter support and could connect to home assistant id be all over it.
Looked into it and those simply don’t have the range. The Simtek StealthALERT can operate at home or in the field or anywhere in the world. No one wants to pay a subscription but it’s $4.20 / month and all customers have found it very affordable. Your car has a monthly gas subscription! But we get it.
You can use it in a vehicle if you disable vibration, since the motion is infrared and requires a heat signature. The motion of the car will only trigger vibration, not the passive infrared sensor.
Not sold on this: if the light sensor is triggered it means your safe is already open, so if you get that alert, it's already too late, unless you are very close. So I don't see the use in this product really. A camera is a better option, because you can still identify the culprit afterwards. things to test: 1. shield the antenna with aluminium foil or something like that. 2. remove antenna, does it still have reception??
@iWhacko it also has a vibration and motion sensor, you're going to get a vibration alert even before it's opened. We didn't want a camera capturing our customers firearms collections and being a honey pot for the feds. There is no audio-video capability for that reason.
It will never be granular and precise. Every alert we send includes location triangulation as well, but the granularity is within 1-2 blocks and isn't as precise as something you might get with GPS/GLONASS
No because it has no audio/video capability and isn't persistently connected. It only connects to a network briefly for a few seconds when it's sending an alert then it's offline.
you can technically use your own sim as long as it has texts and data. But our plan is only $4.20 / month or $3.85 / month if prepaid annually and also includes more advanced features like location triangulation, which you lose if a diff simcard is popped in.
@@SimtekSensors Huh, how do you do the location tringulation? Really cool. It's just that around here you can get stuff meant for wildlife camera traps for even cheaper
It comes for "free" from our IOT network provider. They get the lat/long from the carrier. It triangulates the position of the modem based off the towers it hits. The location triangulation is only available when purchasing our product using our data plan, we don't get that info if you use your own simcard.@@aziztcf
@2:30 you asked about location by serial number but forgot the cell number @2:03 and since this device is constantly connected talking to the cell network that's a problem. It should be wifi based with cell fail over, cell companies sell bulk data and give it away to 3 letter agencies for free. Every IMEI and SIM card under this product is a likely gun safe, not a great idea in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback. We may consider WIFI fallback as an option in the future but opted not to to keep costs and mostly complexity down. WIFI is so bad. Constant outages, packet loss, changed passwords etc that we decided not to pursue. But agreed as a supplement it might be worth looking into!
I mean, why not make your own alert system? It's essentially a microcontroller with a bunch of sensors and a nice case, but you're still sending over your data to someone else's server and paying a subscription for doing so. Even if buying the parts and assembling it yourself turns out to be more costly than buying it, which I highly doubt, you're still not going to be paying the subscription fee.
Fee is just $4.20 / mo or $3.85 / mo if prepaid annually and covers the data and sms it sends over the global telecom networks. Everything is sent encrypted over US based servers. You will still have to pay a "subscription fee" when you buy a simcard to use, and it will likely cost way more than $4.20 / mo. It's kind of like saying you could make your own server and download a bunch of movies and make your own Netflix without paying the fee. Sure, you could, and some will and do, but most won't and it's not practical. Thanks for the feedback
My time is billed at $350/hour. While I appreciate your confidence in my ability to make this entire system in about 25 minutes, I'm going to say that buying this from the vendor is a better deal for me, financially. 😉👍
I'm sure many of you that follow @DeviantOllam could indeed built your own alerting system that would rival or even blow this out of the water. But to put this in perspective we write all of our code and do all of the engineering across the mobile apps (native iOS and Android), all of the firmware, PCB layout and design, all of the backend for the server, everything. It's actually quite nuts. But in the comments here there are several people who are very knowledgeable about different networking and chip technologies that would make for cool proof of concepts and unique products.
Subscription fee is pretty reasonable for the SMS side of things and you'd be looking at that anyway. Also unless you're rolling your own PCB hobbyist friendly Sim/data/GPS modules are surprisingly expensive Having played this game with battery/bilge pump monitor's for boats while building them is a fun project most of the off the self solutions were significantly more reliable
Lol come on man. Micro USB is just to recharge it once/year. I still have some old DVI cables sitting around. We will go to USB-C eventually but it's just to recharge the batteries. You could also just buy a cr123a charger for a wall outlet.
