# Rv Temp/power Monitoring



## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

Well...I finally got off my duff and ordered a couple of devices that will hopefully protect my two Samoyed pups when we go camping.

Our routine when camping involves a long walk and romp early morning and late afternoon/evening with our dogs. They, however, like to spend time napping during the day. This gives us the opportunity to put them in their crates, and go out biking, kayaking, sightseeing, shopping, dining...whatever for a few hours during the day.

The problem is...I've always spent a lot of my leisure time worrying about them --- what if the circuit breaker pops, the campground loses power, the air conditioner craps out... Would the temperature inside our rv go up to 100 degrees (which is what it does sitting in the back yard during the summer). Our fur kids wouldn't last very long at 100 degrees F.

So, I ordered a cellphone link and a Freeze Alarm from amazon.com.

The cellphone link (BT-215) hooks a bluetooth enabled cellphone up to hardwired telephony devices.

The Freeze Alarm (FA-I-CCA) will allow us to program an alarm temp and will call one of our other phones thru the bluetooth link.

I plan on using a small UPS (back-up power supply) to enable the BT-215 to continue working during a power outage for a reasonable ammount of time.

It will be comforting to know that if an alarm condition occurs --- we'll be notified and can come back to the campground immediately and rescue our pups from the heat. Cold --- not so much. I think these sled dogs can handle being in the cold for a while...but I am really concerned about cooking them in the summer if the a/c fails.

I'll post results after I hook everthing up to see if it's working well together or not.


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## john7349 (Jan 13, 2008)

That is a great idea! (It looks like the UPS would be a requirement). May as well plug the cell phone charger in too.


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## Dub (Dec 8, 2008)

Great idea, if you setup a Google Voice number for it to call you could have it ring your phone, your wife's, your home phone, etc. A simple script on Google Voice could text message everyone too or send emails.


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## TwoElkhounds (Mar 11, 2007)

Great idea, I may need to do this for my TwoElkhounds!!

BTW - I don't think you will need a UPS. The Freeze Alarm runs on 12 VDC, you can hardwire this to the trailer battery. The Cell Link also runs on DC, but you can't tell what voltage from the datasheets. It will likely be a standard voltage (hopefully 12 VDC)that you can use either the trailer battery or a regular disposable battery (like a 9V). Other option would be to get a small inverter to run them from the trailer battery.

DAN


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

TwoElkhounds said:


> Great idea, I may need to do this for my TwoElkhounds!!
> 
> BTW - I don't think you will need a UPS. The Freeze Alarm runs on 12 VDC, you can hardwire this to the trailer battery. The Cell Link also runs on DC, but you can't tell what voltage from the datasheets. It will likely be a standard voltage (hopefully 12 VDC)that you can use either the trailer battery or a regular disposable battery (like a 9V). Other option would be to get a small inverter to run them from the trailer battery.
> 
> DAN


The plan is to get a UPS to plug the BT-215 into. IT has no built-in battery backup.

The actual Freeze Alarm will just be plugged into the 110v outlet. The Freeze Alarm has a 9v battery that powers the unit with a loss of A/C power. One of the features of the freeze alarm is to alert you of a power failure. It would disquise a power failure if I plugged that part of the trio into a UPS or ships 12v power. I want it to detect and alert a loss of shore power.

The cellphone is probably the least of my worries...it's battery will last...but I'll plug it into the surge protected socket on the UPS. That way as long as A/C power is available --- the cellphone battery will stay topped up. I'm really not too aware of how quickly the cell battery will run down with constant bluetooth radio operation. It goes a few days without the bluetooth radio turned on. But it should last long enough to alert us numerous times.

...........................









I really like your idea for hooking the BT-215 into the RV's 12v system. It would be an easy thing to do...and would reduce the expense of the UPS unit. Hmmm... Thanks for that. I'll have to see what the wall wart on the BT-215 unit puts out. Many of the newer electronics can accept a wide range of DC input. I might fire off an email to Cobra to see if their engineers/tech support are willing to que in. Even if it's a lower voltage, it's an easy thing to do to convert dc voltages at low amerages.

