Remote Monitoring

[SCL]

Hi

Does anyone have any recommendations and advice on a remote monitoring system? We have a mastervolt set up being installed and would like to add battery monitoring/bilge/location. I tried boathawk but they don’t answer my emails or call me back...

[Tony1]

I don't know enough about these systems to put this forward as a recommendation, but it might at least be a useful name, if you're starting to research the potential options:

I know Victron sell a range of products including battery monitors called the BMV-700 and BMV-712, and some of their devices offer the option of remote monitoring via the internet (if I'm right in assuming that you're wanting to monitor the state of the boat's batteries from a home residence). 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Tony1

[GUMPY]

I run a simple SMS based system 

Tells me the following:

If air temperature drops below 6degC

If battery SOC drops below 80%

If charger Fails

If shore power fails

These can be anything you want as all are triggered by external units 

And it also allows me to switch the heating on before I get to the boat😎

 

 

[doratheexplorer]

10 minutes ago, Loddon said:

I run a simple SMS based system 

Tells me the following:

If air temperature drops below 6degC

If battery SOC drops below 80%

If charger Fails

If shore power fails

These can be anything you want as all are triggered by external units 

And it also allows me to switch the heating on before I get to the boat😎

 

 

What does SMS mean?

[GUMPY]

Short Message Service

 

 

 

Otherwise known as a txt message

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Loddon

[robtheplod]

2 hours ago, Loddon said:

I run a simple SMS based system 

Tells me the following:

If air temperature drops below 6degC

If battery SOC drops below 80%

If charger Fails

If shore power fails

These can be anything you want as all are triggered by external units 

And it also allows me to switch the heating on before I get to the boat😎

 

 

Sounds great... is this a cobbled together solution or did you buy it?

[GUMPY]

27 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Sounds great... is this a cobbled together solution or did you buy it?

I wouldn't describe it as cobbled together.😱

It takes an alarm output from Smartgauge for the SOC, an alarm O/P from the charger, a relay across the mains triggers the shore power alarm and a thermometer with a relay O/P triggers the temperature.

That is all fed into one of These mine is only 2g as that works where there is bad phone signal (won't work on 3 as that's 3g minimum)

They now make an eight input one (mine is only 4) which I would have got so I could have spare capacity.

It's a simple matter to add other things like bilge pump etc as all each input requires is to be taken down to 0v and there is one input that will take +v when this happens it sends you a txt relevant to that item.

Mine was £89 a year ago they have crept up in price since then 😟

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Loddon

[tehmarks]

A Victron GX device and a GPS-capable 4G router would do the job, if you also have or plan on installing 4G Internet. But that only fully makes sense if you spec the whole system as a Victron system, otherwise you lose most of the functionality and benefits of the GX being able to talk to and control the rest of your system. You can also get a GSM and GPS 'dongle' for GX, but I feel it makes more sense just to install a 4G router that can do GPS, as that way you'll also have Internet (with a data SIM from a mobile provider)

 

That's the way I'll be going in the future, anyway, but all of my existing hardware (inverter, MPPT, battery monitor) is Victron. The 4G router I have is quite nifty for this sort of thing — it'll take unregulated DC in from something like 9-30V and so can by fed by the DC system directly with minimal bodging and no DIY electronics. It also does GPS, and is connected to a decent omni 4G/WiFi/GPS antenna on the roof.

[SCL]

Thank you. That’s really helpful.