Baby monitors

[Bill Allen]

Anyone ever use a baby monitor to help with sounding an anchor draging alarm to their aft cabin? My Northstar has an anemic alarm but otherwise quite acceptable, thinking of using a baby monitor so I could hear it in the aft cabin. Sugestions, alternatives, Thanks Bill

 

[ThirdHatt]

I'm not sure about Northstar, but some manufacturers offer an external alarm buzzer for such applications. On my last boat I added one to the Furuno VX2 for about $20 and ran it to the Master Stateroon Closet so that it would be able to wake me up over the A/C blower noise, etc. It worked great!

I know Pascal likes to use a handheld Garmin GPS by his bedside which is also a good solution if your Northstar does not support an external buzzer.

 

[Angela]

Anyone ever use a baby monitor to help with sounding an anchor draging alarm to their aft cabin? My Northstar has an anemic alarm but otherwise quite acceptable, thinking of using a baby monitor so I could hear it in the aft cabin. Sugestions, alternatives, Thanks Bill

Yes. We have just that on Sanctuary. The previous owner had the wireless cameras mounted in the engine rooms and a few extra loose cameras laying around. Because I can get sound over the little TV monitor, I thought that would be an excellent way to hear the anchor drag alarm in the absence of a lot of high tech equipment. We already had the baby monitors onboard, so I just didn't see the sense in spending a lot of money for something "marine".

 

[Canuck Dennis]

If you use the "Bahama" style anchoring set up with all chain rode, you should not need the monitor

 

[Fanfare]

I already had a depth alarm loud speaker next to my ear in my berth. Last year I ran a wire from my salon Northstar 952 GPS to connect its fairly mild alarm to the existing speaker in my cabin. Probably because it is so close to my ear (right next to the remote burglar/fire alarm panel) it wakes me immediately. On the Northstar I can set the anchor dragging distance depending on circumstances. Currently using 0.10 nmi. from anchor drop. I also run the chart plotter in to its maximum magnification and have the plotter place a dot for the boat's position every 2 minutes so I can observe the arc of the segment of swing as I pass by. Worked fine in the Bahamas this year, but last year had a late night false alarm which my newer Northstar 6000 on the bridge said was a tracking error. Didn't find this warning until morning.

I normally wake up several times a night and check our position when anchored out. But both myself and the Admiral sleep a lot better now with the alarm. I have become diligent in remembering to set the alarm, but not so good in turning it off as we get under way. Fortunately I have trained my guests and grandchildren to notify me when anything is beeping or otherwise seems unusual.

The anchor depth alarm, which goes off at 3 ft. below the keel (7 ft total depth) did not work out as well. I finally figured it was sounding as the boat drifted over the second anchor line from my usual Bahamian two-anchor up-and-down-current moor. Or perhaps a fish swam beneath us. On at least one occasion it did save us from a grounding. The GPS is better.

 

[MikeP]

Tie the alarm with an old fashioned alarm bell and I guarantee you'll never miss hearing it. The po did that with 12point alarm system. It'll definitely get your attention.

 

[nyrussell]

Nope sorry, Baby Monitor is with the ummmm oh yes Baby!!!!

 

[saltshaker]

Tie the alarm with an old fashioned alarm bell and I guarantee you'll never miss hearing it. The po did that with 12point alarm system. It'll definitely get your attention.

I've been thinking about doing just that. The alarm is inaudible in the cabin, particularly below decks. My high water alarms could be going off and I wouldn't hear them, even if we were awake. Even in the salon it is barely audible, unless your listening for it.

 

[Boatsb]

Jack you can get piezo electric buzzers that use almost no power and run them parallel to the indicator lights. The come in ranges up to about 110 DB for about $10.

 

[saltshaker]

that's exactly what I was thinking. No need to put an actual bell in the boat. I think an alarm in the master and one in the salon would more than do the trick.

 

[Boatsb]

If you mount it on a panel beware. try hooking it up to a battery before you run the wires and mount it. then find the place you think you want it and try it with the battery there too. If it's too loud maybe move it further from your head when you sleep.

 

[saltshaker]

If you mount it on a panel beware. try hooking it up to a battery before you run the wires and mount it. then find the place you think you want it and try it with the battery there too. If it's too loud maybe move it further from your head when you sleep.

Maybe I can get one that talks to me like the fire/CO2 detectors.

 

[ThirdHatt]

Speaking of bilge alarms, I just had this custom panel made for the boat that I am about to install. All I am doing is running a lead from the light on the existing auto/manual panel switch of each bilge to this new panel. It has a piezo electric buzzer built in and I had them add a 2-minute delay so that it will not go off every time a bilge pump cycles. When a bilge pump cycles only the corresponding light will turn on but if for some reason the pump cannot evacuate the bilge in 2 minutes time, the alarm will then sound. This is a bilge alarm, not a high water alarm. This will be wired to the 5" bilge switches so that I will be alerted to any condition that the bilge pumps cannot handle BEFORE it ever gets to the 12" high water alarms. I also had them add a terminal on the back for an external alarm that I will install in the Master.

Besides the extra time this bilge panel will provide, an added benefit to this setup is that it will monitor more than just the forward and aft bilge compartments where the 12" high water alarms are located because it will also monitor the four other bilges in the boat for me in case there is a problem.

 

[saltshaker]

Speaking of bilge alarms, I just had this custom panel made for the boat that I am about to install. All I am doing is running a lead from the light on the existing auto/manual panel switch of each bilge to this new panel. It has a piezo electric buzzer built in and I had them add a 2-minute delay so that it will not go off every time a bilge pump cycles. When a bilge pump cycles only the corresponding light will turn on but if for some reason the pump cannot evacuate the bilge in 2 minutes time, the alarm will then sound. This is a bilge alarm, not a high water alarm. This will be wired to the 5" bilge switches so that I will be alerted to any condition that the bilge pumps cannot handle BEFORE it ever gets to the 12" high water alarms. I also had them add a terminal on the back for an external alarm that I will install in the Master.

Besides the extra time this bilge panel will provide, an added benefit to this setup is that it will monitor more than just the forward and aft bilge compartments where the 12" high water alarms are located because it will also monitor the four other bilges in the boat for me in case there is a problem.

Looks nice. A pump counter would be a nice addition to the lights. This way you can see if a pump is cycling too much. I've caught potential problems that might have gone unnoticed without the counter.

 

[Fanfare]

My Arid Bilge System (www.aridbilge.com) has the add-on counter which gives the running time for each of my nine zones the system monitors. I check it from time to time, generally reset the cumulative counters. I have caught two leaks, a/c pump and rudder stuffing box, before they became serious. It has turned out to be an unexpected benefit.

 

[Diver Down]

Yes, we use a baby monitor for relaying the anchor alarm on our chartplotter to our stateroom. May also help me get the jump on James River pirates!

 

[Trojan]

Don't forget that everyone within 200 yards or more that has the same type baby monitor. Will hear every thing that gets sent or said. They all use the same set of frequency's. Hard wired is the best.

Bill