I'm excited to test these components together and let everyone know how it works out.


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

Dub said:


> Great idea, if you setup a Google Voice number for it to call you could have it ring your phone, your wife's, your home phone, etc. A simple script on Google Voice could text message everyone too or send emails.


The Freeze alarm will call up to three numbers and give a digital voice warning.

I Like the idea of expanding that capabiity with a Google Voice number...I'm not at all familiar with that service... Thanks for inputing that idea. I'll have to incorporate that to see how it works as well.

As in any safety system --- redundancy is a valued component!


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

Well...the good folks at Cobra haven't responded to my email questions...

I have searched high and low for datasheets on the BT-215 PhoneLynx system to no avail...

It looks like my shipment from Amazon.com won't arrive until the 7th of DEC...which will be in plenty of time for our next trip...

I was able to determine the input for the BT-215 though..through one of their marketing photos...


















I'm relentless sometimes...


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

Great solution, Chuggs. I, too, spend alot of my 'leisure" time worrying about the kids so I will be most interested in watching this thread!!!

Hope it works!!


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

Well, I had hoped to report some progress...

Amazon.com's Super Saver Shipping is taking a lot longer than anticipated.

I did get a reply back from Cobra. I told them I wanted to input dc voltage directly from the RV...and they said that although they have not tested it for this purpose --- the engineers saw no reason for it not to work as planned.

Tic - Toc ...Guess I'll be testing it at Ft. Wilderness next week --- cause I'm off on a 3-day trip tomorrow.


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

Amazon.com sent me a new order overnight... Nice people to work with...

I received the Cobra PhoneLynx BT-215 and the Freeze Alarm FA-I-CCA...and we were off to Disney's Ft. Wilderness for 4 nights.

The BT-215 PhoneLynx was VERY easy to pair with my cellphone. You power it up...push one of the buttons on the unit...and it starts searching. Once paired with a phone...it will reconnect whenever you're back in range of the PhoneLynx unit. It will pair with up to two different cellphones at the same time. I just paired it to one.

I just used the 110v adapter that came with it...it's my next project to wire the BT-215 directly to my Outback's 12vdc system. This way...the cellphone dialing will continue to work even if the shorepower connection is cut.

The Freeze Alarm is perfect for what I want it to do...  The instructions were pretty straight forward. For installation...you need a 9v lithium battery and an old phone handset. The phone handset is used for programming the Freeze Alarm...and the battery is to power the unit in case the shore power fails.

The parameters that need to be programmed are:

1) Phone number(s) you wish the alert notification to be sent to... (up to three)

2) How many rings before it picks up... I set this to 2. (for calling in to get a status update)

3) The Temperature set point.

4) The Security PIN.

5) How many minutes after a power failure before an alarm condition is triggered.

We set it up in the RV just to check to make sure the system would work together. It worked flawlessly. We were able to call in...and the unit will report the temperature, if 110v power is on/off, and the backup battery voltage... You can also reprogram most of the features remotely. We called a few times to check on the pups... I had turned the ringer off on the cellphone left in the camper so as to not disturb the pups.

We actually received an ALERT. My wife's cellphone rang at 1:05am... Our LP tanks failed to automatically switch over...and the furnace went out. When the inside temperature in the RV dropped to 45 degrees...the cellphone rang...and we got the FREEZE ALARM notification. I got dressed and went outside to check the LP. I was able to swap the tank out. The Furnace fired right back up after turning the thermostat off then back on to HEAT... The outside temperatures dropped to around 27 degrees that night... I'm glad the freeze alarm woke me up so that I could swap the bottles around before it got any colder that it did. Guess I need to trouble shoot that LP valve next









Now I'm happy that I have it for winter use --- even though the PRIMARY reason that I purchased it was to monitor the hot temperatures during the summer for my doggies. To switch from winter to summer mode...there's a dip switch on the back that you flip...and you program the rising temperature set point instead of a falling temperature set point.

