Remote boat monitoring?

davethedog

davethedog

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Hi all,

Any recommendations for a reasonably priced remote boat monitoring system that can do the following:
  • Send data and alerts remotely of:
    • Battery voltage.
    • Bilge pump.
    • Security system.
Thanks

DTD
 
From a security point of view Hiseeu camera and a Proroutre H685 router with a o2 sim, seems to work nicely, investigating the temp and bilge bit, victron cerbo gx connected to router and ruvvi sensor connected to the cerbo might be the answer....
 
Following with interest - Data sims are so cheap these days I'm quite interested in doing similar, but incorporating a mast head and/or cabin webcam to boot.
 
Be careful which mobile network you choose. Vodaphone are using CGNAT which means the IP address your DDNS server sees and the one Vodaphone actually gives to your router are different blocking remote access even with the correct ports open since you're sharing your WAN address with others on the network.
 
wonkywinch said:
Be careful which mobile network you choose. Vodaphone are using CGNAT which means the IP address your DDNS server sees and the one Vodaphone actually gives to your router are different blocking remote access even with the correct ports open since you're sharing your WAN address with others on the network.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, using o2 for a camera at the moment, off to the boat life expo in Birmingham (feb) to find out a bit more about remote monitoring....
 
I use Vircru, on second system now as changed boat. The hub has the GPS and connections for leisure and engine battery banks and a connection wire to sense automatic bilge pump start. There are other sensors such as door switches, AC connected etc. All the sensors connect by wireless. There is the normal mobile phone etc App.
 
jtwebb said:
I use Vircru, on second system now as changed boat. The hub has the GPS and connections for leisure and engine battery banks and a connection wire to sense automatic bilge pump start. There are other sensors such as door switches, AC connected etc. All the sensors connect by wireless. There is the normal mobile phone etc App.
Click to expand...
I am not familiar with this system but the remote display of your data and the issue I mentioned above is tied into whether the Vircru pushes the info out to your phone app or whether the phone app pulls the data directly from your boat, in which case there will be some sort of DDNS (dynamic domain name setting) going on in your router. Or the app communicates with a third party server, eg all those cheap CCTV systems that send all your data through a server in China.
 
wonkywinch said:
I am not familiar with this system but the remote display of your data and the issue I mentioned above is tied into whether the Vircru pushes the info out to your phone app or whether the phone app pulls the data directly from your boat, in which case there will be some sort of DDNS (dynamic domain name setting) going on in your router. Or the app communicates with a third party server, eg all those cheap CCTV systems that send all your data through a server in China.
Click to expand...

As you correctly state in your earlier post DDNS won't help if the mobile device is behind CGNAT and your IP is neither public nor unique. AFAIK all 4 UK networks use CGNAT; we tried recently to get a public IP on a data SIM for our harbour webcam and only Three's 'Home Broadband' product which claims to emulate a wired connection could provide one, but Three would not supply it to our postcode for some reason. All the data SIMs we could find were of the 'mobile broadband' ilk and thus subject to CGNAT restrictions, so only outbound connections can be made (which we've managed to work with thankfully).
 
Steve_N said:
As you correctly state in your earlier post DDNS won't help if the mobile device is behind CGNAT and your IP is neither public nor unique. AFAIK all 4 UK networks use CGNAT; we tried recently to get a public IP on a data SIM for our harbour webcam and only Three's 'Home Broadband' product which claims to emulate a wired connection could provide one, but Three would not supply it to our postcode for some reason. All the data SIMs we could find were of the 'mobile broadband' ilk and thus subject to CGNAT restrictions, so only outbound connections can be made (which we've managed to work with thankfully).
Click to expand...
Fixed IP 3G and 4G SIM cards from Andrews & Arnold

Not cheap, but effective
 
Thanks - yes, I was aware of the specialist companies offering fixed IP address data SIMs but quickly gave up researching them because, as you say, they are not cheap (and fixed IP wasn't the requirement, just public IP because DDNS covers the fixed/static issue).
Plus they are prohibitively expensive: unless I've made a schoolboy maths error or misunderstood their pricing (both quite possible) then our 200GB/month typical usage which currently costs £20 on a normal data SIM would be billed at £4200.

In fact if someone could check that for me please as surely that can't be right: 200GB @ 2.1p/megabyte?
 
wonkywinch said:
I am not familiar with this system but the remote display of your data and the issue I mentioned above is tied into whether the Vircru pushes the info out to your phone app or whether the phone app pulls the data directly from your boat, in which case there will be some sort of DDNS (dynamic domain name setting) going on in your router. Or the app communicates with a third party server, eg all those cheap CCTV systems that send all your data through a server in China.
Click to expand...
Would an SSH tunnel to a raspberry pi or similar work?
 
Have a look at the Vicru system. Amazing thing. My good friend has just got it installed for monitoring his swing mooring kept boat from a far.
 
I use a Teltonika car tracker like this Teltonika FMB204 Water Resistant GPS Tracker IP67 Trailer/Vehicle Tracking Unit | eBay
I use the Ruhavik tracking server which is free for one tracker and works fine for what I need (Your Telematic Solution | Gurtam Space). You can pay monthly if you want more features. For sim I use 1p mobile which is pay as you go and only works out at £30 a year. I have the engine battery and house battery connected, along with the engine ignition. I am planning to connect it to the auto bilge pump when I fit one. Power use is very low and it is set and forget. There is an app on phones or you can get it to send sms messages. I use it to record all my trips and also as an anchor alarm that works when you are ashore.
 
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