Would have to see layout, is row height set?
I’ve spent most of the weekend and working out in the camper. Progress has been outstanding but there’s a lot more to be done.
In keeping with the recent pivot on the project, I’ve continued to deploy Iris V1 contact sensors on all of the cabinet doors. The reason for this is twofold; first an open cabinet door can in some cases be sheared off by slideout movement, and second, its an indication that something will probably fall out during towing. Using dashboards, I’ll be able to quickly check the status of all of the cabinet doors without taking several minutes to hand check each one.
An added benefit is that I can be alerted if a door opens during transport. I’ll help to avoid another watermelon incident.
RV’s today are largely of decent quality, however one area where they just plain suck is wiring. I really believe hire anyone who’s capable of installing a car stereo to wire these things. Check this out... This is how it came from the factory. I’ve added the HVAC module as part of the first phase of the project last fall, but the rest is stock..
$40, a couple wiring blocks and 3 hours of time later...
It still is a bit messy for my liking, however it’s a 12”x15” overhead cabinet that’s hard to reach. It’ll have to do. I removed quite a bit of extra wire and a crap-ton of quick-tap connectors so there’s one accomplishment.
The addition of these cabinet sensors has pushed my HubConnect server hub over 500 devices too.
No need. That’s exactly what it was. Thanks.
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Boy has this project grown... the RV hub has surged well past the 50 device mark! The cheap smoke detector has been replaced with a First Alert Z-combo (smoke/CO)
Virtually all cabinet doors have been outfit with Iris V1 contact sensors. There are still a few to go as well as three leak sensors.
Today I took my old iPhone 6S+ that’s sat in a drawer for a year and a half and mounted it to the wall in the outside kitchen. This will serve as the exterior interface to the HE dashboard. It’ll also have the LCI OneControl app on it to interface with RV systems.
The first camping trip is just a week away....
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I have a 7 in the drawer, is that the only thing I can do with it? I was planning to install tinycam but I think it's an android only app 
Wow, 50 devices....
I haven't owned an RV for awhile but hope to have another someday soon. Love this thread!
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With all the extras,have you made sure your tow vehicle has enough power to pull it? It would be a shame to have a tough time even getting down the driveway. 
I bet he is more concerned in how to add a hub to the tow vehicle than if the vehicle can tow the RV...
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It is sad the problems some people have. It makes you wonder how the keep going.
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Of course! I’m a diesel guy at heart.
The thought has crossed my mind. I’m actually trying to figure out how to get a hub at my cabin which lacks electricity. That’ll probably be a summer project.
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T-2 days until the first outing of the season. The SmartRV project has been largely sidelined since the weekend while I focus on the usual seasonal prep work (ie de-winterizing, cleaning, sanitizing, checking for leaks, etc). Also had to install shut offs and immobilize the water lines under the kitchen sink as leaks were an all-to-common occurrence.
I did manage to get the glass break sensor installed.
In addition to the First Alert smoke/CO. (And Iris V1 Motion)
Still have a few more sensors and presence fobs to connect although some may have to wait until we return from this first trip.
Harbor Freight solar? Nice for a hub...
So when you are driving, won't the motion sensors always be in motion?
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The motion sensors are all Iris V1 PIR so they actually detect heat moving from one detection plane to another.
But that’s a good point worth highlighting. I am not using SmartThings multipurpose sensors for that very reason. Those device remain active and reporting accelerometer data when they detect movement or impacts. I fear that the batteries would be dead after a few hours of towing so I’m avoiding them altogether.
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I never should have read this, now I'm really having to talk myself down. You really don't need to do this, you really don't need to do this....... It's not working.
I'll have to follow your experience to see if it might be worthwhile for us. To be honest, I hadn't even thought about it, but the Hubitat being able to operate without the internet does indeed open up some options there.
I've got the basics quite simplified already. 1,100 watts of solar on the roof and a fair sized battery bank, large tanks, power cord on an electric reel, auto leveling, etc. so we can generally park and be setup in less than 15 minutes, depending on whether I want to hook up water and sewer right away, assuming it's available. We boondock a lot. Dish network has a good RV setup where you just pay for the months you want to use it, and can set up for local channels so we're set there. The portable antennas do the work for you, and there are some nice phone apps that make it easy to find a clear spot to put the antenna if possible. It's nice, as cell phone service tends to be poor, if available at all in many on the nicer camping areas, so streaming or over the air TV aren't often an option. I'm not really sure what if anything I would want to automate further, but following your experiences has me re-thinking that....
Nice work
I'm telling you, it's a worthwhile project! I'm like you in that I'm all about setting up and tearing down as quickly as possible. I haven't added the cord and hose reels, yet, however that's on the wish list.
