How to keep an eye on your boat remotely?

[dancrane]

I daresay there's already a good workable solution to this, very likely discussed and concluded on this forum before now, but I didn't know what to search for.

I'm thinking it must be possible to set up a camera on your boat - maybe on the pushpit looking forward, or near the pulpit looking aft, or up in the spreaders watching things below...

...and whenever there's a high wind in the night, you can click something on your phone, and remotely, the camera (and a spotlight) will switch on at the boat, and your phone's screen shows the scene and everything taking place.

Considering what is possible using mobile data between phones - like video-calls with no cost to the users - I'm sure it can be done, I just don't know how. The camera would need to switch on spontaneously as the 'app' was activated.

Such a system would hardly be restricted to the boat - anyone who'd like to check their home or vehicle whilst elsewhere might want it. Anybody know of a patented solution, or does it all need doing DIY?

 

[matthewriches]

Th world is your oyster.... there are all kinds of things available from the very cheap to super expensive.

I have a Hikvision CCTV system fitted onboard using wired and wireless IP cameras which link to a central recorder and copy off board to Amazon in case the hard drive has stolen. I can access this remotely or from my phone anywhere in the world. The boat maintains a 4G always on connection and failover.

I’ve fitted the above to some commercial vessels and posh motorboats. Bit of an overkill maybe but fun to play with.

There are also cameras available online that you can tether to an always on hotspot, 4G, marina wifi, etc that could be used.

And not to mention the various boat monitoring systems avilable to you online, in store or at various boat shows. These give a nice intergrated system to monitor security sensors, water levels, temperatures, etc...

Spend a bit of time researching so you end up with the correct system that does what you’d like it to do.

 

[Solent Sailor]

I've just put a dedicated MiFi router onboard my boat - cheap ones available from the likes of Vodafone/O2 for about £30, but you can spend more for more features. Bought a SIM card with a data plan - £20pcm for unlimited data with 3 in the Black Friday sale.

Then fit a cheap IP camera from Amazon or eBay - just need power to it. Mine is indoors, so just plugs into a 240v socket. You could put one anywhere you like if you can run a 12v cable to it, although you might need a USB connector with bare wires to connect it to (only a few pounds).

The Information Commissioner may take issue with you using it in a way which means that other public spaces (i.e. not your boat) can be seen, but to be quite honest, he has more important things to worry about. There is, in any case, a perfectly valid argument that as a private individual, you are outwith the application of the GDPR.

 

[dancrane]

Thanks for your replies gentlemen. It sounds perfectly possible then, as far as I understand your explanations.

I think it'd be a desirable addition to most owners' kit-list, if the equipment, set-up and usage can be easily listed, acquired and fitted. I know I visit my boat (ashore) after heavy rain and strong winds. I'll definitely want to be able to check a moored yacht, remotely.

 

[maby]

Thanks for your replies gentlemen. It sounds perfectly possible then, as far as I understand your explanations.

I think it'd be a desirable addition to most owners' kit-list, if the equipment, set-up and usage can be easily listed, acquired and fitted. I know I visit my boat (ashore) after heavy rain and strong winds. I'll definitely want to be able to check a moored yacht, remotely.

The problem with monitoring a moored yacht is the probable lack of shore power. These various remote monitoring options can consume enough current to have a significant impact on your batteries if you are not in a marina, hooked up to the mains.

Some years ago, we were in a marina that had rather unreliable shore power. In order to understand the problem better, I left a Raspberry Pi hooked up, monitoring and recording the environment and power supply - I was going to use the data to support a complaint to the management about the poor service. Trouble was that I left it running over Christmas while we were away, the power to the pontoon failed, nobody noticed because it was Christmas and my little monitor was left running for two weeks with no shore power. A Raspberry Pi draws something like half an amp - that's 12 Ah per day - 14 days of that with no battery charge was enough to drag our house battery bank down to the point where it got damaged!

