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How to monitor the boat using MQTT or SMS ?
#1
When I arrived at my boat this spring after she had been afloat over winter in the marina I found that my solar panels had shorted and my Ultrasonic anitfouling system had run the batteries flat. 
Consequently, I had an expensive bill (for 7 new batteries and a solar regulator) which I dont want to repeat next year so ...

I already use OP for navigation and realtime monitoring of the boat systems (tanks and batteries) but havent done anything wrt remote monitoring when away from the boat.

I know some of you have implemented SMS,Twitter, MQTT etc and Id appreciate advice on best way to do it. (I know that the OP manual is still "work in progress")

My OP Pi already monitors my 3 battery banks and I have SignalK names for each bank but I would now like that info sent to me daily so I can keep an eye on the state of my batteries and alert the boatyard if necessary

I am in the UK, the boat is in Greece. 
There isnt any WiFi available but there is good 4G.
Any recommendations gratefully considered.

Thanks
Steve
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#2
Well if you've got already a working monitoring solution you can use e.g. node-red to store the data in a logfile and then send it once a day via mail.
There are USB-GSM modules available like the huawei 303 that are working flawlessly with the Pi3.
This would be the path I would go
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#3
Which tracer trademark do you use. Victron? Epsolar? Don't you use fuses and circuit brakers. Did you make photos of yours installation. To review it you need big panels to run a raspberry pi through the winter. 7 Batteries ok. With 100 - 200 Watt of panels you will produce enough energy also for the winter. Depends on... the Router will take minimum the same energy in regular 5-10 Watt...

First i suggest you to messure or calculate what you will need. There is some reason I support my ESP with extra batteries. I plan to use an openwrt build for the router. But i am specialised only for some old versions of the wr1040 to link router to make my own firmware to use with Huwai Umts stick.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk
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#4
(2017-10-13, 04:35 PM)tocan Wrote: Which tracer trademark do you use. Victron? Epsolar? Don't you use fuses and circuit brakers. Did you make photos of yours installation.  To review it you need big panels to run a raspberry pi through the winter. 7 Batteries ok. With 100 - 200 Watt of panels you will produce enough energy also for the winter. Depends on... the Router will take minimum the same energy in regular 5-10 Watt...

First i suggest you to messure or calculate what you will need. There is some reason I support my ESP with extra batteries. I plan to use an openwrt build for the router. But i am specialised only for some old versions of the wr1040 to link router to make my own firmware to use with Huwai Umts stick.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk

Thanks for your comments
I havent measured the power drawn by my Pi but I will run it headless ao I assumed it wouldnt be a problem for my 600Ahr battery bank and 200W solar panel. The boat is in Greece so lots if sunshine even in winter  Shy
I do turn off my circuit breakers over winter but the solar regulator is fused and bypasses the breaker. So does the Navigation Pi.
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#5
I monitor my boat with node red and the node red dashboard.
GSM is sufficient, even if slowed down due to data speed reduction.
You need to tunnel the data through the GSM net wirh e.g ngrok service.
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#6
(2017-10-13, 10:07 PM)Alpenskipper Wrote: I monitor my boat with node red and the node red dashboard.
GSM is sufficient, even if slowed down due to data speed reduction.
You need to tunnel the data through the GSM net wirh e.g ngrok service.

I'm curious about the amount of data that it uses. My concern with setting up a GSM connection is that some services in the operating system use data and could get rather expensive. Have you not found this to be the case?
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#7
(2017-10-13, 11:03 PM)Vamonos Wrote:
(2017-10-13, 10:07 PM)Alpenskipper Wrote: I monitor my boat with node red and the node red dashboard.
GSM is sufficient, even if slowed down due to data speed reduction.
You need to tunnel the data through the GSM net wirh e.g ngrok service.

I'm curious about the amount of data that it uses. My concern with setting up a GSM connection is that some services in the operating system use data and could get rather expensive. Have you not found this to be the case?