... Wow... Sending a text from a metal box... I'll definitely get that... I was hoping you'd say "sent via LoRa 915mhz to your meshtastic device or phone" Next they'll come up with the microwave thief, so I know when someone closes the microwave... Yes it has no electronics in it, but it's $80, because I feel safer knowing if I could get a text from inside my microwave, I've got *HUGE* problems unrelated to theft...
PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW ABOUT LOCKDOWN THE PUCK?? No subscription fees, tells humidity and temp, is more compact and it’s been out for 4years! Cmon this thing is nice but over priced considering Nobody wants to pay a monthly fee they don’t have to!!
Well, they should add a camera module and light, both coming on when the door opens, sending you a photo or video of the perplexed soon to be prisoner that dared to break into your safe. Yeah, I get it is more expensive, but it's also a lot more helpful.
Yes we have this on the radar. Most folks monitoring firearms though and we didn't want to create a database of images of folks' firearms that the feds could try and raid one day. The current product has no audio/video capability partly for cost, battery life but also privacy reasons.
For $2, or 5$ on Amazon, maybe $7 with antenna you could make that with an esp32, and a LoRa device... So it'd alert you over WiFi, or Bluetooth, or BLE, or however long your LoRa mesh is (if not connected to Internet) and wouldn't require a 2nd sim card... 3d print the case, and you could super glue that(PLA! Not abs or bad times) to the safe and no one would know they tripped an alarm.. vs this huge thing stolen from the predators ship from predator 2... I mean I 99% sure that was a prop in the movie... I'm in the wrong business... I could be making these things and making them more robust, and letting you know 12 ways that someone broke in your safe and if your home, might be armed.... If only I had funding...
And with an esp32 you can for $1-3 more add a camera... And the sms ability... And now Brody was it? Has all the upgrade ideas he needs to make this thing rock or well at least more safe, and with a picture when light sets it off(I'm sure police would find that helpful) He can just get in touch with me n send me a check as an outside consultant... That gave him more capabilities at a cheaper price point
@@SimtekSensors you know esp32s can run off batteries and be their own network router? N with ble that wouldn't matter either.... Do some homework first
You could probably build a way cooler product with those technologies. We tried to build the most simple and most reliable cellular based monitor that would work pretty much anywhere, for anyone in the world@@JaykPuten
Auto-switches to the onboard antenna on the device if the antenna is unplugged/cut. So when you open the safe you think you were so slick and the device was dead but in actuality it would be sending that alert out and you would be BUSTED! 🤣
When you "take the safe" it will start alerting from the vibration sensor. And which faraday cage will you use? It better be good! You would only have 10-20 seconds before the alert is already sent to the owner. The easiest way to "defeat" would be if you could somehow open the safe immediately and smash the device before it sends an alert but that would be tough.
Most customers find the $4.20 / month affordable ($3.85 per month if prepaid annually). To build a product with this high standard and reliability and performance, we had to go cellular, there was no other way. And so we did, and made the data plan as cheap as business-ly possible. Second you can technically use your own simcard as long as it has texts and data. That said, the cheapest "pay as you go" simcard plans are all at least starting at $10-$15 per month and are a single carrier...our product works anywhere in the world, on thousands of carriers automatically. If you go to the gun range a single mag of good ammo is more than it costs to monitor your entire collection for a month. That's peace of mind that is 100% worth it. We also offer free 30 day trial so everyone can test it and full refunds within 30 days if you don't like it or it does not meet expectations. No questions asked.
I have one, my initial one had issues, but the company supported their product well. The replacement has been working perfectly.
Thanks for being a customer! And sorry that your first unit was a dud. Sometimes we have a couple random lemons in the mfg process. Glad all is working well.
Oh yeah@@rossradford5767 we don't want anyone to receive a dead unit or have the product sit on a shelf, which is why we offer full refunds. Rather refund the customer and sell it to someone else who will benefit from it.