 

[GHA]

The problem with monitoring a moored yacht is the probable lack of shore power.

Wouldn't need much of a solar panel to keep up , amazing just how much power the humble Pi has for such a small power draw.
Dan - no doubt you've seen this thread about remote monitoring >
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?506313-Remote-boat-monitoring-over-the-web

As much or little data as you want, shouldn't be tricky to add a camera.

 

[dancrane]

That does sound like a legitimate concern, Maby, as far as I understand it.

From your description of 'monitoring', I'm picturing a complete set-up with everything the boat can gauge, being tested constantly...

...whereas I was envisaging a system which only stays 'on' in the way that a mobile phone stays on, requiring minimal charging until it is rung, then drawing only as much current as the camera (and possibly lights) require for the duration of the owner's visual check...

...I'd like to imagine that such a basic function could be arranged and operated without needing recourse to shore-power.

I'm quite surprised such a basic kit doesn't already exist for a variety of uses, boxed up with instructions for tech-free types like me.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

I don't see why my home setup shouldn't work on a boat with a raspberry pi and wifi. Cheap IP camera for constant monitoring, then, separately, a bit of linux software called Motion which can recognise changes to the picture and save it locally before uploading the image to a webserver somewhere. You'll probably get a lot of false positives, and you'll need a script to delete the old pics.

 

[maby]

That does sound like a legitimate concern, Maby, as far as I understand it.

From your description of 'monitoring', I'm picturing a complete set-up with everything the boat can gauge, being tested constantly...

...whereas I was envisaging a system which only stays 'on' in the way that a mobile phone stays on, requiring minimal charging until it is rung, then drawing only as much current as the camera (and possibly lights) require for the duration of the owner's visual check...

...I'd like to imagine that such a basic function could be arranged and operated without needing recourse to shore-power.

I'm quite surprised such a basic kit doesn't already exist for a variety of uses, boxed up with instructions for tech-free types like me.

Don't get me wrong - it is possible - I'm just warning that you do need to be aware of the need to consider the power budget otherwise you can easily kill your batteries. I see that another poster here has suggested solar panels - they are an obvious option, but they are not a magic wand. From experience, having built my own boat monitoring solutions a couple of times now, you tend to be most interested in it during the spring and autumn when the weather is more likely to be bad - winter too, although I'm guessing that you would not be leaving your boat afloat on a swinging mooring in the middle of December. But those are the times of year with shorter days and less sunshine.

We've been discussing your potential choice of next boat on another thread - and the models you are considering are pretty small. That tends to go with quite a small battery bank! Our Hunter Ranger 265 had two large car batteries installed on an A-B-Both switch - about 100Ah each, but you would not want your monitor wired up to the battery that you were going to rely on for your next engine start. The battery might be described as 100Ah, but that does not mean that it will take kindly to you sucking all 100 out of it too frequently. A Raspi with some sensors and some kind of mobile phone for communication can easily draw half an amp. A £60 solar panel from Nasa is described as 10W - that's less than 1A at 12v. But that 10W is in reasonably bright sun - on a grey, damp day you can expect less - in spring and autumn, your panel could be producing a fair bit less than the monitor is consuming. Hence the need to do some careful power budgeting.

 

[dancrane]

That's very clearly explained, thank you.

But am I to understand that the home-specified micro-chippery draws a steady half-amp, even for 23 hours and 50 minutes per day when I'm not viewing the situation on board?

I was imagining a system that would present a view from the camera on the boat only when I dialled the unit on board...would that require the unit to be churning away at all hours, in order to anticipate a call-in?

 

[Plum]

I daresay there's already a good workable solution to this, very likely discussed and concluded on this forum before now, but I didn't know what to search for.

I'm thinking it must be possible to set up a camera on your boat - maybe on the pushpit looking forward, or near the pulpit looking aft, or up in the spreaders watching things below...

