Boat Anti Theft Alarm

I am in the process of putting together a circuit diagram for a relatively simple anti theft alarm for RIB / Trailer.

My current thoughts are:

Vibration sensor for when on trailer on drive - which can be disabled when on moorings.

Microswitches on hatches - jockey seat lids.

Current sensing for starting of engine.

Possibly microwave detector with a warn away function.

For on the drive I am looking at a radio link into the house alarm which already has an auto dialer to my mobile.

When moored I was considering a link via a PMR446 as generally I would not be more than a mile away from the boat.

All battery backed up for if disconnected from main battery.

Can anyone think of any other nice to have functions or advice on anything they have done.

GPS and GSM although fantastic to have is a bit out of scope both for cost and battery drain. As at least the GPS would have to check its position every 5 - 10 minutes to be effective and would ideally have a permanent sat lock.

Any ideas or advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Mike

Have a search as there have been a couple of interesting ideas posted in the past. iirc GaryGee had a very interesting idea that sounded quite well developed.

In fact, have a look here:

http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1514&highlight=alarm

Blimey Mike,

I guess it's still hairy in Buteown then. If the thieving gits manage to get past all your security I think you can fit trackers to engines nowadays.

Hope you are well

Stuart

Bear in mind that PMR446 is voice only, and if your caught using it for owt else you could be facing a fine. How about one of those systems with a GPS and mobile that detects when the boat is moved, and sends the coordinates to you via SMS at regular intervals?

Of course, when it's on the drive, the microswitches etc linked up to a bloody loud siren'll do the trick. Alternatively buy one of them metal RIB type things and connect it up to the mains at night. Gives the kids a light show too.

Matt

Originally posted by narked
connect it up to the mains I've got a couple of 15kv step-up transformers if anyone wants one (tenner a piece). You don't even need to touch the goods, just come near them and you'll get a zap! your risk though :eek:

Hmm interesting. Company I work for develops and sells wired and wirefree burglar alarms amongst other things. The wirefree stuff all works on 433Mhz with PIR and Magnetic Contact sensors linked to a solar powered alarm & autodialler. Wonder whether you could get some kind of movement sensor on the trailer so if it is tampered with it sounds the house alarm and dials the recipient. Perhaps we have a market opportunity here!

Cheers Everyone.

Stuart - not sure Butetown is particularly any rougher than other areas but I can see a RIB sat on a drive getting some unwanted attention. Hope the business is going well and don't forget to drop me a line when your in this neck of the woods.

Narked - Certainly like the electrified trailer idea ! but not sure my cat would ! The PMR link is dead easy as I would only use on occasions the boat is away from the house. Set one to VOX leave it by the alarm in the (hopefully unlikely) event it goes off will hear the alarm on the other.

Alan, my house alarm sounds like it could be one of yours ! I'm not sure the best way of doing it but there are two options as I see it. The door sensors simply have a reed switch to activate the transmitter this could easily be replaced by a vibration sensor or mercury switch which will trigger when the trailer is moved. Or so that everything is cover I was going to try and create an output from the alarm unit on the boat to trigger the transmitter.

My Car alarm alarms the trailer as well. when the light board is plugged in it blips twice more to say so and if you move the trailer the motion sensors in the car go the alarm comes on and all the lights including the tail board flash. It is very temperamental though as a bike or boy racer exhorts or lorry will set it of.

Buy a house with a double garage.

Sounds the cheapest option to me.

I've had to specify that my boat will be parked in a boat park that doesn't have locking gates on my insurance declaration.

Not sure I've seen one with gates on the Isle of Man!

Double Garage !!! I wish. The're a bit hard to come by in central Cardiff. It was hard and expensive enough to find one with a drive big enough for a car and boat.

Seriously - I've had a car (boat) port put on the side of the house over the drive (drive isn't wide enough for a garage). By the time the boat arrives this will have doors on the front. Hopefully this wheel clamps and possibly a security post in front will do as much as possible to stop the boat disappearing. I am more bother about damage while trying to take the boat or parts - anchor / VHF etc disappearing, hence the alarm.

I expect to have to declare that the boat is not in a garage but the insurance companies I have approached appear to be happy with an approved wheel clamp.

Cheers

Mike

b----y h--l, we mightn't get as high a salary up here but I think our life style's better.

We've only just started locking the cars at night here! The shortage of taxis means that there are a few looking for a cheap ride home.

Still, my boat's kept in a garden with a large Dobermann! You have to be careful where you step, but the security's tremendous!

The only thing the dog's afraid of is my cat, who struts contemptuously past it on his way to lying on the boat cover in the sun!

Shocking weather here today....the 'Round the Island' Yacht race has been called off and I don't feel like getting soaked out on the rib.

roll on summer....

Got mine all working now, and its great.

Own design working on custom GSM with additional GPS engine.