Is there an alert for loss of signal (delayed heartbeat, etc.)? I haven't looked into such technology; but given that you're a physical pen tester, it seems it should be a part of the discussion. What happens if someone cuts the antenna lead, for instance.
Definitely, if I was looking to get into a safe and I saw that wire coming out the back the first thing I'm going to do is snip the antenna off.
If someone cuts or unplugs the antenna, it'll immediately switch to the onboard antenna (that you can't see) on the sensor. There is no alert for loss of signal because the device is not connected unless an alert is triggered. So there is no persistent connection. We've generally found cellular to be orders of magnitude more reliable than WIFI, which is why it uses a high performance 4G global modem to send all alerts.
@@SimtekSensors in the example where its in a safe, the external antenna is key. so its nice it switches to a onboard one, but if it can't send a signal through the shielding, thats a very very easy way to defeat the device.
@@randomviewer3494 I don't disagree but in their defense, if the safe is breached that's a signal path. Could you avoid that, sure, I expect wrapping everything in metal screen as you go would be sufficient. But it's not nothing, and at the very least it's a telltale that helps prevent covert entry.
@@jdmillar86 problem is you now give thieves all the time they want to open it. Once its open, its easy to empty out and run before the owner sees the text and gets there.
Honest and simple review on an honest and simple product
Verrrry interesting. A few minutes ago I didn't know about this. Right this second I can think of a few places to put these. Thanks!
It would be nice to see it have a passive ultrasonic sensor too. From my experience doing work on vault security systems, PUS systems kind of give you the only advanced warning that your vault is being attacked and the sensors are cheap.
Also: why not wifi? It would be nice to see it have two methods of getting information out. Three really. A hardwired data cable would be good, even if it's just USB.
Also also: can I identify this thing with a cellular packet sniffer like a cheap USB SDR? That would be real bad, because even if I can't tell *what* it's sending, I can figure out every building with one of these sensors in it and guarantee myself some high value firearms. Kind of a catch 22 here. If it doesn't have some sort of dead man's switch, it can just be jammed. No texts get out. If it does have a (relatively) constant alive signal, it can be located.
Not to jump down your throat, but those are some immediate issues I see.
A couple of obvious competitive devices would be an RPi with a POE hat and camera or POE camera with wifi that just integrate with with open source home security software and alerts. If I have to drill a hole for the antenna, I can drill a hole for power and data at the same time and POE is a great way to do that.
Thanks for the feedback. There's a lot to unpack here but will try to keep it brief.
Why not WIFI? Many reasons, but the biggest is that it's easy to defeat (unplug router, cut power to house) and unreliable (prone to service outages, packet loss) and easy to hack.
Cell packet sniffer? Maybe. It uses a roaming simcard so you would have to try different bands and not only that but know exactly when the device was alerting (there are only 20 seconds from detection to receiving an alert, so you'd have a window of maybe 10ish seconds to sniff the packet and hope you hit the right bands? Not impossible but also pretty improbable. Also, if you've got someone sniffing cellular packets near your firearms safe you have bigger problems on your hands.
There are probably way cooler and higher tech products that can be made. But we tried to make the most simple, most reliable, safe alarm / cellular motion alarm on the market that anyone can use anywhere in the world.
@@SimtekSensors
First off: thanks for responding. I always find it really encouraging when a manufacturer representative bothers to take the time to keep a finger on the pulse of what people are saying. Paclock did the same thing and it was really appreciated.
I wasn't proposing wifi as an alternative to cellular. Just as another line of communication. Looking at other people's comments, that seems to be their concern too.
What you said about the cellular was kind of interesting though: it implies that there is no dead man functionality, so a cellular jammer will just take it out. I kind of expected that since it's battery powered.
If it doesn't constantly ping cell towers, then it can't be effectively detected. That's a plus and mostly what I wanted to know.
I kind of want to ask what chipset you're using but I'm guessing you're using a commercial cellular module and some flavor or ARM processor rather than a monolithic processor and cellular chip like something from broadcom or you'd have the option for wifi built in.