It sounds like you've got a great setup. I'd like to do more boondocking but the DW has quickly forgotten what tent-life was like a few years ago. How often do you boondock?
What really bothers me is all of the "checklist" items... Checking every single cabinet is one of them. Thanks to $3 iris contact sensors, theres one on every door and drawer and a couple dashboards where I can see all of them at a glance.
That alone saves me about 5 minutes, plus the fear that when I'm campiong with guests that someone has gone in and opened something after my last check.
I also have a Samsung button for setup/strike. I hold it down when I'm about to leave and it load sheds non-essentials like the microwave and outside fridge (reducing the surge when powering up/down), and arms notification rules for cabinet doors. When I arrive, the same thing will happen in reverse.
My contact at Lippert is trying to get me some information on their CAN to IP adapter. I'd like to be able to control my OneControl lighting from Hubitat as well. I'm also looking to see if they support RV-C (common CAN) because I will be able to integrate the SeaLevel tank monitors to the system too.
Lastly, I'm supposed to be testing the new OneControl RGBW digital lighting interface for the porch lights (if they ever send it to me, its a new product)... But I'm starting to wonder if it makes more sense to just use my old Lightify strip controller which runs on 12v.
So many decisions still...
EDIT: Aftter posting, I though of a recent argument er, debate I had with the DW...
Four years ago when we were shopping for our first camper which she was all excited about, one of her "selling points" to me was that we could camp without worrying about the rain, or even snow.
Tonight, when I told her that it was going to rain this weekend and possibly snow, her response was that we should stay home. So I reminder her of that argument... Her reply was that there was more to do if we stayed home.
Then I reminded her that we've been doing just that for the past 7 months.... Silence......
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Keep doing the checklist thing religiously, it's inevitable you'll have a major opps moment otherwise. This coming from someone who has RV'd for over 40 years with my own rigs, many more with the family prior to that. Having worked aircraft maintenance for 40 plus years as well though, checklists are just natural to me.
Do your contact sensors work well enough that they would actually notify you if the drawer, or door is open just enough to where the latching mechanism isn't properly engaged? Most of doors/drawers I've rigged with secondary securing means as it's gets ugly sometimes if they open up on the road. In the last 10 years that the wife has kept a logbook of sorts our annual average towing distance is almost exactly at 7000 miles a year. The road miles seem to be the hardest on the assorted rigs we've owned, and of course that's when you tend to have the brain farts that lead to bad things happening.
With the current 5th wheel which we bought 3 years ago immediately prior to retiring we've dry camped or boondocked between 71 days for a low, and 127 days on the high year. This year will be probably the lowest yet as we only dry camped 11 days during the 2 months we spent down in Arizona in Jan/Feb, and medical issues have kept us home since and will do so for the next few months. (I should really learn how to program and work this Hubitat during this downtime)
The load shedding you mentioned along with maybe sensors on my outside hatches and awning are the primary things I'm considering possibly using a HE system for. I'm still cussing you for putting those ideas in my head as I haven't even finished setting up the house yet. I had to migrate off IRIS and wen't to ST, of course using the $1300 Lowes gave me and a whole lot more in the process as that's just the way the automation bug works. After about a month I'd become frustrated with ST and ended up here, So far fairly pleased with the home automation, only to find the bug driving me to possible expanded horizons.
You are absolutely correct about checklists. I still use them, but my goal is to shorten the work required for each step. I don’t quite travel as much as you, but rounded out last year just over 5900 miles based on my trucks trailer trip odometer.
Yes, my 2018 Eagle has positive latches on all cabinet doors and drawers. If they’re latched they are closed flush. The latch cannot partially grab, if they don’t engage they force a 1/4” gap. I’ve side mounted the contact sensors so that each latch has to be engaged in order for the magnet to engage.
I just got the orbit hose timer set up tonight. I’m field trialing it at home right now. That device has to have an auto-close timer anytime the valve opens. I’ve set up a RM rule to update the timer to 4 hours on 2 hour intervals to ensure it always stays open. The idea is to use presence sensors to turn the water off anytime we leave camp. I hope that works out.
My SMARTRV project has taken a very interesting turn tonight.
I had been working with the IDS Electronics division of Lippert until my contact there passed away last December at age 40. For a while he has been teasing that they were bringing Home Automation technology to their One Control system.
I was checking the OneControl gateway logs and saw a lot of traffic coming from a specific IP address. That address, turned out to be for an OpenHAB installation that is running on the OneControl CAN interface.
Even better is that everything in the RV has been auto-detected with the exception of the automatic leveling system and slide out controls. That makes sense since those would bring safety concerns if operated remotely.
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So that means HubConnect will integrate openHAB in the future?
Haha... Not anytime soon, but it gives me a reason to consider it.
