Remote Boat Monitoring

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tiltrider1

Guru
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Messages
5,191
Location
Pacific North West
Vessel Name
AZZURRA
Vessel Make
Ocean Alexander 54
I’m not trying to convince anyone that what I did is the best way. It’s just one of many ways and it worked very well for me.

I was having some ELCI tripping issues. I was pretty certain that I had found the issue but I was leaving in 7 days for a month long trip overseas. To make matters worse I had just loaded $1,500 worth of King Crab into the boats freezer. The last thing I wanted was an ELCI trip while I was gone.

So, I purchased a couple of Blink Cameras and set them up so that I could monitor my electrical panel. I was able to read all my gauges and the inverter panel.

Twice a day I would check, I could read my amps on both L1 and L2. I could see if the inverter was charging or inverting and I could see if any circuits had tripped. In the end everything worked and I had no issues.

There was however, one unexpected event. The Camera system caught a family member who came on board and raided my wine stocks. The camera filmed the event and even notified me through the phone as the event happened.

This was really a non event as the member had my permission to do exactly what they had done. They were just a bit surprised to get a text from me the next day asking how the wine was.

Now that I am home I have turned off the cameras but I plan to use them again during my next trip. Monitoring costs only $10 a month on a monthly subscription. The cameras cost me $60 for 2. I can pan & tilt, turn on & off lights as well as speak thru the cameras.

Like I said, just another way to monitor your boat.
 
With the new Victron Inverter this year, monitoring is a breeze. There are plenty of cameras that don't charge a monthly fee for you to monitor them remotely.
 
Do you guys both have Starlink or some other reliable internet connection that reconnects when the signal drops? For me, that has always been the least reliable part of monitoring, but I am so far relying on marina WiFi for connectivity.
 
I've got a combo of monitoring through the Victron gear (Cerbo GX / VRM) and a few Blink cameras on board. I don't pay for a subscription for the cameras though, they just store recordings locally on a USB stick plugged into the base unit. There are a few features that don't work that way, but the basics still do.

As far as internet, our setup is currently cellular based and can also use marina wifi when available (none of our devices connect directly to it, they stay connected to the boat wifi). It's generally reliable unless you've got really flaky marina wifi that causes it to switch back and forth a lot (in which case I'll just manually force it to the cell connection).
 
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With the new Victron Inverter this year, monitoring is a breeze. There are plenty of cameras that don't charge a monthly fee for you to monitor them remotely.

Calling out such cameras by the manufacturers name might help the next person. As I said, I might not have found the best method, just one that worked well.

While a Victron might cover most of the monitoring information it can’t tell you if individual circuits have tripped.
 
Do you guys both have Starlink or some other reliable internet connection that reconnects when the signal drops? For me, that has always been the least reliable part of monitoring, but I am so far relying on marina WiFi for connectivity.

I am currently using starlink but in the past I had a good cellular system. I have never found marina WiFi systems reliable.
 
Do you guys both have Starlink or some other reliable internet connection that reconnects when the signal drops? For me, that has always been the least reliable part of monitoring, but I am so far relying on marina WiFi for connectivity.
Yes, but that is off for the winter, and the boat is on Marina WiFi. Things reconnect if it goes down ( it hasn't so far). But it helps to have your own router aboard for everything to connect to, and it connect to the marina WiFi.
 
Calling out such cameras by the manufacturers name might help the next person. As I said, I might not have found the best method, just one that worked well.

While a Victron might cover most of the monitoring information it can’t tell you if individual circuits have tripped.
Well first off, yours are the only I have heard of having a monthly cost... (straight cameras not home security system cameras) I don't remember the brand on the boat.. but I use Reolink at my commercial property. But now to why I didn't state that originally? Google works for everyone, not just me. Every brand has plusses and minusses. you must do your own research.
 
This is a very useful string. We use our Tempest weather station (you can find it online at Elliott Bay Marina for a check of weather) to tell us when power is off to the boat. It is 120v and has no battery back up and is linked to my neighbor’s WiFi. But sometimes it just goes offline. And sometimes the whole dock goes down. And worst of all, a boat cleaner occasionally fails to plug the boat back in or drops the power cord in the water. Fortunately we have a good friend who lives nearby and will check on things. Still, I like the idea of setting up a cheap, wifi-connected camera to stare at my electrical panel. It would be best if it had battery back up. And one of my New Year’s resolutions (among dozens) is to reduce the number of vampires-I mean subscriptions-in my life. Can anyone recommend such a camera?
 