If it was up to me I would probably increase your BOM by an order of magnitude and have literally every GPIO connected to something. You gotta draw the line somewhere.
I'll keep an eye out for future updates.
Atmel arm based. And sounds like you know exactly what you’re talking about. Thanks for the comment!
@@SimtekSensors I'm glad you used an Atmel (Microchip) chip instead of a broadcom one.or a no-name Chinese one.
I hope people understand that you guys went out of your way to use parts that are more expensive but that you know (as much as you can today) are secure and don't contain malicious microcode.
Just a simple, zero cost suggestion for future versions or flashes (if you can), alerts on a temperature or humidity preset would be nice. I've got a dozen or so pre-civil war guns and not living somewhere like AZ, I have to worry about the humidity getting to high. You know, since the sensor is already there.
It sounds like a handy little product. I’ll give it a try myself. Let me know what you think the battery life is. I suppose we can always add extended battery to it. I would mount the antenna on the back of the safe and push your safe up against the wall so that it’s not obvious, and it will require some movements to get to it. Let us know what you find out for battery life
Nice and simple device with a nice and simple job definition to satisfy an ubiquitous need. Only problem is in my head I am am already adding scope, complexity, and cost like: Humidity alarm? Temp alarm? Wi-Fi alternate/backup connectivity?
Alerts include Temp/Humidity and also location triangulation (accuracy on loc highly variable, dependent on # of towers your sensor hitting).
@@SimtekSensors awesome… might have found a replacement for my Lockdown puck. (Especially with the external antenna.)
I understand the price for a commercial product, but in 2023 nothing should be usbmicro unless it really does have an arduino in it. 😂
At this point even with an Arduino it's time to upgrade those ports!
Even esp32s sometimes have micro USB
If you bought them at the wrong time..
Or wanted to save 30cents a unit...
Plus the esp has WiFi and Bluetooth..so actually yeah it's probably an old Arduino uno R3... Else it'd have a wifi app and ble to let you know someone broke in your basement safe while You're 3 floors up...
Oh and that they're armed(depending on what's in your safe)
@@JaykPutenagreed. esp is the way to go these days.
Who cares 😂
@@bcm50 USB c users
That's a cool little device
"can you folk get my location from my serial number" man the way some of these people operate i bet they can get it from the shadows from your studio lights
I just run a Wyze cam in my safe with motion alerts. Safe has power in it, and I have a backup USB power supply inline. Anytime the safe is opened I get an alert and can watch the video of the event. Plus I can check my safe anytime I want. $30 for the camera, 15 for the battery. Works on my WiFi network, with no issues, even in a big fat safe that is not really that close to my router. I can also use that camera and USB battery for mobile use, in a hotel say, by using the hotel WiFi. Or, if one wanted to, you could connect to your own WiFi hub.
Wi-Fi as you know if prone to service outages (weather related, service related) in addition to being hackable and unplugable. Not to mention wifi honey pots and more. There are good systems folks could make like yours, but many customers and ourselves included just know that Wi-Fi as a whole is fundamentally not as good. The signal of WiFi at 2.4ghz to 5ghz is typically not able to get through a safe as well as our lower cellular bands either. That said, there is no 1 single solution and its all about layers of security and defense, as you are doing.
Hey Dev, have you had a chance to play with any of the Unifi access stuff? I remember to talk you mentioned you didn't have much time with it. I know from a consumer perspective it's definitely one of the easier systems to set up but that also makes me worry that it's full of vulnerabilities
Would be nice if you could customise the unit's name. So different vaults can be customised to unique names. And your SMS for this alert are easy to understand.
Hopefully cutting the antenna doesn’t defeat the unit’s ability to report.
Yep you can customize the name of each sensor, in addition to the alert message you receive. Garage Safe or Candy Jar or whatever you want. Cutting antenna does not defeat it. Auto-switches to internal onboard antenna.
Is there some way to "name" the device -- the text alerts seemed generic (so how would you know if the alert was from your home unit or your office unit, for example).
You can name each device and also customize the alert messages too. Garage safe, Storage Unit on Cherry Tree Drive, House in Aspen etc.
cool@@SimtekSensors
I have something similar when it comes to SMS alerts but for my servers which I have an LTE modem hooked up to it.
also worth noting that they use a global sim, so it should work in every country with decent 4g coverage.
