Bilge water level sensor

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Des_Beechey

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I am looking for a supplier/manufacturer of an electronic bilge water level sensor. In PBO no. 507 (March 2009), in the "Sketchbook" section on page 65, there is an illustration in the bottom left of the page of an electtronic sensor that can send out a text message when activated. Who makes it?
 
If you just want a buzzer alarm job .... there are various ways to do it.

a) Bath water sensors ...

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About a fiver ... available on ebay ...

b) Bilge senors for pump - wired to set-off buzzer as well ..

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(saltyjohn does a good line in these as well ...)

c) Smoke alarm modified ... the type with Test button. You connect a light twin flex to the contacts of the test button. Bare ends are then set with hot-glue gun to bilge at height you want warning. The flex effectively closes the test contact when water touches bare ends. You can put a small switch in series to cut it out if you want. Cheap works ... and also detector is still acting as smoke detector !

For remote via call top mobile etc. ??
 
Thanks for those links about bilge pump monitoring.

can you give me some information about mobile phones in UK? Here in Australia we are changing over from 2G to 3G phones. (If I understand correctly, 2G = GSM?). All of the dial out monitoring systems seem to use GSM. Does anyone use 3G systems there?
Thanks Des Beechey
 
We have a pressure operated bilge level detector -- Jabsco, I think. It ought to be highly reliable but it isn't and the previous owner had trouble. I now have the pneumatic one wired with a simple float switch (designed for bilges) across it.

I have also wired an alarm across the bilge pump so if that runs continuously for more than 30 seconds a siren goes off in the panel. The point being that when motoring at sea (motoring is when you stand the greatest chance of getting a leak due to burst pipe, water pump failure, etc.) you won't hear the bilge pump running so you could end up not being aware of the problem until the water is coming up past the cabin sole.
 
3G and GSM

The UK has both GSM and 3G networks. I think that there were a couple of '2G' systems, CDMA in the US and GSM in Europe and many other places. GSM certainly uses less power and may have better coverage as it has been around for longer, which are both good reasons to use it in a boat monitor. Most 3G phones fall back onto GSM when they can't find a 3G signal; I don't think the phone companies will be switching off their GSM masts anytime soon.

In conclusion if your phone gets reception in the boat at it's mooring then a GSM monitor should work.
 
Re: 3G and GSM

Thanks Matt. Unfortunately my boat is at the bottom of Tasmania where they only have a 3G phone system, so I am looking for a monitor system that will work with that. But most of the monitoring systems operate on 2G, and from what you say, I think there is little incentive for them to market 3G systems.
Des Beechey
 
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