I'm very excited to have this setup in my Outback... Now I can check on my pups anytime I want...and I can even get a phone notification if something goes wrong.

I found out that the Alert notice will be sent out at the selected interval (I had 15 minutes) over and over again until you cancel by inputing your security code. It broadcast the security code as the LOCATION ID... I plan on using my campsite number as the security code...this way it will announce the campsite number during an alert condition. Pretty neat feature. This would come in handy if you were camping at a place where the people running the office wouldn't mind getting an alert and just checking the power pole for you... of course you'd have to pre-arrange this with them.

Overall...great products. I recommend them highly.


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## pintoplumber (Nov 4, 2007)

Sounds pretty neat. Most of the places we camp don't have cell phone service though. Dennis


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

pintoplumber said:


> Sounds pretty neat. Most of the places we camp don't have cell phone service though. Dennis


That does present a problem... IN all my research, I have mainly come accross solutions that require either a telephone landline, internet access, or cell phone monitoring subscription. There was one other system that I saw that used a radio set...but that was very limited in range.

The Phonelynx just let us use one of our cellphones in place of a landline. The system that had a built-in cell monitoring system...required a subscription that started at $19.99 per month...and the hardware cost over $300.

I was happy to find a combination that wouldn't cost extra per month --- and the hardware involved was around $175.00 instead of over $300...


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

The PhoneLynx is hardwired to the Outbacks house battery...and is working like a charm. I installed an illuminated switch on our entertainment credenza to turn it ON/OFF. That way it's quick to breakdown after camping...and will prevent it from draining the house battery during storage.

Canceling alert messages with my wifes cellphone seems to be the only hiccup. For some reason the Freeze alarm does not recognize certain numbers from her phone. We know 9-9-9-9 works...so we'll stick with that until I narrow down all the troublesome numbers with further testing.

The actual alerting works flawlessly. I tested a power failure today, and had no problems.


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

We wound up upgrading our phones for Christmas... Radio shack was running a promotion on the 4g EVO for Sprint PCS. We took the plunge.

For the Freeze Alarm...I found a place that would "FLASH" one of our old Sprint Phones w/ bluetooth --- so that it can be used on the Page Plus network. Page Plus is a pay as you go cellphone service that uses Verizons towers for coverage. Not a bad coverage area... The entry level service is $10 for 100 minutes. As long as you ADD time within 120 days...the minutes continue to rollover. I figured for $10 per 120 days (or pratically $30 per year) we can just leave that phone hooked up in the RV all the time. The only fee that I'm aware of is a $0.50/mo service charge deducted on the 25th of the month, or something like that. This will give us both access to our sprint phones...and still have an economical cellphone in the RV for the BT-215 PhoneLynx unit to pair with.

Flashing service for Sprint CellPhones


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## willingtonpaul (Apr 16, 2010)

this whole setup is very slick. hats off to you...
happy camping !


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## Chuggs (Jun 8, 2010)

willingtonpaul said:


> this whole setup is very slick. hats off to you...
> happy camping !


Thanks...Happy camping!!

We just got back from 9 nights in Augusta, GA... We were up visting my son and daughter-in-law. Great trip!! We are officially GRANDPARENTS now... our first grand daughter was born on 1/19/2011. Aubrey Joy Martin... 7lb 2.2oz, 19 1/2in... 2pm...

We had the FREEZE ALARM monitoring the Outback while we were out and about. The puppies did great...maybe a little touch of cabin fever. They enjoyed the morning walks, even though it was 28 degrees outside most mornings.

The Cobra BT-215 paired with the converted Sprint Katana and performed flawlessly running off of the house 12vdc system the entire time.

It was monitoring the RV continuously for the 9 days...and I called in for status checks 1-2 times per day.

All the best!

Charlie


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