Theft of a large amount of C-Bus.

[yzf250]

Recently one of our C-Bus projects was stolen. I mean everything. Boards levered out full of dimmers & relays, all the wires cut off (and the labels!!!) 30 odd switches (glass saturn style) a touch screen, and weeks of my labour went with it. The house was also considerably damaged.

A question for the C-Bus team.

I have noticed that with the toolkit software it brings up product serial numbers. Is there any plan in the future to monitor these either through a live web feature (maybe log on to the net to validate items after power down for more than a few hours or something) to try to prevent the theft of these products. I think with the growing popularity and expensive price tag of the C-Bus gear something needs to be done. Maybe even serial numbers must be logged with clipsal when purchased.
The hardware is easy to replace but the time that we will now have to spend tracing wires (all cut way too short!) and reinstalling the gear will take ages.

We will now be installing extensive security measures on these jobs in the future.

A handy hint that doesnt take much extra time but will if this happens to you - Label all your wires back from the relays aswell as on the ends. Maybe even just inside the roof. We have well over 100 twins, singles and twin & earths to trace in a four storey house.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[Duncan]

Recently one of our C-Bus projects was stolen. I mean everything. Boards levered out full of dimmers & relays, all the wires cut off (and the labels!!!) 30 odd switches (glass saturn style) a touch screen, and weeks of my labour went with it. The house was also considerably damaged.

A question for the C-Bus team.

I have noticed that with the toolkit software it brings up product serial numbers. Is there any plan in the future to monitor these either through a live web feature (maybe log on to the net to validate items after power down for more than a few hours or something) to try to prevent the theft of these products. I think with the growing popularity and expensive price tag of the C-Bus gear something needs to be done. Maybe even serial numbers must be logged with clipsal when purchased.
The hardware is easy to replace but the time that we will now have to spend tracing wires (all cut way too short!) and reinstalling the gear will take ages.

We will now be installing extensive security measures on these jobs in the future.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Ouch! First instance of that I've heard.. I'll make sure to discuss this with CIS Management. There has been various discussions on tracking equipment more effectively but from a software perspective no firm plans in place yet.

If you have the serial numbers please send them in to us, I'll investigate whether we could start a stolen equipment register and ensure future versions of the software don't allow stolen units to be programmed.. No guarantees..

[yzf250]

No numbers were recorded Duncan. Having it all stolen was the last thing on my mind. I have heard of a few cases since and the house owners insurance rep had also heard of a few cases.
At least we have learnt what to do on future jobs!

[Richo]

Recently one of our C-Bus projects was stolen. I mean everything.

Aarrghhh :(

This sort of behaviour really makes one angry. Sorry too hear about it. It is a pity you don't have any of the serials. (No boxes lying around?)

[Darren]

I guess that one of the benefits of the new tool kit software is that the serial numbers are recorded in the database, so you will have a permanent record of them - assuming you don't lose the database ;)

[Don]

How about two exploding bags of ink; purple and teal, which are set off the first time a local toggle key is touched after the din unit is removed from a rail...I would be really p*****-off!

As for your problem of the identification of wires, I went through a similar process at home when I upgraded from C-Bus to C-Bus2 units. All the wires to the loads were originally identified with black ink, but the sly electrician who installed the original units used a fading ink, so that now, 8 years on, none of the marking could be read. I could have painstakingly copied down which terminals of which units were connected to which wires, but instead decided to make use of the wonderful feature of C-Bus2 local toggle buttons.

All wires were removed from the old units, and the jumble of wires then connected to individual terminals of relay or dimmer units (at least I knew that the maximum load on any single wire would not exceed 500W). With the help of my daughter, we identified which lights/fans were controlled by which local toggle buttons, then after moviing a few to relays/dimmers to suit the load, went on the installation software (toolkit V 1.1.3) and with the aid of the groups list, which can identify the group that a message controls "live" on the network, we pushed keys around the house and entered tags to re-create the database. It was then trivial to edit the units to assign the appropriate tags to the relay and dimmer units. The best of it all was that the time-consuming steps were not in the top of the linen cupboard where the units are mounted.

