Boat watch SMS system

[rrees]

I am building some software to monitor my boat which will use a P.C / Laptop or solid state board a mobile phone, data cable and an input / output LED serial board.
I am able to send / recieve SMS messages from the software and recieve 4 on / off inputs from relays / switches.
What do others think I should monitor.
When complete I will make the software availble free to all others so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Possibly one option is to start a Yahoo Group to cover the project simular to the GPS one

Thanks

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[jfkal]

Hi there. Keep me in the loop. Useful to monitor would be:

1. GPS Coordinates (Boat moving ??)
2. Bilge water switch (water alarm)
3. Battery voltage
4. Wind Speed and direction (from NMEA or Seatalk Instruments)
5. Motion sensored alarm

Actions: Alarm device on/off (Sirene)
Bilge pump on/off
Fridge on/off
Ventilation on off

BTW systems such as the one you are proposing are already on the market ;-))



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[jfkal]

Hi there. Keep me in the loop. Useful to monitor would be:

1. GPS Coordinates (Boat moving ??)
2. Bilge water switch (water alarm)
3. Battery voltage
4. Wind Speed and direction (from NMEA or Seatalk Instruments)
5. Motion sensored alarm

Actions: Alarm device on/off (Sirene)
Bilge pump on/off
Fridge on/off
Ventilation on off

BTW systems such as the one you are proposing are already on the market ;-))



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[rickp]

I saw the BlueRay system that <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.airwavetechnologies.co.uk>AirWave Technologies</A> were showing at the boat show - and it didn't impress me much.

What other systems are there?

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[jfkal]

Mobilarm. A UK product. Comes with internal GPS as an option.

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[tome]

I thought of doing the same about a year ago, but there are so many systems already which do this that I doidn't bother. I still have the Siemens GSM devices if you're interested!

One of the unpublished problems with SMS is latency - it can take 8+ hours for a message to get through if the network is busy. Not much use if someone is breaking into your boat.

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[rrees]

Thanks interested can you send me a PM with details

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[jfkal]

The secret is to use phone and alarm subscribed to the same provider. Otherwise there may be a long delay. Does not help under roaming condiction though

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[tome]

These delays were measured using the same provider! SMS is low priority traffic, and you will not find any delivery specs in any service agreement, as far as I'm aware.

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[VicMallows]

Agree. It does seem particularly bad when dumping SMS into the network via EMAIL. A year or so back some 'providers' were exploiting loopholes and routing via obscure countries to avoid 'landing' charges, but I believe this has mostly been blocked.

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