That's right. Operates in nearly every country automatically without the need for any passwords or setup!
@DeviantOllam I wonder if I'm unable to register your device to a new account only because there is a protection mechanism for the already registered devices, or I just live in a country where they have no coverage for sms
Ehhh... Cool... Could you please replace your battery, as it's only 37%....
Ummm.. the problem was my country is not covered by sms service, a USA based anonymous sms number helped me ;)
If I wake up to the fact that your are sitting in my bedroom, staring at me, I'll scream... May be I've messed with the wrong guy, sorry 😂😂😊
@@andrasmakai yes anyone can subscribe to the device if you have the QR code or serial number, and would just see the alerts and mostly non-personally identifiable info. Even the location isn't super granular (it's not GPS). The device is only unidirectional so it can't be hacked but you can just the alert activity if you have that serial #.
What country are you in btw?
@@SimtekSensorsIt's Hungary... I never got the code in sms from app, not even the confirmation using the last chance sms command to add the device. I managed to add the device with a USA based anonymous sms number to the app, but then I got full access in the app, and eventually I saw my own phone number added also. BTW I have seen Dev's registered phone number in the app... You are right about the approximate location, but the owner's phone number is more than nothing...
4.20 a month. i love this !
00:00 📦 The device shown is the Simtek "StealthAlert" safe monitor, designed for gun storage.
00:26 📡 The device uses SMS-based alerts for motion, light, and vibration detection in a gun case or safe.
00:41 🔌 The external antenna helps improve signal reception, especially in a steel safe. It runs on a rechargeable battery.
01:10 🔄 Useful for scattered gun collections, offices, or other locations. Can be used in vehicles for added security.
01:51 💼 The presenter purchased the device and it's not a sponsored review. They express genuine interest in the product.
02:20 📱 The accompanying app provides information on battery health and overall status. Charges via micro USB.
02:48 💸 Subscription is available for extended services, which includes infrastructure costs for SMS alerts. The annual cost is less than $50.
03:41 🔒 The presenter plans to test the device for reliability and its effectiveness in enhancing safe storage for firearms. They emphasize safety for viewers.
Dunno if this is a bot or just a try at being helpful. Two Tipps. Dont use Emoticons and be personal. Dont say presenter? Say deviant.
@@AkiSan0yeah this reads like it was not written by a person, so I’m gonna report it as spam. AI can be cool and all, but I don’t think it has a place in RUclips comments section
Not even accurate AI: it misunderstood the vehicle use comment.
If the antenna gets cut would it still send out by internal antenna once the safe is opened or other alert.
Yes, autoswitches to its' onboard internal antenna. The internal antenna is hidden and not quite as robust or good as the external one, but if the safe is open it'll still get the job done.
When will you be in TN for a class instruction? Got a few peeps
So is this WiFi or cellular? If I'm breaking into your house one of the first this to do is knock out local wireless coverage as that is instant defeat to a wholeLOT of d3vices.
Cellular
It's cellular! And uses different bands/providers so you'd have to be aware someone has this cellular based device and know exactly when it will alert (it's not persistently on) to try and jam it. Would be exceptionally tough. Exactly why we did not pursue WIFI -- which is easily sabotaged (not to mention constant outages from providers, passwords changed, packet loss etc.) Our product is superior to any WIFI enabled alarm in the same category for that reason.
Is there a heartbeat to detect signal loss? If so, is it vulnerable to replay attacks?
No. There isn't a persistent connection. Only connects when alerting.
@@SimtekSensors The question is why is there not a persistent connection? The type of people who would be found here are a little more concerned than usual folk regarding security.
@@r2dbI'm guessing the battery life would be terrible if they left the modem on all the time
@@nonnymoose7005 Given the size of the device, it could have a whole lot of battery capacity - far more than typical cell phones. Or, since one is already running the external cable for the antenna, running power for the normal use case is a minimal additional effort, with the battery acting as a UPS.
