Security System for a Boat..

[medictrode]

Hello all,

So I am keeping my boat just shy of a mile away from my house at a dock.(All trees in between) At said dock there is no Wifi and cellular service is really bad. My initial thought was to put a security camera onto my boat and have it connected to the internet, then have it send alerts, however with the prior mentioned services being unavailable I have to think of something else to try...

So my thought process brought me to some Xbee pro modules that can take an input from some sort of sensor, whether it be motion or a hatch switch, and transmit that so the receiving module can maybe hook to an Arduino like setup, then have that alert me in some way. I do have 2 Pro modules with the little antenna on it, but was thinking it may be possible to get the SMA version and attach an external sizable antenna on the radio room roof at my house. I have a basic familiarity with the Xbee, and I've read that these little things can get quite the distance.

Is this a proper train of thought for a fun project, or am I thinking incorrectly? If this makes any sense I was wondering if you can send some tips my way, maybe you know of similar projects I can backbone off of. Thank you for the time and assistance..

 

[Harald Kapp]

This user has tested at a 10 km range. A mile should therefore be no problem - although the 10 km were probably without much attenuation by trees as he used a plane which surely has been in the air above the trees.

I have a basic familiarity with the Xbee

So why not simply give it a try? Test the max. range in your environment with the built-in antenna. Take into account that on a rainy day the range may be decreased due to attenuation of the radio signal. In dry conditions your range should be at least 2 miles, therefore, to account for derating during bad weather.

 

[kellys_eye]

The LoRa series of transceivers are ideal for an alarm/monitoring system although they don't have the bandwidth for video - which is pretty irrelevant in this application anyway.

You could connect bilge pumps, movement, smoke detectors etc to it and get an instant alarm and even use it whilst 'at sea' for simple AIS services - the range on offer is phenomenal for the power consumption (record distance so far is around 115km!!). A solar panel (1W) could keep a battery charged for weeks whilst in-service.

I'm currently designing/building a LoRa based system to remote monitor a water system we have feeding our village but is located 1 mile away and a PITA to tramp up/down to every day to monitor water levels.....

 

[dave9]

Don't see any need for connectivity or a camera, just put in a motion detector with a ridiculously loud air horn alarm, which you can hear from a mile away and will scare the !@#$ out of meddlers.

 

[(*steve*)]

Or a very large dog that you don't feed too often...

 

[medictrode]

Thank you for the replies. I will look into the Lora Stuff.