Bluetooth and Wifi + Email

Pudsey Bear

Pudsey Bear

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Not sure if this is possible or not.

I have a BT battery monitor now (hoping to not have another flat battery thread) I can just get a BT signal up to the house but only if I stick the phone out of a window which will not allow me to receive a low voltage alarm, SOOOOOO I'm wondering if I invest a few quid on a cheap smartphone and a PAYG sim to pick up the BT from within the van and I will get the alert to my email address on my laptop or phone wherever I am more or less.

Am I going the right way? do I just need a data sim? Which one is best for this, the phone will need to be kept charged, I could do that from the solar controller maybe, once at 100% would it be a problem for the van battery & other thingsI've not thought of yet etc
 
I could do that Kev, but I'm hoping to rely on solar as much as possible, hence the extra panel, running EHU is problematic.

But is what I proposed possible, as early warning is preferable.
 
I keep my van in storage much of the time and use solar to keep the batteries topped up, I also use an EcoFlow (also on solar) to assist the batteries. I leave a 5g router in the van and monitor the EcoFlow via the router. So I can always check on my iPhone/iPad to see if the EcoFlow is running low, since that’s connected to the leisure batteries via a 12v to 12v cable they all just balance and therefore I can see on my phone what the state of charge is in the lithium batteries.

BUT you he to take into account the cost of the this.

If the van was outside the house I’d just check via Bluetooth every few days.
 
Have you not just had the new Gizmott cab battery topper upper installed? :D

You shouldn't get a flat battery now should you? In theory if that app you showed me can trigger an email at a certain voltage then yes leaving a phone switched on (and of course plugged in) will of course send you an email. I would be more worried though that leaving a phone plugged in connected to bluetooth would be a drain on the battery itself.
 
barryd said:
Have you not just had the new Gizmott cab battery topper upper installed? :D

You shouldn't get a flat battery now should you? In theory if that app you showed me can trigger an email at a certain voltage then yes leaving a phone switched on (and of course plugged in) will of course send you an email. I would be more worried though that leaving a phone plugged in connected to bluetooth would be a drain on the battery itself.
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I agree Barry, adding several layers of complexity and RELYING on that to warn of a low battery isn't a path I'd be choosing personally. Especially when the stuff you're adding will contribute to battery drain it's self. Best to simply check with the app once a day and plug in EHU if it's dropping low.
 
merl said:
I agree Barry, adding several layers of complexity and RELYING on that to warn of a low battery isn't a path I'd be choosing personally. Especially when the stuff you're adding will contribute to battery drain it's self. Best to simply check with the app once a day and plug in EHU if it's dropping low.
Click to expand...

I don't fully understand Kev's setup but I thought it charged both batteries now from the solar anyway.
 
How much drain would a phone be anyway though? it wouldn't be doing anything, no screen on, just running the app in the background and sending an email every 1,3,6,9,12 or 24 hours, I'm assuming around 100ma perhaps, not sure where to power it from, controller, Lb or VB?

Not forgetting I'm a bit paranoid re the VB, I don't really want to use EHU on practicality grounds, no faith in chargers regardless of type, up until moving the van just over year ago it hasn't been a problem, solar has covered it well, I'm hoping the extra panel will help, of course in the warmer months it isn't an issue when the sun is high, but come October to April, I want to know on a less than daily basis how the batteries are doing as it is essentially monitoring both of them.
 
Both my batteries have stayed fully charged throughout Winter Kev (Hab and Cab) with the current controller with just a single panel so presumably if you now have a second panel and Merls Gizmott then even in winter it should keep them all fully charged shouldn't it?

You would be surprised how much power a large smart phone uses and bluetooth uses a fair bit. When its charged up it will decrease but as its constantly doing something it will use way more than you think. I tested mine on my old controller load socket which showed how much anything connected to it was using and it was almost as much as my laptop on tick over. About 11w I think.
 
I looked it up just now.

1743929470340.png
 
I have fitted a tracker from Trutrak. Various alerts by notification or email can be set up, such as when the vehicle moves or ignition switched on and so on. One of the alerts is battery voltage. When driving the tracker reports your position, speed, voltage etc every minute or so as you would expect. However, if your van does not move for a long time the tracker will enter 'sleep' mode but still sends what Trutrak call a 'heartbeat' report every six hours. I guess this should be enough to keep an eye on your battery voltage.

BTW I have assumed that you want to monitor your VB but, I suppose, there's no reason why the tracker could not be connected to the LB instead.
 
In effect the monitor does bothe batteries, it is only connected to the VB, but it now only receives current from direct from the alternator, EHU or the LB, NONE from the controller.
 