For even more redundancy and lower power, one could go with WiFi or LoRa as the usual data link, and then the device would only failover to the more power-intensive cellular modem if packets were lost.
If someone is cutting the external antenna, you are moments away from a catastrophic situation with any usual gun safe. Most are not tool/ torch resistant for any appreciable time (and an actual TR/TL30 safe is an order of magnitude more expensive than many commodity gun safes). If you wait until the safe is open for the device to re-establish a connection with the internal antenna, which is what has already been said is the expected mode of operation, that catastrophic situation has already occurred.
seems cool, maybe not perfect though
i'm a fan of an indoor wifi camera with motion detection and a battery pack.. under $100 (i picked one that works with the other cameras around the house and the app i already have) lasts 4 months+ and then i just swap out battery pack. I get a notification if the object it's in ever moves around, or if the object is opened. (also get video uploaded if it's opened)
that would be useful if i didn't have wifi around the things i want to protect. the motion sensor on that is prob designed for someone trying to rip something off wall/floor, whereas the camera will likely only alert if the object it's in actually comes loose and moves.
guess it depends on your threat profile and risk acceptance vs pocket book and do you want another account somewhere / monthly upkeep fees.
i'm a bit surprised it doesn't have gps and geofencing (does have cellular triangulation)
Certainly not perfect and will never be perfect but it's reliable and works every time. Much better than any WIFI based safe alarm on the market. The added benefit here is that it's a totally self reliant closed system that can't be easily hacked (WIFI is easily sabotaged, and prone to outages). And you can use it on the road, traveling, in your truck, etc. Thanks for the feedback
@@SimtekSensors completely agree with the reasons you built it the way you did, and recognize the fail points of the current solution i use. (and the situations that just don't work for my solution, but where yours is awesome)
I’d be interested to know what happens if a thief simply cuts the cord to the antenna.
Switches to the hidden internal onboard antenna to finish sending the alert.
Is it sending an alert if there is some jamming of the signal or the wire is cut ?
Wire cut, yes. Jamming signal? No. Cellular jamming is a felony and if someone is jamming your safe you've got bigger problems to deal with!
This is a really good piece of tech especially for electric switcgesr cabinet. I would want the option to use my own SIM card and WiFi as a data option.
@felonov you can technically use your own sim as long as it has texts and data. But our plan is only $4.20 / month or $3.85 / month if prepaid annually and also includes more advanced features like location triangulation, which you lose if a diff simcard is popped in.
Cool idea, but realistically, the last thing i need is another subscription. If this had z-wave, zigbee or, matter support and could connect to home assistant id be all over it.
Looked into it and those simply don’t have the range. The Simtek StealthALERT can operate at home or in the field or anywhere in the world. No one wants to pay a subscription but it’s $4.20 / month and all customers have found it very affordable. Your car has a monthly gas subscription! But we get it.
Can you disable the vibration and motion options, so only light triggers it?
Then you'd be able to use it in a vehicle.
You can use it in a vehicle if you disable vibration, since the motion is infrared and requires a heat signature. The motion of the car will only trigger vibration, not the passive infrared sensor.
Not sold on this:
if the light sensor is triggered it means your safe is already open, so if you get that alert, it's already too late, unless you are very close. So I don't see the use in this product really.
A camera is a better option, because you can still identify the culprit afterwards.
things to test:
1. shield the antenna with aluminium foil or something like that.
2. remove antenna, does it still have reception??
@iWhacko it also has a vibration and motion sensor, you're going to get a vibration alert even before it's opened. We didn't want a camera capturing our customers firearms collections and being a honey pot for the feds. There is no audio-video capability for that reason.
there are still some frames with stuff shown that you certainly wouldn't like someone nefarious to see
Can’t a cell phone triangulation of your safe location be achieved by other than the monitors owner. Just like any cell phone?
It will never be granular and precise. Every alert we send includes location triangulation as well, but the granularity is within 1-2 blocks and isn't as precise as something you might get with GPS/GLONASS
Wouldn’t this sort of put your safe “on the grid”?
No because it has no audio/video capability and isn't persistently connected. It only connects to a network briefly for a few seconds when it's sending an alert then it's offline.
