My Boat is Calling

I just got a text from my boat.

In November, I wrote about how to protect your boat from frozen engines and dead batteries with smart sensors.  These Internet-connected devices can “call” you when problems arise.

Well here is the update.  I built a monitor for about one-fifth the cost of commercial models.  My device is bare bones, but it has the critical features I wanted.

Over Thanksgiving, I sat down with a cup of coffee and ordered a starter kit from from Adafruit.com.  Adafruit sells Arduino and other hobbyist electronics.  The starter kit arrived a few days later packed with an assortment of parts.  Boards, wires, processors, battery packs, buttons and knobs came in the box.  I was eager to get started on the project.

I’m no programmer, so I had to learn enough ‘C’ computer language to run the sensor instructions on the Arduino “brain.”  After lots of reading at Arduino.cc (and the Adafruit website) I had simple functions working.  First, I saw temperature readouts from the sensor to my laptop — a good first step.

Over the following weeks I devised new, more useful configurations.  My friend and fellow boater Dave helped me think through the logic for sensing and alerting.

Before texting would work, I had to head over to T-Mobile and pick up a SIM card like the one in your cell phone.  SIM cards — about the size of a thumbnail — identify your unique device and phone number on the cell network.  For $3 per month I get 30 texts or 30 minutes of calls (with no contract).  I won’t be using voice calls.  That’s a pretty good deal.

After more wiring, soldering and coding I got my first text from the gadget!  Using code lines like

dtostrf(vbat,3,0,battText); //convert battery floating # into char

the sensor can alert me on temperature and power thresholds I set.

It was easy to test temperature increases because I could start at say 70 degrees and hold my finger on the temperature probe.  Heat from my fingertip would cause the temperature to rise past the threshold I set, triggering a text to my cell phone.

Finally, I programmed the Arduino to answer back whenever I ask “what’s up?”  If I text the word “status,” the sensor sends back battery voltage and temperature.  Below you’ll notice it was around 60 degrees and the battery was still charging up.  Cool!  [Note:  the battery voltage you see is for the cell radio battery in millivolts.  I use that voltage as a proxy for shore power.  Logically, I know that if the shore power is running the battery is charging and voltage will be above 4000 millivolts.  If it drops below 4000, I can infer that shore power was lost because the unit switched to battery and it’s slowly discharging below 4000.]

I tested in the garage for several days over a range of temperatures and it worked well.  I’ll install the sensor — in its Container Store plastic box — this weekend in the boat.

I’m satisfied with the result and pleased I was able to get it working.  Now that I’ve discovered this technology I’m looking for my next project (maybe a wind station on my boat).