Remote boat monitoring rec's

[brazenarticle]

The Victron Venus software on a raspberry pi works great, I followed Boathackers posts and have it all now showing up on Home Assistant.
That said I still have my Floathub on the boat and a couple Blink cameras. The boat has an always on hotspot or the FLoathub can use its own cellular connection.
That gives me battery states, bilge pump counts, GPS location, temperatures. Wind speed and other instruments can also be added.

[Captain Puget]

I use a camera only approach and point one at my wall mounted gages for temperature/ humidity (also sees outside for weather / intruders) and one pointed into the open bilge hatch (also good for ventilation, with a dehumidifier running)

[jimellifritt]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Starlink has made monitoring much easier (and cheaper). There’s typically no monthly charge. You simply connect Wi-Fi devices to 5e Starlink hotspot. Works everywhere in the world with no cell service

I have

Victron VRM for battery, solar panels, shore power, and bilge

Two $40:baby monitor cameras. These alert for both an intruder and unusual sounds (such as an alarm going off somewhere. You can then listen over the camera to identify the alarm. It also records video of anyone coming on the boat.

A $30 Wi-Fi temperature/humidity gauge that helps if I’m running air conditioning in a slip.

As backup I also have a vesper Corte AIS. Its monitoring is less than $200/year. I use it when anchored or moored because it shows any dragging, wind speed and direction, and water depth. You can see in a map how the boat is swinging in the harbor.

52 Starlink hot spot? I am unclear what this is, and google does not return a hit for it. Can you explain what it is?

[SY Harmony]

Originally Posted by Captain Puget

I use a camera only approach and point one at my wall mounted gages for temperature/ humidity (also sees outside for weather / intruders) and one pointed into the open bilge hatch (also good for ventilation, with a dehumidifier running)

More details please. This is my plan of action. I just havent settled on hardware yet.

[waltini]

I went with an old iPhone, a $17 a month SIM card and a baby monitoring app. I am in Indonesia now checking the bilge in Australia.

[Hula Rider]

Has anyone used HughesNet for linking to a security system?

[Benjamin Fry]

I went with Vircru.com. does all of that for me but no camera. works well though

[wsconner]

If you're in cellular range, I use an AT&T hotspot @ $50/mos (nighthawk) and connect a blink cam(s) to it. I charge both the blink sync and the hotspot with the load output from my Victron solar charge controller. You can put the camera(s) anywhere to monitor on demand or triggered by motion.

[Tenedos]

If you have a Victron, you can use Saillogger on it, it provides real-time tracking and automated logbook creation and maintenance. You can see the demo at https://saillogger.com/demo/

Also a Victron is capable doing a lot for your boat, see an article we wrote about it a while back: Victron Cerbo GX on Steroids

Disclaimer: I am the developer of Saillogger.

[Peregrine1983]

Reviving an old post of mine to update where I ended up.

I purchased a Roam Devices system

It was $299 for the cellular unit with temp, humidity, bilge float sensor, battery voltage, and GPS position monitoring. $60 for the year for the service.

It's a fraction of the price of Siren Marine and the Garmin units and the customer service so far has been excellent... like above and beyond. The person I've been speaking with there is a cruiser himself. They are working on a wifi add-on that will allow you to connect via starlink in areas without cell svc.

I've had it installed for just two days and I'm very happy. I have it set up for text and email alerts for my bilge and batteries.

[markxengineerin]

Looks like a great product, especially for the money.

[dougcn]

I put a Roam Devices Monitor in this season - highly recommend! It’s very affordable and has a cellular service plan for $5 a month. Mine is setup to monitor location, temperature, acceleration, voltage, two float switches, a bilge pump run sensor and a Ruuvi tag tracking temperature in my fridge. The location feature is a great anchor alarm at the home harbor mooring or when anchored and ashore on trips. Great product and a great company. Very pleased with it.

[kaz911]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Starlink has made monitoring much easier (and cheaper). There’s typically no monthly charge. You simply connect Wi-Fi devices to 5e Starlink hotspot. Works everywhere in the world with no cell service

I have

Victron VRM for battery, solar panels, shore power, and bilge

Two $40:baby monitor cameras. These alert for both an intruder and unusual sounds (such as an alarm going off somewhere. You can then listen over the camera to identify the alarm. It also records video of anyone coming on the boat.

A $30 Wi-Fi temperature/humidity gauge that helps if I’m running air conditioning in a slip.

As backup I also have a vesper Corte AIS. Its monitoring is less than $200/year. I use it when anchored or moored because it shows any dragging, wind speed and direction, and water depth. You can see in a map how the boat is swinging in the harbor.

I use Ruuvi wireless temperature sensors for Victron Cerbo/Ekrano on ours - so I have inside (multiple) - outside - and fridge & freezer all logged into Victron with alarms set for "unusual" data.

Then I have some WiFi plugs - which I can remote turn on/off from Victron's built in "Node-Red" server and scripts. So my NoderRed script currently turns on/off tube heaters when temperature increase or decrease.

The Victron Signal-K logs my NMEA 2000 data. But that is how far I have gone with it so far..

Honestly - the Victron Ekrano (GX on Steroids - twice the CPU..) was the FIRST item I installed when we bought the boat for remote monitoring.

[CarlF]

Originally Posted by jimellifritt

52 Starlink hot spot? I am unclear what this is, and google does not return a hit for it. Can you explain what it is?

Sorry. Must have opened the wine before I wrote that. Just meant the regular Starlink router.

Although right now I’m using doing the monitoring in a Florida boatyard using a Tmobile hotspot with a 2GB monthly plan that costs $10 and have the Starlink plan paused. The 2GB is plenty for this monitoring.