I can send it a SMS and it will check username & password and if valid power up the GPS get a fix and SMS it back to me.
It will also send out a "alarm" status byte with GPS location if the alarm is trigered, engine cover, console cover, bilge water etc.
You can even dial it and listen to whats going on via audio.

And this all runs on 4mA standby so dont flatten your batteries, and on pay as you go cost pence to run. Its about the size of a packet of cigs!! so you can hide anywhere.

Looked at marketing it but their was not enough interest.

Regards Gary

I'm sure we can arrange a digital picture to be sent back to you every other day too if you want as well, Gary :)

Did you get any approx costs in the end for your project? - I had thought about putting a couple of sirens on my boat rigged up to a home made alarm, but my hnd in electrical and electronic engineering doesn't take me into mobile phone technology I'm afraid :(

I used to be able to keep my last rib in the garage downstairs, but the new boat is too beamy, and the radar reflector on the top of the a-frame just makes it too tall to get into the garage now + a triumph spitfire took the place where the boat was anyway :mad:

Hope you got all you needed done this weekend - yesterday and today weren't too bad afterall.... despite that, we didn't go out, cos the waves were coming in on Neyland beach with some good little breakers, which would have no doubt resulted in damage to something......

-Alex

Looked at marketing it but their was not enough interest.

Garygee, I'll have one straight away!

JW.

If the price is right put me down for one as well.

Pete

Gary, I would also be interested.

Gary, what will the price of this unit be. I might be interested to.

Rene

Hi folks

Right have done some work costings etc, spoke to JK making sure he had no issues.

Thanks to people interested, i decided to put it on here so everyone can read.

The device is a combined alarm & tracker. It consists of a small IP66 box with GSM & GPS antennas attached on about 5M of cable. Alarm triggers are via a single input which can be wired to multiple sensors, hatch microswitchs, bilge alarms etc.
The system takes about 5-6mA in stanby mode about 150mA when the GPS is powered (only on alarm or location request, typicaly less than 10 min,) so will run for a while of normal boat batteries.

If a alarm is detected a SMS is sent to a prestored phone number or numbers (upto two) indicating a alarm toghther with the boats current location using the NMEA GPRMC string which can be put into most nav or map packages.
If you want to do a spot check on your boat you can send a user name and password via SMS and the system will SMS you back the location. If for some reason a GPS fix cannot be obtained the GPS will try for 10 minutes after which the best location obtainable will be sent.

I have looked into supplying and costing and while it is do-able in any volume I would like a few say upto 5 people to trial the system, at reduced cost based that any issues, bugs found will be feed back to get the final product 100% solid. This may involve a few changes etc but you would be getting the system a reduced cost.

What do you get

System controller with remote GSM & GPS on 5M and fused power cable approx of cable.
3 off magnetic micro switchs
Installation & user manual

All you need to add is a pay as you go SIM on the best local network.

I will put toghther a full info sheet if people want more info.

I am now looking for upto 5 people to trial things before going for the cost of approvals, fancy packing, etc

The full system cost will be aroung £550- £600+VAT with running costs based on the SMS cost of the chosen pay as you go SIM. (not much at 10P per message)

For the people trialing I will do system for £400+VAT.

I will get a few pics of the current system and post on here.

In the mean time if your keen for the trial I will have units built in about 2-3 weeks. Further units will be a few months after that subject to no major problems being found.

So if you interested drop me a e-mail and we can get thing moving.As far as the trial first come first serve.


Regards Gary

Gary, That's ok by me providing us trialers get the benefit of the bug fixes and updates and we aren't left with a flaky system.

JW.

Is this the sort of thing we are talking about and what are the differences?

http://www.dsh2000.com/CarUK4.htm

Hi Crasyhorse

Yes very similar but this is done via SMS so all you need is your mobile phone, has security built in so only you can get a fix, is in a water resistant encloure and only draws 5-6mA, the 150mA stated on the wed for the other tracker will not last long on a boat battery unless your using it every few days.

Also this can be trigered by local sensors so tells you the boat is in trouble rather than being able to track the boat after it been taken.

Regards Gary

Hi JW

Yes thats the plan, its working well on my boat but I dont want to put shomthing out their until all aspects are 100%, documentation etc.

I dont forsee any issues but would never assume that I get everything right first time, hence the trial. The process would be holding peoples hand with module swap outs if needed untill everyone is happy and everything is 100%, then make this version available to everyone.
If a bug is found we ship all five of you out replacement modules, and you send back the ones you taken out.

To put things into context I have got the backing of the company I work for, do this sort of design for a job and do this sort of thing for some very big international comanies, and they expect a solid product at the end of the trial. I would expect no different for this trial.

Regards Gary

Sounds very similar to the trakmate (trakm8) discussed in a previous thread.

www.trakm8.com

Except they are use a ring ping to trigger the SMS. Which is not as secure as texting a username and password.