Yes, but that is off for the winter, and the boat is on Marina WiFi. Things reconnect if it goes down ( it hasn't so far). But it helps to have your own router aboard for everything to connect to, and it connect to the marina WiFi.
Help me understand how your router receives marina WIFI. I have been searching for this. To allow my router to connect on board but be able to switch between wifi devices computer can, like a cell phone can.
 
I have a Pepwave BR1 Pro 5g. It is setup to connect to the home port WiFi, then the T Mobile sim installed in it, and when underway the Starlink when the Starlink is unpaused, it will go from the T Mobile sim to Starlink. A Victron Multiplus lets me know if the power is on.

We have three Wyze cameras. One battery powered camera is for a rear view to see other boats coming, the second is a battery powered camera on the rear railing that is a close up of the swim platform that helps with stern to docking. The last one is a wired camera that I use for alerts. I use a Sail Proof tablet or IPhone to monitor the rear cameras when under way or docking. All three are low light cameras, and it really helps if caught out after dark in tight areas. I move the wired camera to the front and if there is any ambient light at all, the view is similar to twilight. They are not reverse image, so you need to get used to that. Hasn’t been a problem for me.

They are cheap, and I only pay the monthly fee on the one I use for alerts. If you are not concerned about alerts no need for the monthly fee. A friend of mine has a similar setup and is watching the panel and amp usage for his heaters to make sure no circuit has blown.

Since I have the boat network set up on the PepWave, I don’t need to log different pieces of boat equipment in to various networks each time I arrive at a new location.
 
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I have my Pepwave router setup like Helmsman but no Starlink yet. It works good, no problems rolling over.

One free camera service that I know of is from Unifi. But its not made for marine use since it runs on 120V only and you need a Unifi router. I use at home and more than pleased with the whole Unifi setup. Cameras, doorbells, switches, routers and remoting in.
 
Help me understand how your router receives marina WIFI. I have been searching for this.

We have a Peplink B-One on board, replacing an earlier RadioLabs router, and set-up has been pretty straightforward. Mostly just fill in the menu...

Peplink makes a version that will also do cellular, and I think one that also does cellular and Starlink.... so these could "fail over" other than Marina Wi-Fi if useful. Just a matter of setting priorities.

Ring and Wyze cameras on board.

-Chris
 
We have a Peplink B-One on board, replacing an earlier RadioLabs router, and set-up has been pretty straightforward. Mostly just fill in the menu...

Peplink makes a version that will also do cellular, and I think one that also does cellular and Starlink.... so these could "fail over" other than Marina Wi-Fi if useful. Just a matter of setting priorities.

Ring and Wyze cameras on board.

-Chris
Chris, I notice you are in the Chesapeake. I have a friend who has a trawler at Bay Bridge Marina and have boated up their some with him. It is a fantastic boating area!

Just a couple of notes on our usage for the group.

The Pepwave BR1 has an interface with Starlink after the latest updates. You can also purchase a DC cable for the BR1 in order to use DC power directly as opposed to plugging into AC. That eliminated the conversion power loss from the house bank, to the inverter for AC, and then back to DC for the router while underway. I also remember reading that the Starlink router I received with the Starlink flat panel uses more amperage than the BR1, so using the BR1 should further reduce power usage.

The way mine is setup, it will do a failover between marina WiFi, cellular, and Starlink. I have it set up in that order. That keeps the gigabyte charges over 50 gigs to a minimum, and therefore cost to a minimum.

You can also set up hot failover, and redundant usage of. Ore than one source if connections are weaker. I would only set that up if I needed it for work. Being retired eliminated that concern for me, but it is certainly an option.

Since I don’t have the Starlink permanently mounted, I can take the dish and the SL router with me, for use away from the boat. We use it at tailgates, and also for internet at home when the power and internet is out for an extended time in the rural area we live in. That happens about once every two months, and more frequently in the winter months.
 
Chris, I notice you are in the Chesapeake. I have a friend who has a trawler at Bay Bridge Marina and have boated up their some with him. It is a fantastic boating area!

Yep, and we're never lacking for someplace we haven't been yet! As you've seen, BBM is a decent place... we get over there occasionally...

-Chris
 
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