Diy gsm cellphone bilge alarm

louisderry

louisderry

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Hello all !

There's been a few times where I've wondered why I hadn't stumbled on a bilge alarm that sends a SMS message to your phone if your boats taking on water. I decided to have a research and see what's out there.

Here are the results!

£619.00 – Boatguard
£481.85 – BoatWarden Boat Alarm System
£363.61 – 20240-CA High Water Alarm
£159 – GSM-235 Marine Alarm
£120 – GSM PagerZ6 GSM Auto dialer
£99 – GSM 021
£57 – A5 GSM Alarm Auto-Dialer and SMS Sender

I've contacted the cheapest maker of GSM devices I could find and got them to write a tutorial about how you could use a float switch to trigger SMS messages.
Read my blog post about it http://www.boat-renovation.com/cellphone-bilge-alarm/

If anyone knows of any cheaper ways or methods- get in touch!
Yours truly - The insignificant blog person :encouragement:
 
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A raspberry Pi running openplotter would be another option. At a guess round about the A5 price for a 2nd hand Pi off ebay and by the time you got a case and gsm dongle or mobile wifi etc.
But with a bit of work can do so much more than monitor the bilge - keep an eye on battery voltage, temperature , turn off/on the fridge.
Would eat a bit more juice as well, ~0.3A
 
I'll have a look into that I did see an article where someone had used a raspberry Pi to trigger alerts on a slump pump. what was great about the A5 is that you could do both sends SMS messages and receive them. The guy has given me a method to use the A5 to monitor a battery as well but I thought that was a bit too juicy for one article ! haha .
The PI seems to get used with a lot of audio equipment midi stuff- it must be reliable .
 
louisderry said:
I'll have a look into that I did see an article where someone had used a raspberry Pi to trigger alerts on a slump pump. what was great about the A5 is that you could do both sends SMS messages and receive them. The guy has given me a method to use the A5 to monitor a battery as well but I thought that was a bit too juicy for one article ! haha .
The PI seems to get used with a lot of audio equipment midi stuff- it must be reliable .
Click to expand...
Still quite early days for openplotter. But it is very powerful and makes it much easier for the less geeky among us to get at the power available with a Pi. I haven't played with GSM yet, but with a mobile phone acting as a hotspot I can tell it to do stuff over MQTT.
Not too difficult but not a 100% plug and play type of thing.

https://sailoog.gitbooks.io/openplotter-documentation/content/en/
 
GHA said:
Still quite early days for openplotter. But it is very powerful and makes it much easier for the less geeky among us to get at the power available with a Pi. I haven't played with GSM yet, but with a mobile phone acting as a hotspot I can tell it to do stuff over MQTT.
Not too difficult but not a 100% plug and play type of thing.

https://sailoog.gitbooks.io/openplotter-documentation/content/en/
Click to expand...

Indeed haha! On my old boat I had lightwave remotes RF to turn the lights and heaters off to which you can purchase an additional device which allows you to connect to the WIFI network and turn off things via your phone. However I didn't have a stable internet connection as I was on a boat. Catch 22 I guess, like you said the only work around was having a 4G device phone on permanently creating a hotspot. But my hotspot was my phone I wanted to receive the messages on that whilst out. That's why I've been thinking GSM is essentially a cheaper way of doing it? I think thats essentially what Boatguard have done but I'm yet to hear back.
 
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Probably useless, in truth. At that price (many more at slightly more as well) you may have set me off tinkering! Do you know the trick to use a washing machine level switch with a plenum as a free sensor?

louisderry said:
Okay well that wins the affordability factor haha! That may actually be worth a try. In fairness does it need to be any more complicated than that possibly not? If the one star rating isn't an indicator of quality I don't no what is.

"mum is that you?"

View attachment 61894
Click to expand...
 
Yeh the problem with that device is it runs off a standard battery - meaning you'd need more to get it running of 12v if you wanted it to last for a considerable amount of time.
I don't - go on ?
 
That one seems to have a 12v clock type battery. I'd wire it into the bilge pump live.
A washer has a diaphragm switch worked via a small bore tube. Works well as long as a chamber, eg a 200ml inverted bottle, is used to give enough volume as the water rises. Good thing, as well as free, is that the switch is mounted well above the bilge. Eg
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wa...UICSgC&biw=1280&bih=752#imgrc=gS4G10cDVcWUPM:
 
Seems like I pretty good method - I hadn't seen that done before, how easy are they to get out of an old washing machine?
This is £6.00 not sure how easy it would be to implement though the washer switch would be easier I guess if you had one to hand.
http://uk.farnell.com/multicomp/mcpls-031-a-6/sensor-float-switch-vertical/dp/1555937?mckv=2DNJu1ca_dc%7Cpcrid%7C78108290589%7C&gross_price=true&CATCI=aud-132163472949:pla-131288176869&CAAGID=14983481589&CMP=KNC-GUK-GEN-SHOPPING-MULTICOMP&CAGPSPN=pla&gclid=Cj0KEQiAtK3DBRCBxt-Yxduq5p4BEiQAbFiaPZdtg_ZbADuQWzeE4Dc8cpnlRxm3V6aVpZJjOudQy5kaAkeE8P8HAQ&CAWELAID=120173390000060685
 
Go and smile at the guys at your local tip! Easy to remove, phillips to remove top of cabinet, pliers to snip wires and undo single nut. Don't forget the little pipe.
My last boat was quite leaky so I needed an auto bilge pump. Two 'marine' float switches failed in a season. The remote pipe jobby takes the electrics away from the wet environment.
 
Just leave an out of contract throwaway phone on the cabin sole.
When it doesn't ring, you need to check the boat.
How about a PC with a dial-up modem to check it every hour?

More seriosuly are think an arduino and a telit module might be an answer.
The arduino could record bilge pump cycling and text you if it gets excessive, or at intervals.

Also there are plenty of GSM alarms available, a colleague had one which sent picture messages when triggered. Lots of pix of cat triggering PIR sensor, but you get the idea....?
 
My brain hurts! I have no idea what any of these things are! I thought raspberry pie was something you are with custard.....Or cream in summer.....
 
I had a cheap home security device which I used when overwintering in central France ( on the canals )
I could phone up and get a picture from the single camera which was fixed so I could see that the cabin was secure and that my bilge alarm was not flashing.
The device would call me if the standard contact alarm on the saloon door was opened and I fixed up another contact alarm where the contact was made should bilge water rise
up in a tube.
It worked well and was reassuring ( and cheap)
 
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