Wait what's with the data plan? Can't just stick your own sim in?
you can technically use your own sim as long as it has texts and data. But our plan is only $4.20 / month or $3.85 / month if prepaid annually and also includes more advanced features like location triangulation, which you lose if a diff simcard is popped in.
@@SimtekSensors Huh, how do you do the location tringulation? Really cool. It's just that around here you can get stuff meant for wildlife camera traps for even cheaper
It comes for "free" from our IOT network provider. They get the lat/long from the carrier. It triangulates the position of the modem based off the towers it hits. The location triangulation is only available when purchasing our product using our data plan, we don't get that info if you use your own simcard.@@aziztcf
IiiiEANT!!! How do I get my paws on DAT?
@2:30 you asked about location by serial number but forgot the cell number @2:03 and since this device is constantly connected talking to the cell network that's a problem. It should be wifi based with cell fail over, cell companies sell bulk data and give it away to 3 letter agencies for free. Every IMEI and SIM card under this product is a likely gun safe, not a great idea in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback. We may consider WIFI fallback as an option in the future but opted not to to keep costs and mostly complexity down. WIFI is so bad. Constant outages, packet loss, changed passwords etc that we decided not to pursue. But agreed as a supplement it might be worth looking into!
so... wrap the antennae in foil, and cut it? RIP device? Im simplifying here but this looks super super easy to defeat.
Nope! Has an onboard antenna it'll automatically switch to that you can't see and continue sending the alert.
Imma fitna git one famah toilet. It MAH toilet!
Well, I suppose you should red team the Simtek StealthAlert v2 product, maybe after hours with some volunteers who want to stay late playing with it.
Not fooling me, I've seen Battlestar Galactica 😊
Our design is certainly 'out there'
I mean, why not make your own alert system?
It's essentially a microcontroller with a bunch of sensors and a nice case, but you're still sending over your data to someone else's server and paying a subscription for doing so.
Even if buying the parts and assembling it yourself turns out to be more costly than buying it, which I highly doubt, you're still not going to be paying the subscription fee.
Fee is just $4.20 / mo or $3.85 / mo if prepaid annually and covers the data and sms it sends over the global telecom networks. Everything is sent encrypted over US based servers. You will still have to pay a "subscription fee" when you buy a simcard to use, and it will likely cost way more than $4.20 / mo. It's kind of like saying you could make your own server and download a bunch of movies and make your own Netflix without paying the fee. Sure, you could, and some will and do, but most won't and it's not practical. Thanks for the feedback
My time is billed at $350/hour. While I appreciate your confidence in my ability to make this entire system in about 25 minutes, I'm going to say that buying this from the vendor is a better deal for me, financially. 😉👍
I'm sure many of you that follow @DeviantOllam could indeed built your own alerting system that would rival or even blow this out of the water. But to put this in perspective we write all of our code and do all of the engineering across the mobile apps (native iOS and Android), all of the firmware, PCB layout and design, all of the backend for the server, everything. It's actually quite nuts. But in the comments here there are several people who are very knowledgeable about different networking and chip technologies that would make for cool proof of concepts and unique products.
Subscription fee is pretty reasonable for the SMS side of things and you'd be looking at that anyway. Also unless you're rolling your own PCB hobbyist friendly Sim/data/GPS modules are surprisingly expensive
Having played this game with battery/bilge pump monitor's for boats while building them is a fun project most of the off the self solutions were significantly more reliable
I will wait for them to ditch Micro USB for USB-C before I switch, for longevity reasons
Lol come on man. Micro USB is just to recharge it once/year. I still have some old DVI cables sitting around. We will go to USB-C eventually but it's just to recharge the batteries. You could also just buy a cr123a charger for a wall outlet.
... Wow... Sending a text from a metal box... I'll definitely get that...
I was hoping you'd say "sent via LoRa 915mhz to your meshtastic device or phone"
Next they'll come up with the microwave thief, so I know when someone closes the microwave... Yes it has no electronics in it, but it's $80, because I feel safer knowing if I could get a text from inside my microwave, I've got *HUGE* problems unrelated to theft...
