Jump to content

Remote battery monitoring


frahkn

Featured Posts

Looks like the gizmo needs to be connected to The Internet of Things, (whatever that is), via LoRaWAN, in order to get to Victrons server:

 

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2017/08/31/free-internet-connection-using-lorawan-to-vrm/

 

This requires the boat to be withing range of a gateway - I have a gateway 27m high a few miles away, but have no idea of the range of these things yet. There seems to be one about 75m high in central Manchester, about 4 miles away.

 

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/

 

am I bothered? Not sure :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Looks like the gizmo needs to be connected to The Internet of Things, (whatever that is), via LoRaWAN, in order to get to Victrons server:

 

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2017/08/31/free-internet-connection-using-lorawan-to-vrm/

 

This requires the boat to be withing range of a gateway - I have a gateway 27m high a few miles away, but have no idea of the range of these things yet. There seems to be one about 75m high in central Manchester, about 4 miles away.

 

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/

 

am I bothered? Not sure :) 

It could be great or it could be rubbish!

If it works it could be a much simpler way of getting what I get from the Rasp Pi but it is relying on public transmitters (rather than commercial ones).

It looks like you only get a one hourly update but not sure if it gives you all the data in between. With the Pi (or venus GX) you get a continous reading which is useful for monitoring all your power usage or historical power usage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Yes that would be as good as anything. A cheap £50 camera would be fine.

 

Make sure you have your router set to auto reboot every day (or on a 'ping' failure) as I find ours only goes 3 or 4 days when off the boat. Most 'loss of power' on ours in the  past was the router freezing.

You can communicate with your router via sms. Rebooting it etc. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those still interested, the system which I saw on Saturday turns out to require the following:-

 

A Victron battery monitor 

An Arduino micro controller

And a permanent internet connection on board 

 

Apparently it's a bespoke system which is still in development though it has proved "stable for the last few months". So not a system which is commercially available yet (if ever).

 

Back to the £50 camera then!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, frahkn said:

For those still interested, the system which I saw on Saturday turns out to require the following:-

 

A Victron battery monitor 

An Arduino micro controller

And a permanent internet connection on board 

 

Apparently it's a bespoke system which is still in development though it has proved "stable for the last few months". So not a system which is commercially available yet (if ever).

Sounds like what Dr Bob does. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Sounds like what Dr Bob does. 

Perhaps it was he who fitted my batteries on Saturday - if so, he didn't look at all like his picture. This muppet stuff must be overstated.

Edited by frahkn
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

Sounds like what Dr Bob does. 

Yep, but with a Raspberry Pi so it is a 'commercial' solution. All software/firmware available free from Victron.

22 hours ago, rusty69 said:

You can communicate with your router via sms. Rebooting it etc. 

I didnt know that!

Can you tell it to reboot if the router is not responding? What do you type into the sms message to get it to do it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

 

Can you tell it to reboot if the router is not responding? What do you type into the sms message to get it to do it?

Probably yes.From the router setup page 192.168.1.1

 

Go to services, sms utility, edit the reboot rule so the authorisation method reads "by router admin password", then save.

 

Then send an sms to the primary sim card "password reboot",where password is your password.

 

See link.

 

https://wiki.teltonika.lt/view/SMS_Utilities

 

This is for my rut955, yours is probably the same. There are a whole load of sms actions in the pdf instruction manual and the above link.

Edited by rusty69
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Can you tell it to reboot if the router is not responding? 

There's a variety of reboot features on your -950 as well. 

 

Ping a known good address every x hours/minutes/seconds and if you don't get a reply, reboot.

 

wget a known URL and if you don't get a valid response, reboot.

 

I think you already use the every day at x hours reboot one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

There's a variety of reboot features on your -950 as well. 

 

Ping a known good address every x hours/minutes/seconds and if you don't get a reply, reboot.

 

wget a known URL and if you don't get a valid response, reboot.

 

I think you already use the every day at x hours reboot one.

Yes, that's what we do now....a reboot each day. You can set it to ping but I have not tried that.

I was interested to see what you could do with SMS so will look at the stuff lusty linked to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Yes, that's what we do now....a reboot each day. You can set it to ping but I have not tried that.

I was interested to see what you could do with SMS so will look at the stuff lusty linked to.

I'm am only lusty on a Thursday! 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Yes, that's what we do now....a reboot each day. You can set it to ping but I have not tried that.

Ping reboot has the benefit that if it stops it will restart in the next x minutes without waiting until 3 am or you having to notice and text it.

 

Handy if you want to be logging stuff remotely, as you will get less gaps in the data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

Ping reboot has the benefit that if it stops it will restart in the next x minutes without waiting until 3 am or you having to notice and text it.

 

Handy if you want to be logging stuff remotely, as you will get less gaps in the data.

Ok. How does one do a ping reboot?

 

Or is it just reruns of Pingu?

download.jpeg

Edited by rusty69
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

Ping reboot has the benefit that if it stops it will restart in the next x minutes without waiting until 3 am or you having to notice and text it.

 

Handy if you want to be logging stuff remotely, as you will get less gaps in the data.

Sok, I found it.

 

ETA.The sms method has the benefit that you can interrogate the router for signal strength info.

Edited by rusty69
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Sok, I found it.

 

ETA.The sms method has the benefit that you can interrogate the router for signal strength info.

Yeah, both have their uses for different things.

 

Ping reboot is a keep this router awake and alive setting, the SMS commands are for remote monitoring and diagnostics.

 

Nothing stops you using both methods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

Yeah, both have their uses for different things.

 

Ping reboot is a keep this router awake and alive setting, the SMS commands are for remote monitoring and diagnostics.

 

Nothing stops you using both methods.

It is a very versatile router. I am having trouble with my data usage at the moment on one of my devices. The router allows you to monitor real time data usage, amongst other things.Very useful for diagnostic purposes. Not worth nearly 200 quid though, not to me anyway.

 

Did you ever buy one?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

Yeah, both have their uses for different things.

 

Ping reboot is a keep this router awake and alive setting, the SMS commands are for remote monitoring and diagnostics.

 

Nothing stops you using both methods.

I understand the first and last sentences perfectly but the middle one not at all.

 

I must be technically challenged.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, frahkn said:

I understand the first and last sentences perfectly but the middle one not at all.

 

I must be technically challenged.

Ping reboot: The router periodically send out a signal (ping) to a specified IP address. If it gets no reply, the router is rebooted.

 

SMS (text message) control, is exactly that.The router can be remotely controlled through the use of SMS messages from afar. OR near for that matter.

Edited by rusty69
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, rusty69 said:

It is a very versatile router. I am having trouble with my data usage at the moment on one of my devices. The router allows you to monitor real time data usage, amongst other things.Very useful for diagnostic purposes. Not worth nearly 200 quid though, not to me anyway.

 

Did you ever buy one?

No, but I have been playing with someone else's 950 this week.  It's a bit of a swiss army knife, as it tries to have too many functions and they are not all done well.  They are quite good if you need that one odd feature though, which is the market they are designed for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.