...and whenever there's a high wind in the night, you can click something on your phone, and remotely, the camera (and a spotlight) will switch on at the boat, and your phone's screen shows the scene and everything taking place.

Considering what is possible using mobile data between phones - like video-calls with no cost to the users - I'm sure it can be done, I just don't know how. The camera would need to switch on spontaneously as the 'app' was activated.

Such a system would hardly be restricted to the boat - anyone who'd like to check their home or vehicle whilst elsewhere might want it. Anybody know of a patented solution, or does it all need doing DIY?

I have not tried it on the boat yet but I do use this at home. I use the Alfred app on my phone and also loaded on two old smartphones which are used as cameras. At home, on wifi, you don't need simcards in the camera phones. On the boat you either need to use the marina wifi or have your own mobile comms either with a simcard on the camera phone or a seperate mifi with simcard. The camera phone needs to be conected to a charger full time. Then, via the app on your main phone you can view the remote phone camera and if that camera also has a flash you can turn the light on or off remotely from the main phone. The cleaver bit is that the app on the remote phone records movement seen by the lens and records. The recordings can be viewed from the remote phone wherever you are in the world. At home i have the two remote phones looking out of windows. On the boat you could mount one in a waterproof enclosure on the pulpit with 12v USB charger connected. Power consumption is .2A at 5v per phone measured at the output of the charger.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[maby]

That's very clearly explained, thank you.

But am I to understand that the home-specified micro-chippery draws a steady half-amp, even for 23 hours and 50 minutes per day when I'm not viewing the situation on board?

I was imagining a system that would present a view from the camera on the boat only when I dialled the unit on board...would that require the unit to be churning away at all hours, in order to anticipate a call-in?

It can be designed to draw a lot less but if you do a simplistic design, it certainly can end up drawing those sort of currents 24 hours per day. I guess the point is that most of these security and monitoring systems are intended for home or office use where there is no need to minimise power consumption. My first attempt at a boat monitoring solution was based around a Raspberry Pi and other off-the-shelf components and it drew a fair bit more than half an amp. I subsequently rebuilt it using a low power microcontroller and selecting minimum power components - I was able to reduce the average power consumption to about 100mA. Since then, I've been working on IoT sensors for another project and learned a lot more about reducing power consumption - I think I could probably get the boat monitor down to an average of well under 1mA by shutting virtually everything down most of the time.

 

[Mistroma]

Vasko on Jeanneau owners forum designed a nice, flexible system with wireless sensors.

http://www.boat-vitals.com/display.html?link=11-101-ec2c284ef0-Celcius-dd_MMM_HH.mm-GPS5

I think that he has now decided to market it and perhaps make a small profit from his efforts. The information on his website might also be of interest to anyone considering a DIY system.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I think it'd be a desirable addition to most owners' kit-list, if the equipment, set-up and usage can be easily listed, acquired and fitted. I know I visit my boat (ashore) after heavy rain and strong winds. I'll definitely want to be able to check a moored yacht, remotely.

I have a moored yacht, and I don't see the point. If anything bad happens it will take me at least three hours, and possibly fourteen hours to get there. Leave her properly prepared and pay for insurance, that's my preference.

 

[moomba]

I have a moored yacht, and I don't see the point. If anything bad happens it will take me at least three hours, and possibly fourteen hours to get there. Leave her properly prepared and pay for insurance, that's my preference.

Yes this has answered my question , I was reading this thread with great interest just had my outboard stolen , and was thinking of cameras on the boat but not real time ones more like a trail camera that picks up movement, so my question is why would you want a real feed to your phone , or comp.
Will it help you understand the weather, would it not help to look at the forecast.
I suppose you might be able to see damage , but you would need more than one camera
Just curious, as to whats people motivation to this
cheers

 

[agurney]

For peace of mind, as well as a bit of fun tinkering, this is what I've done:

http://agurney.myftp.org/aisling/

Setup:
- Raspberry Pi (~£20) with temperature and pressure sensors (~£3), Automation pHAT (£12) and IP camera (£5)
- solar panel (50W) and wind generator (Aero4gen) and a couple of standard batteries with a 1-2-both-off switch (no shore power).
- connected to marina wifi
- remotely accessible using remot3.it
- cost ..

