Could be useful for boats left on moorings

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Giblets

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Our local plod have been tweeting about The Cube with regard to theft of tool from vans, shed and sites and I got to thinking that such a thing could be useful to use for a boat left on a swinging or remote mooring.

https://uwatch.co.uk/

No connection whatever just passing on as a public service. :cool:
 
When I had a lockup, I had similar functionality for about £50, plus whatever the sim cost me.
If you just want a motion sensor to trigger a camera and send you a picture message or text, you can get that for £20 these days.
Lass in the office has one in her flat, it sends her pictures of the cat most days.
 
lw395 said:
If you just want a motion sensor to trigger a camera and send you a picture message or text, you can get that for £20 these days.
Lass in the office has one in her flat, it sends her pictures of the cat most days.
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But surely you would need a means of taking the photo & sending the message- on top of the £ 20-00. So presumably you would need a phone with a pay as you go sim, with a battery that never needs charging & a means of dialing the number when it needs to send the signal. Or is that all wrong-- as I have no idea how this stuff works
 
Daydream believer said:
But surely you would need a means of taking the photo & sending the message- on top of the £ 20-00. So presumably you would need a phone with a pay as you go sim, with a battery that never needs charging & a means of dialing the number when it needs to send the signal. Or is that all wrong-- as I have no idea how this stuff works
Click to expand...

Did you not read the link - it explains it very well.
 
Daydream believer said:
But surely you would need a means of taking the photo & sending the message- on top of the £ 20-00. So presumably you would need a phone with a pay as you go sim, with a battery that never needs charging & a means of dialing the number when it needs to send the signal. Or is that all wrong-- as I have no idea how this stuff works
Click to expand...

Put 'GSM camera alarm' or 'sms alarm' or some variation into ebay search or google or amazon, there is a wide variety of hardware available, probably all changed sine I last had cause to look. There are also SMS 'gate openers' if you want control instead of alarms. The DIYers can cobble something with a 'Telit module' or similar.
SMS modem or gsm modem might be a halfway house.
You can also do much the same thing at an IP or internet level.

There is a world of possibilities, it helps to be clear what you are trying to achieve.
 
Giblets said:
Our local plod have been tweeting about The Cube with regard to theft of tool from vans, shed and sites and I got to thinking that such a thing could be useful to use for a boat left on a swinging or remote mooring.
Click to expand...

What do I do if I get a message saying that someone is monkeying with my boat at 8pm one evening? She's a hundred miles by road from my house and the last ferry leaves at 7.45pm. Even if the message came in time for me to get there, it would take at least two and a half hours and by that time I would expect chummy to have moved on.

OK, my situation is a bit extreme, but as with any information gathering system, the crucial question is "What useful thing can you do with the information you gather?"
 
NormanB said:
Did you not read the link - it explains it very well.
Click to expand...

Yes, I did but did attempt to do so, but did you not read IW395's post to which I was referring?

If you had read before posting, you would have realised that he was suggesting that one only needed a motion sensor for the cost of £ 20-00
I wanted to know how one got the signal (using this cheap sensor) from the boat to the user. After all the OP was suggesting the suitability of the Cube for boat use

However, his reply did confuse me even more when he referred to "SMS gate openers" as my front gate has a spring to close, it not open, it so I am stuck at the first hurdle & the horse has probably bu..gered off anyway.:ambivalence:
 
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Seajet said:
Maybe send an audible message to the boat alarm, something like ' this device will detonate in 5,4,3...:)
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I have always thought about a pre-recorded message something like:

Woman's voice, "oh hello, I did not know we were having visitors, no please stop forcing yourself on me, I'll scream, I really will". After 10 seconds an ear splitting scream that burst eardrums is emitted.

However, I am not sure if this is legal.

Another quirky thing would be a notice to say that this was a Special Boat Squadron training vessel and that any tampering might cause the two swimmers living under the boat to surface.
 
JumbleDuck said:
What do I do if I get a message saying that someone is monkeying with my boat at 8pm one evening? She's a hundred miles by road from my house and the last ferry leaves at 7.45pm. Even if the message came in time for me to get there, it would take at least two and a half hours and by that time I would expect chummy to have moved on.

OK, my situation is a bit extreme, but as with any information gathering system, the crucial question is "What useful thing can you do with the information you gather?"
Click to expand...

Indeed but you would have a photo of chummy sent to your phone.
 
Daydream believer said:
Yes, I did but did attempt to do so, but did you not read IW395's post to which I was referring?

If you had read before posting, you would have realised that he was suggesting that one only needed a motion sensor for the cost of £ 20-00
I wanted to know how one got the signal (using this cheap sensor) from the boat to the user. After all the OP was suggesting the suitability of the Cube for boat use

However, his reply did confuse me even more when he referred to "SMS gate openers" as my front gate has a spring to close, it not open, it so I am stuck at the first hurdle & the horse has probably bu..gered off anyway.:ambivalence:
Click to expand...

For the easily confused.
The cube is an expensive device tied to an expensive service. (It may still be value for money in some cases)
There is a whole variety of devices out there which use similar technology, i.e. based on the mobile networks, to monitor and control stuff remotely.
Some of these are cheap, some are versatile. Many don't require subscribing to an expensive service, a mobile SIM of some sort is generally required though.
 
Giblets said:
Indeed but you would have a photo of chummy sent to your phone.
Click to expand...

If you asked he might even send you one of him standing by a caravan or his boot sale stall as well,( he could offer you a discount on your stuff you could buy back on the internet) but would that be enough to actually goad the police into taking any action.?
It would only be of any use if you actually knew the bloke locally so that you could let others know, but even that can be fraught with danger as others have found out, to their cost!!
Last year our club members saw some youths breaking into a boat so they launched a safety boat & caught them. They photo'd the youths & held them alongside in their inflatable whilst the phoned the police. They were told to let them go as they were too busy to attend. They photo'd the car they left in but nothing was done. Not even a visit from plod.
At the time our lads did think of taking the yobs a mile to the other side of the Blackwater & dumping them there, without the stolen dinghy, so they would have a 20 mile walk home. But they had to think about the possibility of action against them as the aggressors.
 
lw395 said:
For the easily confused.
The cube is an expensive device tied to an expensive service. (It may still be value for money in some cases)
There is a whole variety of devices out there which use similar technology, i.e. based on the mobile networks, to monitor and control stuff remotely.
Some of these are cheap, some are versatile. Many don't require subscribing to an expensive service, a mobile SIM of some sort is generally required though.
Click to expand...

Got any links to these wonderful cheap bits of kit that don't require a degree in electrical/controls engineering to assemble and get working?
 
Giblets said:
Got any links to these wonderful cheap bits of kit that don't require a degree in electrical/controls engineering to assemble and get working?
Click to expand...

ebay. 'sms alarm'
First decide exactly what you want to do.
There have been lots of threads on here over the years.

The units I know well are old hat now.
 
Giblets said:
Got any links to these wonderful cheap bits of kit that don't require a degree in electrical/controls engineering to assemble and get working?
Click to expand...

esp8266 or esp32 with ads1115 4 channel voltage sensor, ds18b20 thermometers, PIR movement sensor & why not throw in a bmp180 barometer transmitting data over mqtt to keep the bandwidth down & maybe add some relays attached to spare pins to switch things on & off remotely - just add a wifi network.

Well, dead cheap anyway :) :)
 
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