It's really not that hard

Don

[yzf250]

Has the issue ever come up of logging all equiptment sold? Like maybe logging on to a website to verify units serial numbers before programming can commence?

[Ross]

Has the issue ever come up of logging all equiptment sold? Like maybe logging on to a website to verify units serial numbers before programming can commence?
I feel for you loss. The idea of logging to validate equipment is just a bit too hard to manage and maintain I would think. Just imagine on a job in the bush, need to add/replace a component or 2 and bingo no internet.

Keeping a log of serials is a pain for CIS to implement but not impossible.

Cheers

[ashleigh]

CIS record serials during manufacture, for tracking factory test results and such like. But this is just not useful anyhow (how do CIS know that its been stolen?).

The value to the installers is for them to know that an item is stolen.

The best and simplest solution is for equipment to be scanned, by serial, as soon as possible after installation (or even before). If that information is in your Toolkit database and the equipment is stolen, then by forwarding the database to CIS, it may then be possible to build a register of stolen serials, which could become something Toolkit uses.

If Toolkit has the register of stolen serials built in (not easily modifiyable), and its somtehing thats updated with each new download / update, then everybody gets the protection sooner or later with no special effort.

The onus falls back onto the installer to scan the equipment and build a preliminary database as early on as possible.

As for the Toolkit... Over to you Duncan.....

[GeorgeKosmas]

No numbers were recorded Duncan. Having it all stolen was the last thing on my mind. I have heard of a few cases since and the house owners insurance rep had also heard of a few cases.
At least we have learnt what to do on future jobs!

Thats a very big OUCH!! :eek: How much worth of c-bus stuff was stolen?

Did you scan the c-bus network with your laptop or something? because if you did then maybe the serial numbers will be kept on your computer (in the database).

Regards
George

[Phil.H]

Over the last few years C-Bus has become a commodity that people undertand the value of. Value in terms of what it costs in the first instance and its perceived value once installed in a home or office. Everyone can do their part to ensure this instance of theft does not become a trend. Just as we have always been told to record serial numbers of expensive consumer products TV, AV, computer equipment etc all regular installers of C-bus should be conscious of having records of the C-Bus equipment they have purchased. If this thing (theft) happens here and there then sooner or later equipment will pop up somewhere. If we have legal proof of ownership and this leads to a conviction for theft then any trend will be squashed. Toolkit can record serial numbers as part of its standard operations. Protect your interests by putting some thought into recording a database of equipment in the above context.

;)

[yzf250]

The whole project was maybe one day from completion so I have the whole database on the laptop but with the old C-bus software. I only tried Toolkit last week for the first time. I've only seen the serial numbers pop up in Toolkit and cant seem to find any mention of serial numbers in V2.

[Richo]

The whole project was maybe one day from completion so I have the whole database on the laptop but with the old C-bus software. I only tried Toolkit last week for the first time. I've only seen the serial numbers pop up in Toolkit and cant seem to find any mention of serial numbers in V2.

Unfortunately V2 does not record serial numbers :(

[Charlie Crackle]

This is the first time I have seen C BUS gear on e-bay

http://search.ebay.com.au/c-bus

Probably unrelated to your gear.... as they have used clipsal pictures

[rhamer]

You had me all excited, untill I saw the prices.

Not exactly a bargain.

[GeorgeKosmas]

Well i am guessing that the eBay stuff is for the general public and not tradesmen when we get trade prices.

Regards
George

[JackD]

Just a note for people concerned with serial numbers. The boxes the units come in have stickers which have the serial number barcodes printed on them. So if someone knocks off all your units and you've kept the boxes then you can tell what the serial numbers were.

[darrenblake]

These guys have to be kidding. They want top dollar for the gear, my wholesaler sells it to me cheaper than that, and i know where to take it back to if its faulty.