Vessel Monitoring? What do you do?

[HeadedToTexas]

He was gone for a couple weeks last summer and someone who worked on his boat knocked-off the shore power.

Ouch! Very good point.

 

[Guilhem]

Interesting concept. What I would be looking for:
- not a ton of features. The more you add, the more failure points / risks of bugs. Less is more.
- detects loss of shore power and notifies accordingly
- sends along battery voltage
- sends notification every time the bilge pump triggers
- hearbeat once or twice a day. Or, I can send an SMS to the device to request current status

- do not tie this to AT&T or any specific US-only cell provider. Instead include a SIM card slot and let the user pick their phone carrier. I can get a spare phone line for 2€/ month with 100 texts included here, no need for anything else.
- not a big fan of the subscription model. Prefer to pay a tad more for the device and avoid yet another monthly plan.
Keep us posted on progress! Thanks.

 

[ksanders]

Kevin the price is right. Can you list the parts needed to set it up for bilge activity, battery, temp, shore power.

The best thing to do is to go to smartthings.com and look at compatible sensors.

There are a zillion choices and they all work.

 

[stevemitchell]

I have a lot of opinions on remote monitoring, having been involved with companies that provide it, and doing my own thing, for over 20 years.

Currently aboard I have:
Siren
BRNKL
Boat Command
Maretron
Vesper Cortex
SailLogger
Several other iPad/iPhone systems
Several custom systems including Grafana/Influx
Probably 5 others I'm forgetting that have "remote monitoring" as a side feature

I also have a box of failed companies stuff - probably 8 or 9 different products.

All of them have some core issue that is missing to make them perfect for me. Many of them provide the basics, but require lots of stupid proprietary wiring, or have other limitations. Almost all of the commercial ones are meant for small boats, sub-30 feet, and have limitations there in terms of sensor distance, types of sensors, or just the companies focus on larger boats. Many have huge glaring monitoring holes - like not notifying you if the unit goes offline, no battery backup, and other really dumb things.

I come from the tech world where these sorts of challenges were solved in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and some of these companies have people with similar backgrounds, but haven't solved these irritating holes.

BRNKL uses SmartThings for their remote sensors, but with a challenging implementation that makes it a pain in the ass to maintain. Siren uses their own, and have gone through years of revisions, designed something from the ground up, instead of leveraging existing sensors like SmartThings. As a result, both of these solutions I find inadequate because their remote sensors are unreliable and they have poor notifications when they fail (!!!)

Most of the systems I have seen that work extremely well are hard wired, custom setups that are super expensive, or are based on IoT technologies like SmartThings where those systems have been in much worse conditions in homes and businesses, and the bugs have been worked out.

If you are going to offer something, I would definitely pick your audience. There are sub-slices within the recreational boating world that are wildly different for a product like this. Picking that slice and sticking with it will guarantee some level of success.

 

[Kit_L]

Joining this thread to stay in touch. I am on my boat every day, but away from it morning to night. The most important thing I want to know is if any bilge pumps operate when I'm away. The rest of the systems (solar and batteries) I know well enough to rely on. I am on a mooring in a big river.

I did visit smartthings.com, and it's certainly glossy, but I would prefer to buy a modest system that is set up for the marine environment, and connects to my phone via the internet easily. This system must be able to notify me if it fails, too.

 

[jjorgenson3]

We use Pump Alarm. It monitors shore power, temperature and has a high water alarm. It does send a text message when any of the above is not operating properly. Also sends a text message if systems are operating correctly. Super easy installation, under $300 initial purchase and annual renewal is less than $100

 

[JDyoung]

What you're describing sounds a lot like Floathub; https://floathub.com/

I've been running the wifi version for over a year, and it's alerted me twice to shore power shut off (once my mistake, didn't hook it back up, once a mysterious loose cord). It didn't actually alert me (although it can) but I noticed it in time to avoid the dead batteries/fridge debacle. They have cell versions, which would make sense if your marina wifi is dodgy. It has proven valuable to me for peace of mind, and occasionally saving me a 2 hour round trip to check on things. I just noticed they're all backordered, maybe popular, maybe issues getting Arduino boards? I also have an indoor Blink camera which notifies me of internet outages, but the Floathub could probably do that too, not sure. Pretty simple design, just a single wire to each pump, battery bank, charger etc. and it notices the voltage changes/levels. They just put out a mobile app too, which I use. So far, I'm a fan.

 

[Kit_L]

jjorgenson3, do you have a link for that ("Pump Alarm" brought up many links!). Not crazy about annual renewals, as someone else above noted—I am guessing that's for the app. Thanks for replying.

 

[RustyPBucket]

It's what peeves me about insurance.

It's increasingly difficult to get insurance covering full time cruisers who have their finger on the pulse 24/7

Yet easy to get insurance if your boat is miles away monitored by an app or in most instances.....nothing at all.

This at the top of my list of pet peeves. Their line of thinking on this makes no sense to me at all.

 

[Phyrcooler]

I’m late to this thread, but find the idea of a lower cost, very simple to install, basic monitoring/alert system very interesting. I believe that one of the deterrents for me with many systems is the lack of stable WiFi at my marina, and the perceived (misconception?) cost of cellular. If I can get text alerts, and potentially a system check daily for about $5/month - $60 annually, I would be interested.

On a related note, arrived to my marina Monday to see a boat near mine that had submerged and inverted. It was an approximately 36 - 38 Express Cruiser that never went anywhere, and I almost never saw anyone aboard. Obviously, maintenance, or rather the lack of was probably an issue.

 

[LovetoBoat]

I am in NJ - my boat is in West Palm FL this winter - first time for me - it is generally on the hard in the winter.

I don't monitor - what am I going to do if a Tropical Storm / Hurricane hit or it sinks? Insurance will cover it - I can't fly down every time something might happen.
I have a boat washer once a month that I trust and a diver that cleans the hull and prop. If not for them I would have no idea what is going on with the boat. That said I try to get down once or twice a month to enjoy the boat.

 

[READY]

Does your insurance cover hurricanes? I thought a lot of policies required the boat to be above a certain latitude during hurricane season? Just curious.

The monitoring is not really intended for the storm situation but more routine risks where a simple action could avoid a major loss. Even with insurance it would be very impactful to have your boat sink at the dock. I consider my boat to be well maintained but last year had a rudder shift leak. In only a day I had about 7 inches in the lazarette and would have gone into the engine room next. Bilge pump ran until it didn't. No damage but had I not found it I could have lost the boat. I should have my low cost LTE alarm prototype finished in 3-4 weeks to start testing. Will update the forum.

 

[LovetoBoat]

For insurance - I told them I was bringing it Nov 1st through Apr 30th - I needed to put the FL marina on the Declaration Page. No increase in insurance and they did not caution me for those dates. Had I brought it earlier or if I stayed later than April - I do not know if that would push me to Hurricane season or not...
"The Atlantic hurricane season is June 1 to November 30 every year."

 

[fgarriso]

We live on our boat 24/7 and have alarms on almost everything. I plan to upgrade to a text pager system that will send out alarms.