System Check When Out of Town

[TC McClure]

When we had a land line phone and answering machine, I could check if our off-grid PV system was "on" by calling home. If the answering machine picked up, I knew that the power was on. The landline is gone and I'm wondering if anyone has a method for checking one's system when away from home. We do have wi-fi at the house. Power out......wi-fi would be out also. Perhaps there is a way to check wi-fi while away. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[LB3]

I have an Arduino updating my DDNS periodically. There’s no reason you couldn’t use something like that.

You could have an Arduino measuring battery voltage and serve up a html page showing that value. Log in and get confirmation the system is still up and even get some useful info.

Or you could set up a deadman’s switch using an online service to tell you when the system is offline using use the Arduino to keep resetting the switch.

 

[alcook62]

When we had a land line phone and answering machine, I could check if our off-grid PV system was "on" by calling home. If the answering machine picked up, I knew that the power was on. The landline is gone and I'm wondering if anyone has a method for checking one's system when away from home. We do have wi-fi at the house. Power out......wi-fi would be out also. Perhaps there is a way to check wi-fi while away. Thanks for your thoughts.

I've taken the low-tech approach and just set up a Blink camera facing my system and have my wife pull up the video feed on her smartphone. Easy-peasy nice and easy.

 

[Q-Dog]

I use Victron gear with a Raspberry Pi running Venus OS so I can monitor with the VRM portal. My network and computer stuff all runs on a UPS so I can reboot the system remotely if I have to and not loose power to any of the monitoring gear.

 

[David in nh]

i check my wyze cameras, i happen to have one pointed at a tablet so i can check what the bms on my battery is doing

 

[Q-Dog]

i check my wyze cameras, i happen to have one pointed at a tablet so i can check what the bms on my battery is doing

I have a few of the wyze cameras. I like them.

My batteries/inverter are just for house power backup but all of my cameras are powered from the inverter so they stay powered up when the grid goes down, unless the inverter fails.

Do you have any backup power for your cameras? It is not a bad idea as they will keep recording even if they don't have an internet connection. A cheap computer UPS will run one forever.

 

[David in nh]

I have a few of the wyze cameras. I like them.

My batteries/inverter are just for house power backup but all of my cameras are powered from the inverter so they stay powered up when the grid goes down, unless the inverter fails.

Do you have any backup power for your cameras? It is not a bad idea as they will keep recording even if they don't have an internet connection. A cheap computer UPS will run one forever.

they are both plugged into usb ports that are part of emergency lighting that runs my back for my furnce