Am I missing something here Kev? I thought when you visited Merl you got the Gizmott installed that kept the cab battery fully charged when parked up as well as the leisure batteries? If so then if I understood how it all worked correctly all your batteries when not in use should stay topped up.
 
barryd said:
I don't fully understand Kev's setup but I thought it charged both batteries now from the solar anyway.
Click to expand...
It does but if the solar can't keep up with the drain from various sources within the van then ultimately the batteries will go flat.
There's a lot of items in a van that draw very small standing loads even when you're switched off and these all add up.
Kev's van had a dual output solar controller which feeds 1amp or so to the starter battery to keep it maintained, the problem is the controller prioritises the leisure battery and it only feeds this 'trickle' to the starter battery when there's an EXCESS and the leisure battery is absolutely full. Kev's van leans away from the sun so in winter solar gain appears to be inadequate to keep up, the leisure battery is kept maintained ish but there's no excess to feed to the starter battery so it's going flat because of alarm and other continuous drains, worse still the ECU doesn't seem like a flat starter battery and this has also failed more than once at considerable cost. Plugging in EHU over the winter would have only charged the leisure battery of course so wouldn't have helped WRT the starter battery.
Amongst other things we fitted an additional 100W panel which Kev had sitting idle in his garage and fitted a Gizmott so that the starter battery now receives a constant trickle (if needed) from the leisure battery, so now, as long as the leisure battery is reasonably well charged the starter battery will also be kept in a similar state of charge. Hopefully the additional solar panel will be sufficient to maintain both batteries (remember Kev's van tilts away from the sun when parked up which doesn't help) but if not then he can now check the status of his cab battery from the house by blue tooth phone app so he doesn't have to risk his neck trudging down slippery outdoor steps to access the van over the winter. If the starter battery falls below say 85% he can simply switch on his EHU and the van mains charger and Gizmott will bring both batteries back up to level.
 
Yup, just that, but I have no faith in electronics, and if the BT would extend to where I spend my time I'd not have started this thread, but as it is I have to remember to check the monitor, and I won't after the newness has worn off and it's just sat there, so to have the email come direct to my laptop is much easier for me, I don't need to remember anything, a cheap smartphone for £20 ish will do all the work, plus a data or ordinary sim would do the rest, I honestly do not see the charging current cost being an issue at all.

I'm just not 100% sure if this is the best way for me to do it.

To give you an idea, I have had for the last year had a reminder at 10am every day "check van battery" guess how often I've gone down to do it, and how often I will check the app as I get even less mobile.

This thread is not really to do with the setup, more to do with getting the data from the battery monitor which I went to great expense to buy, sent to my laptop via email as and when I set it up, that and despite me not trusting tech 100% I really do like to use it to make my life easier and to keep me informed where possible.

If I was fully able bodied I just go done and not need the BM, if I could get the BT into the house I'd not need to start this thread, but.....
 
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merl said:
It does but if the solar can't keep up with the drain from various sources within the van then ultimately the batteries will go flat.
There's a lot of items in a van that draw very small standing loads even when you're switched off and these all add up.
Kev's van had a dual output solar controller which feeds 1amp or so to the starter battery to keep it maintained, the problem is the controller prioritises the leisure battery and it only feeds this 'trickle' to the starter battery when there's an EXCESS and the leisure battery is absolutely full. Kev's van leans away from the sun so in winter solar gain appears to be inadequate to keep up, the leisure battery is kept maintained ish but there's no excess to feed to the starter battery so it's going flat because of alarm and other continuous drains, worse still the ECU doesn't seem like a flat starter battery and this has also failed more than once at considerable cost. Plugging in EHU over the winter would have only charged the leisure battery of course so wouldn't have helped WRT the starter battery.
Amongst other things we fitted an additional 100W panel which Kev had sitting idle in his garage and fitted a Gizmott so that the starter battery now receives a constant trickle (if needed) from the leisure battery, so now, as long as the leisure battery is reasonably well charged the starter battery will also be kept in a similar state of charge. Hopefully the additional solar panel will be sufficient to maintain both batteries (remember Kev's van tilts away from the sun when parked up which doesn't help) but if not then he can now check the status of his cab battery from the house by blue tooth phone app so he doesn't have to risk his neck trudging down slippery outdoor steps to access the van over the winter. If the starter battery falls below say 85% he can simply switch on his EHU and the van mains charger and Gizmott will bring both batteries back up to level.
Click to expand...

Good explanation of Kev's situation. Hopefully if there is enough solar now he should be ok and if not as you say, just plug in for a bit. This is why I liked my old controller. It did both batteries regardless but your Gizmott should do the same.
 
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