Remote boat monitoring in 2021

[Peregrine1983]

Hi all,

Aside from the branded boat monitoring systems that tend to have a hefty subscription fee, what sorts of setups are people using to remotely monitor their boats these days?

We keep our boat in an area with cell service. I’d love to be able to access a camera or cameras aboard remotely, or get an alert if she has high bilge water or moves off her mooring.

Eager to hear any and all ideas.

[C420sailor]

Double post

[C420sailor]

I’ve thought about this. Big issue to me is the mooring. Without shore power, you need to be energy conscious. If you have solar, I’d say you’re well on your way. We don’t.

We already have a PoE camera up the mast for ease of docking/mooring and finding shallows and such. No recording capability, as we don’t have Shore power out there, and we don’t have a large battery bank.

Bilge and mooring/anchor alarm would be my real wish list though...although the more I think about it, access to that camera in a storm would be incredible.

[TooCoys]

Do you have a solar panel, battery bank, and inverter?

After that, all it is is a few sensors and a cellular based jetpack.

[Allied39]

Blink. No fees, movement sensor or live view. Run through a hotspot. Straight talk. $15 a month. Tried sky roam but had issues with it not re connecting after a lost signal, which happens once every few weeks where my boat is on mooring.
Awesome setup.

[Peregrine1983]

Nice, I’ll check out Blink. Thanks Allied. Power will not be an issue on our boat. Lots of solar and ample AH.

[Peregrine1983]

Good idea regarding the jet pack!

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Hi all,

Aside from the branded boat monitoring systems that tend to have a hefty subscription fee, what sorts of setups are people using to remotely monitor their boats these days?

We keep our boat in an area with cell service. I’d love to be able to access a camera or cameras aboard remotely, or get an alert if she has high bilge water or moves off her mooring.

Eager to hear any and all ideas.

If you have good cell service , then it’s entirely practical to arrange a system to periodically send telematic messages , the simplest being SMS messages but it’s cheaper now via a data link.

Remotely triggering access to a camera will need a text message to wake up the data connection , as maintaining an always on link is more expensive. But these days it’s quite feasible too . Use a dynamic DNS service to assign a fixed URL to the changing mobile IP address

Entirely practical if you can power it all

[hlhughes]

Check out BRNKL. I installed their system several months ago and am totally satisfied with its capabilities,

[Dave852]

I use this, not sure of your location but I pay $10 per for an unlimited T-Mobile SIM card. Motion activated sends me a text if someone comes aboard.

https://m.reolink.com/us/product/reo...SABEgJnqvD_BwE

[Uncle Bob]

I guess it depends where in the world you are, here in Aus I use a local product that is sms based, Trek Transponder, https://www.trektransponder.com.au/ and have found it to be very good, so much so that I am about to upgrade to the newer model that is more power frugal with greater range of abilities.
No financial interest, just a happy camper.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by hlhughes

Check out BRNKL. I installed their system several months ago and am totally satisfied with its capabilities,

Am about to do the same. Primarily for security, but monitoring as well. Am trying to decide whether to install the laser sensor to trip an alarm and camera, or one of the wireless IRF motion sensors. Laser is supposed to be trouble free, but I want to minimize holes in the boat.

~$20 per month monitoring fee doesn't seem too much for worldwide coverage. Guys have been very responsive in answering questions.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by Dave852

I use this, not sure of your location but I pay $10 per for an unlimited T-Mobile SIM card. Motion activated sends me a text if someone comes aboard.

I am interested in motion sensor, but reports are too easy to set off false alarms. What sensor are you using?

[Dave852]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

I am interested in motion sensor, but reports are too easy to set off false alarms. What sensor are you using?

It’s part of the camera in the link. Lots of settings to fine tune the sensitivity. She is at a dock now and have had no false alarms. Previously when I had her anchored out I had a couple in severe squalls that tripped it. It’s pretty robust as well, got stuck by lightning last week, lost all electronics, battery charger, freezer, cabin lights and don’t know what else yet but camera working off its own solar panel, untouched.

[ayates]

Here is a description of the system we have setup: https://www.sensaphone.com/case-stud...ea-and-in-dock

We don't have video, but can monitor any number of sensors.

Some of the data we present on this custom page: St. Lawrence II Telemetry


Allan.