What can/do I do with it?

- The solar and wind power provide plenty of power to keep the batteries topped up, and the pHAT lets me see the state of each of the batteries; the split lets me see if it's predominantly from wind or solar.
- the sensors and camera are polled every 30 minutes (every 5 when there's a storm warning)
- photos and sensor data are periodically sent to a Raspberry Pi at home.
- If the marina wifi is congested, or unavailable, the data is buffered until a connection is available; similarly if my home network is unavailable.
- I can see the weather conditions in the marina, and be assured that my pride and joy is still afloat.
- I can see if there's enough power for the automatic bilge pump (if needed)
- I can see temperature and pressure trends for the last couple of weeks (temperature is a little misleading as the sensor is currently indoors and a few centimeters above the CPU .. but it suits me)
- up time is more than a year

The above is enough for me, but for the OP it would be straightforward to add a trigger for a light, and record continuous video rather than just take a snapshot.

BTW, remot3.it is used to set up a tunnel that lets me connect to the boat's Pi irrespective of the the marina's (or other connection's) current IP address.

 

[agurney]

Yes this has answered my question , I was reading this thread with great interest just had my outboard stolen , and was thinking of cameras on the boat but not real time ones more like a trail camera that picks up movement, so my question is why would you want a real feed to your phone , or comp.
Will it help you understand the weather, would it not help to look at the forecast.
I suppose you might be able to see damage , but you would need more than one camera
Just curious, as to whats people motivation to this
cheers

In my case, living more than 100 miles away from the boat and the other side of a rain shadow, I want to SEE the actual conditions (and a history thereof) so I can plan a sail, or check on the boat's condition .. forecasts for God's own country are notoriously inaccurate.

A trail cam should be good, but I would expect lots of false positives as a result of the boat's movement. Pound to a penny the scrotes would spot a trail cam and nick it, or (as happened to me with a portable burglar alarm) throw it in the briny.

 

[NormanS]

I have a moored yacht, and I don't see the point. If anything bad happens it will take me at least three hours, and possibly fourteen hours to get there. Leave her properly prepared and pay for insurance, that's my preference.

Same here. Well, the three hours, not the fourteen. Take your precautions beforehand.

 

[ShinyShoe]

To me there are a few things to consider in such a setup...

1. If you see chaos on your boat you need to be able to do something about it. That could just be your response time to get there. But certainly on a swing mooring in awful conditions you might not be getting to the boat even if you can get to the slipway.

2. You need some form of 'internet' connection. 3G/4G or WiFi. WiFi may be marina, which probably means power is less of an issue.

3. You describe you choosing to connect. Which is fine. But it means at least some of the system is switched on waiting for your call. **But actually** unless it's curiosity you want the system to tell you there is a problem. So you probably want:

- system wakes up periodically and takes some 'readings' . If readings are 'in range' - do nothing. If out of range send alert to you.

- if that is a Pi on a swing mooring, that's relatively power hungry. You could use an Arduino that might draw 1/10 power but also could sleep to 1/50th power draw between checks. It could almost certainly be used to wake a Pi if needed...

- periodically upload readings so you know all is still in order

All very doable. But all rather complex

 

[agurney]

I have a moored yacht, and I don't see the point. If anything bad happens it will take me at least three hours, and possibly fourteen hours to get there. Leave her properly prepared and pay for insurance, that's my preference.

If you are going to your boat, wouldn't it be good to know whether you should be packing charts and sailing gear, or pumps and claim form?

My boat's also at least three hours away, but it's nice to know what I'll be letting myself in for when I arrive, despite being adequately prepared and insured.