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Letterkenny · 29-05-2021, 23:29

I’m contemplating getting this for my boat. I’m a tech person so like the idea of getting as much data on the boat as possible. Seems like a nice way to remotely monitor the bilge pump, high water alarm, battery, shore power, and as a security device but haven’t heard too much on this from other sailors. Anyone else use this?

Aquasition · 23-06-2021, 13:40

I've been a long time user of Siren Marine and absolutely love it. And I'm an MIT tech guy and data nerd as well. In fact, I got introduced to Siren Marine because I shared with a friend that I was going to build my own boat monitoring system with Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, and he said "no, don't do that, let me introduce you to the founder & CEO of Siren Marine!"

That was about 8 years ago plus or minus, and I couldn't be happier that I'm using a rock-solid product like Siren Marine instead of a hack-job like I would have put together myself. In the RARE instance I have any issue it is great to be able to call support and have them deal with it.

I have many sensors including high water, forward bilge, aft bilge, cabin door, and shore power. Both my starting and house batteries are monitored as well. And of course it shows GPS location so you know if the boat is leaving without you... (and can also be used as a sort of anchor alarm.)

No more surprises due to leaving something running, or having a friend at the boat club calling saying "your bilge pump seems to be running a lot and your boat looks low!" -- which yes, happened once, before I got Siren Marine.

I've had Siren Marine save me from potential disasters a few times. Happy to share those stories if you'd like.

The system draws so little power that I keep it on even in the winter (Boston area) while on the hard.

I can tell you more, but know that it is one of the few products I'm VERY happy with as I tend to set a very high bar especially for tech-related things.

What else can I tell you?

Letterkenny · 23-06-2021, 14:37

Did you self install or have someone else do it?

Uncle Bob · 23-06-2021, 16:00

Here in Aus I am using something that sounds very similar, TrekTransponder, very happy with it and it provides pretty much the same data that you describe.

Aquasition · 24-06-2021, 09:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

Did you self install or have someone else do it?

I self-installed.

Super easy.

They just released a new version of the product, but the prior version, which I have, called the MTC (Monitor Track Control) unit has the power wires (with built-in fuse holder, if I recall) that go directly to the battery (and has a built-in backup battery), and you can wire the bilge pumps and batteries directly to the terminals. It was very easy to install and get up and running. The wireless sensors are also simple -- two wires in most cases. (Forgot to mention yesterday that I also have a wireless temperature sensor that I use in the cabin.) And, the new Siren 3 Pro is supposedly even better.

One piece of installation advice: Before you commit to a specific mounting location for the "head unit", run some temporary wires and temporarily mount it to make sure you get good GPS and Cellular signals.

It is also nice that I got a discount on my insurance for having a tracking, security, and safety monitoring system. That offsets some or most of the recurring service cost, which is relatively inexpensive to begin with.

My only issue was that I initially put the wireless bilge pump sensors near the switch at the helm, which unfortunately was the wrong place for my setup as those were only live when the battery switch was on in some way, so when I was away from the boat, with the battery switch turned off, I wasn't getting bilge alerts. I have since wired the aft bilge directly to the MTC and put the forward bilge properly on the wireless sensor.

The wireless sensor batteries last a long time. I think they claim ~6 months but I've run them for closer to 18 months before needing replacement. Perhaps this is because of the lack of use during the winter months?

There are a number of videos on their website and YouTube that were helpful, and their support team is great. Honestly, I can't speak highly enough of the company.

One more piece of advice while I'm at it: I have an Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S9+), and at the system level I configured the notification sounds from the Siren Marine app to use a sound -- a ship's bell -- different from my "normal" notifications. That way I know if I'm getting an important alert from Siren Marine. I also have it send me text messages in addition to the in-app alerts. That way I can define Siren Marine's sending address as a "VIP" and have it audibly alert me even when I have my notifications/volumes turned off.

Finally, the last thing I want to add is an actual siren, so that if the cabin door sensor gets triggered while the system is "armed" the alarm will ring. I still think Siren Marine should do a promo that includes an actual **siren**... I mean, it is in their NAME!

Hope this is helpful. Other questions?

unlimited · 26-06-2021, 07:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquasition

I've been a long time user of Siren Marine and absolutely love it. And I'm an MIT tech guy and data nerd as well. In fact, I got introduced to Siren Marine because I shared with a friend that I was going to build my own boat monitoring system with Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, and he said "no, don't do that, let me introduce you to the founder & CEO of Siren Marine!"

That was about 8 years ago plus or minus, and I couldn't be happier that I'm using a rock-solid product like Siren Marine instead of a hack-job like I would have put together myself. In the RARE instance I have any issue it is great to be able to call support and have them deal with it.

I have many sensors including high water, forward bilge, aft bilge, cabin door, and shore power. Both my starting and house batteries are monitored as well. And of course it shows GPS location so you know if the boat is leaving without you... (and can also be used as a sort of anchor alarm.)

No more surprises due to leaving something running, or having a friend at the boat club calling saying "your bilge pump seems to be running a lot and your boat looks low!" -- which yes, happened once, before I got Siren Marine.

I've had Siren Marine save me from potential disasters a few times. Happy to share those stories if you'd like.

The system draws so little power that I keep it on even in the winter (Boston area) while on the hard.

I can tell you more, but know that it is one of the few products I'm VERY happy with as I tend to set a very high bar especially for tech-related things.

What else can I tell you?

I was thinking of a building one myself too! Are there any features you think the Siren lacks? Or things that don't work so well?

Aquasition · 02-07-2021, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by unlimited

Are there any features you think the Siren lacks? Or things that don't work so well?

There are a few minor things I'd want to modify if I ran Product (which is actually a large part of my background - software product management), but none of them are deal-breakers, AND the company is really good about taking feedback and making improvements along the way. That said, here are some things on my wish-list:

1. The system has an option to send a daily (nightly, actually) status report, which I'd call more of a snapshot in time of all of the current conditions. I think this can be improved to give the *changes* during a day. For instance, the daily status report saying that the bilge pump is currently off doesn't really give me any insight into what happened during the day -- for instance, the bilge pump came on 6 times for a total of 106 seconds. I can of course see that information in the app itself - there is an event log and graphs that visually display the information.

2. I wish the app allowed for different notification sounds for different things, or at least a different overall notification sound. Or, had the ability to override a "silent" setting. If my boat is sinking and the high water alarm triggers, I want to hear about it even if I have my phone on silent. And I want it to sound different because I'm so sensitized to the many notifications I get that unless it is different, it is the same and drowned out. I realize some of my wishes here are things that from a policy perspective both Apple and Google don't allow, but other life-safety apps get around them so why not Siren Marine too? As a side note I've already changed at the Android OS level the notification sound for the Siren Marine app so it is different, but even within there I want different sounds based on the severity of the trigger. Again, not a deal breaker.

3. The company name is "Siren Marine" and I've long thought that it should be shipped with... well... a SIREN! I still need to buy one for my setup. But, I do think it should be part of the initial purchase package. You can't ask for a better marketing tie-in. Again, not at all a deal breaker, and mostly tongue-in-cheek...

4. I haven't looked into it yet and honestly don't know if it exists already, but I would like to see some IFTTT type of tie-in so I can trigger actions and logic based on data from Siren Marine's sensors.

5. I would like access to more historical data in downloadable tabular format so I can do my own analysis on some things. Especially things like the voltage of my batteries. The graphs and charts they have in the app are nice if you happen to see them before the data is "too old" or gets "averaged out".

That's all I can think of right now and as you can tell these are mostly nitpicking items. The system is great, and I highly recommend it.