I am not using Mqtt or node red until now but i use a libary and setup i found in other projects. There is a project for raspberry pi but i asked for the code to review in their forum and it seems they give their code not under a gpl like license... so i decide not to use it...

From my implementation i can say the data transfer is close to nothings for shure much less than yours 7 batteries...

If i am at yours place i will ask first why this could happen. And a shorten solar system can burn yours boat.

First circuitbreakers have to ....  solar regulator is fused and bypasses the breaker...... puhhh and you think thats enough? hmmm. 


First start for a new calculation
I suggest to look more videos of this channel an esp uses 0,1 A a raspberry needs 3,4 A. so yours month to destroy batteries is allmost december and this in greece with a lot of sun. I did ask Spiess to be a mentor for 2 Boating projects because i think he explains good and we will have good documentation than.

One is the Diesel consumption calculator what depents on a lot of factors RPM Temperature of the diesel Backflow and a lots of other parameters...

Ok not much interesting for sailing boats.

The other is the solar monitor with gravana and influx...

 Others will help also and some weeks ago i did posting a new demo...
Some things will not be easy for integration to openplotter because during developement and testing i can not doing any Openplotter update. the last ones did shot my whole extra instalations down... A lot of things you do not need in absense time so think about for this time to run an independat setup... also to choose a different type of batteries in england you get used Valence batteries. They are LIfePO$ tYPES::: NEW PRICE IS FOR ONE 130AH arround 2000 Euros but old used ones you can easy refurbish and pay just the same than for a AGM or Gel battery...

https://emoncms.org/

and the diy powalls i am active for the moment. so maybee it gives you an idea...



Sorry a lots of windows open some missmatch here in last posting
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#8
(2017-10-14, 01:49 AM)tocan Wrote: I suggest to look more videos of this channel an esp uses 0,1 A a raspberry needs 3,4 A. so yours month to destroy batteries is allmost december and this in greece with a lot of sun.

A raspberry pi 3 running some usb// serial converters actually draws about 0.3A @12v, maybe a fraction more. 200w of solar in Greece would have no problem running this,a couple of hours of sun would replace the power used. 
MQTT is well suited for applications like remote monitoring as it uses so little data, it is designed for low bandwidth/ slow connection applications. 
Then it's quite simple to either use node-red in a laptop or use the online mqtt service - fred - https://fred.sensetecnic.com/

I just set it up on Fred to check, took about a minute and seems to work OK. Downside is Fred will switch itself off if you don't log on once every 24H. 

On Fred >



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#9
Thanks for all suggestions and comments so far  Smile

Real-Time monitoring and MQTT would be nice, and I am a fan of Node-Red but internet connection is an issue as I dont have reliable WiFi in the boatyard. In essence, its a battery low voltage alert that I need so maybe an OP driven SMS from a GSM Dongle would be better for me.
Its interesting exploring the options though.
Steve
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#10
see wee are testing at the moment live stream support cheap wepcam equipement exists and i plan with different cams to integrade a security solution ... thats part for the future. also remote alexa if someone comes to the boat i can send from germany live messages and talk with the person... streaming starts with motion sensor and the ip cams of a size of just a coin you can easy install at different places.

The livestream will be send suddenly as livestream to youtube and there be stored in a hidden folder or published official there...

just some live stream test some minutes ago and in the comments because forgotten the chat Thats i fight a little bit to subscribe my youtube channel because as more subscribers are there as more possibilities you get... i hope for next time for more than 100 subscribers....

Interesting thing is you can let inform yours subscribers with an email to their smart phone so suddenly in seconds if a person that is not allowed take intrance to yours boat will be recognized as more subscribers you have. After i sort out the things i will open a channel and there you can be registered also and push yours own boat there with livechannel. This means much more protection for a lot of boats... live channel control will protect them somehow.

https://youtu.be/xD6NFDtfYco
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