Have Your Boat Phone Home...

[Sumner]

Have any of you seen the Jan 2012 Good Old Boat article where you can build a device that will sense up to 4 events in your boat and phoned home to you if any of them take place. I thought about this reading the other thread on bilge pumps.

To do this you need a phone, $30-$40 and a micro-controller, $25-$50. You can wire the micro-controller to 4 different switches. Examples are, bilge alarm, fire alarm, entry alarm or about any thing that you have a simple switch to that is activated by the event.

You put in different text messages into the controller for each event and if the event takes place the controller sends the message to the phone and will call different programmed phone numbers and leave the text message.

At the time of the article they recommended using T-Mobile as they have a $10 90 day plan. With it for $40 a year you would be in business plus the initial cost of the phone and micro-controller.

The setup will run off of 12 volts and is low draw, but still the battery will need to be kept up. We have ordered the parts and plan on installing it on the Endeavour in Florida.

Here are a couple links.

http://www.goodoldboat.com/reader_services/more_online/boat_phone_home.php

http://www.goodoldboat.com/reader_services/more_online/boat_phone_home_instructions.pdf

We bought an un-locked phone off of E-bay and ordered the...

.... micro-controller and ...

... terminal adapter for easier hook up here....

http://www.gravitech.us/arna30wiatp.html

http://www.gravitech.us/teadforarna.html

...I found cheaper pricing, but like that terminal adapter and we needed faster delivery,

Sum

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Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

I saw the article and am interested too. Tell me how it goes.

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

I wish I could take a picture and email it when the intrusion alarm is tripped

 

[CarlN]

I've been doing much the same for several years using a GSM alarm I bought off Ebay. I also use T-mobile service. It is very cheap. I chose this one because it monitors battery voltage and temperature as well as taking other sensors. Besides bilge, I have also wired in a battery powered motion detector. It also includes a microphone so you can "call" your boat and listen. The voltage is very handy since I set the voltage alarm at 13.2 volts when I'm away. If someone were to start an engine, it pulls the voltage down briefly and I get a text. The whole thing is hidden behind a panel. No antenna visible. A crook would never find it.

One option that I leave on is that it sends me a "test" message once a day even if nothing is wrong. It tells me the temp and voltage.

I always enjoy hearing the little beep-beep that the boat is calling

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GSM-SMS-Car...425?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5636eb99b1

There may be better units out now on Ebay. Just be sure it supports US frequencies if you are in the US (usually called Quad band in the listings)

 

[Sumner]

I've been doing much the same for several years using a GSM alarm I bought off Ebay....

That is really nice! More money, but it does a lot more. For now I think we will get by fine with the other option, but we will keep this in mind,

Sum

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Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][/FONT]

 

[rpwillia]

Are there any wifi units out there?

Seems like there could be a market for these.

 

[Sailm8]

Man the kids are bad enough, now the boat will call me for money!!

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

man The Kids Are Bad Enough, Now The Boat Will Call Me For Money!!

Funny!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Have you considered a simple bilge cycle counter? Seems a lot easier and less expensive.

While I can go down to our boat at least once a week to check and/or sail, I can understand the principle involved here for remote checking.

However, I am perplexed at some of these "check your boat for vandals" gizmos.

May it be true that some of you have boats in areas where theft is prevalent? In our over 30 years of boating here, I have had only one incident and that was when our boat was on a trailer (we trailer sailed our C22) and someone tried to steal the 7.5 hp Mercury outboard (but couldn't because of the lock we had on it).

Be interesting to find out either the reality of theft issues or the level of paranoia.

Or do some of you just like gizmos?