There's one frame there where I can almost get it clear enough to get a barcode read.
PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW ABOUT LOCKDOWN THE PUCK?? No subscription fees, tells humidity and temp, is more compact and it’s been out for 4years! Cmon this thing is nice but over priced considering Nobody wants to pay a monthly fee they don’t have to!!
Well, they should add a camera module and light, both coming on when the door opens, sending you a photo or video of the perplexed soon to be prisoner that dared to break into your safe. Yeah, I get it is more expensive, but it's also a lot more helpful.
Yes we have this on the radar. Most folks monitoring firearms though and we didn't want to create a database of images of folks' firearms that the feds could try and raid one day. The current product has no audio/video capability partly for cost, battery life but also privacy reasons.
For $2, or 5$ on Amazon, maybe $7 with antenna you could make that with an esp32, and a LoRa device... So it'd alert you over WiFi, or Bluetooth, or BLE, or however long your LoRa mesh is (if not connected to Internet) and wouldn't require a 2nd sim card...
3d print the case, and you could super glue that(PLA! Not abs or bad times) to the safe and no one would know they tripped an alarm.. vs this huge thing stolen from the predators ship from predator 2...
I mean I 99% sure that was a prop in the movie...
I'm in the wrong business... I could be making these things and making them more robust, and letting you know 12 ways that someone broke in your safe and if your home, might be armed....
If only I had funding...
And with an esp32 you can for $1-3 more add a camera... And the sms ability...
And now Brody was it? Has all the upgrade ideas he needs to make this thing rock or well at least more safe, and with a picture when light sets it off(I'm sure police would find that helpful)
He can just get in touch with me n send me a check as an outside consultant... That gave him more capabilities at a cheaper price point
And I'd just cut the power to your house or unplug the router and it's toast!
@@SimtekSensors you know esp32s can run off batteries and be their own network router? N with ble that wouldn't matter either.... Do some homework first
@@SimtekSensors not to mention esp now, and using LoRa, or the meshtastic network, I'd still get your pic... Like I did think this through
You could probably build a way cooler product with those technologies. We tried to build the most simple and most reliable cellular based monitor that would work pretty much anywhere, for anyone in the world@@JaykPuten
what if I just cut the antenna cable before opening the safe lmao
Auto-switches to the onboard antenna on the device if the antenna is unplugged/cut. So when you open the safe you think you were so slick and the device was dead but in actuality it would be sending that alert out and you would be BUSTED! 🤣
@@SimtekSensors That's why I'll take the safe with me and open it inside a Faraday Cage
When you "take the safe" it will start alerting from the vibration sensor. And which faraday cage will you use? It better be good! You would only have 10-20 seconds before the alert is already sent to the owner. The easiest way to "defeat" would be if you could somehow open the safe immediately and smash the device before it sends an alert but that would be tough.
So technology, such afraid.
Whatever increases gun safety and brings down unnecessary gun violence man…
i bet you can mod one by unlocking it and then putting it in a simon says case. lol
I don't fuck around with subscription-based hardware if at all avoidable. This is an instant no from me.
Most customers find the $4.20 / month affordable ($3.85 per month if prepaid annually). To build a product with this high standard and reliability and performance, we had to go cellular, there was no other way. And so we did, and made the data plan as cheap as business-ly possible. Second you can technically use your own simcard as long as it has texts and data. That said, the cheapest "pay as you go" simcard plans are all at least starting at $10-$15 per month and are a single carrier...our product works anywhere in the world, on thousands of carriers automatically. If you go to the gun range a single mag of good ammo is more than it costs to monitor your entire collection for a month. That's peace of mind that is 100% worth it. We also offer free 30 day trial so everyone can test it and full refunds within 30 days if you don't like it or it does not meet expectations. No questions asked.
blurred screen!? paranoid? what could the internet possibly do with a qr code and some boring serial numbers?🙃
Oh, and maybe you oughta consider moving to a state that doesn’t want to come and take your guns. Just saying
Are you saying that Nevada isn't a gun friendly state?
Always smart to have layers of security and defense!