Upgrading 356 AC Units to WiFi Control

[Adaptel]

Hello All,
I just upgraded my 1988 3207 to a beautiful 2001 356 and the first project I feel I need to tackle is finding a way to control the status of the Marine Air air conditioners remotely. It would be amazing not to arrive to a boat that is 100+ degrees especially when the cabin windows do not open.

My initial research tells me that this is possible and I could use the Micro-Air EasyTouch Wifi Thermostat, but to do so would also require updating the control boards in the CabinMate model units to go from the Passport-II system to the Passport-IO control system. Is this correct?

They sure do not make this easy. Is this a solid route to go, or should I consider some other solution? Can the CANBus be connected between the two a/c units (so settings can be changed on either thermostat), or do they operate completely independent? Thanks in advance.

[chpsk8]

I'm interested in this one also. I've looked a little at using a raspberry pi controller to simply turn on the existing controls as an alternate solution.
I think I would really only add a wifi controller if I had a bilge pump and/or high water alarm inline with it to monitor the system to limit the risk if there was ever a leak and I wasn't there.
Right now I use a friendly neighbor to turn on the AC when we are headed down to the boat.

[buster53]

Right now I use a friendly neighbor to turn on the AC when we are headed down to the boat.

That goes on a lot at our marina. Plug boat in, turn on AC, refrigerator, sometimes even the ice maker, etc.

[Midnightsun]

Is there something wrong with leaving it on? I simply turn mine up when we leave the boat to around 25C. I know some will say there is a danger of water intrusion or wasting electricity. We do not pay by the meter, all inclusive price.

As for water intrusion. I have a little gizmo called boat command which will alert me via text and email to various things such as bilge pump start up, shore power disconnect and high water levels in the bilge. Here is a screen shot I just took of the info I have made available to me.

Here is a link to boat command for anyone interested. There is an annual fee but for $80 US a year it is rather inexpensive. You do need a wifi connection for this to work though then again what does not work with wifi today. https://boatcommand.com/

[g36]

I'm using a shelly wifi switch to control my salon ac remotely in my 405. It's wired to break the control voltage on the thermostat to the ac control. I simply set the ac thermostat to the temp I want when we leave and then turn it on whenever before heading to the boat with my phone app. Sonoff also makes nice low priced smart switches, I,'ve used these for other projects too. Either one will work they also can work ac or dc low voltage or 120.. I'm too paranoid to leave my ac on all the time when I'm not there for days but that's me. I also have a wifi thermometers to monitor cabin and fridge/freezer Temps. Cameras too I'm a electronics need anyway

[tomschauer]

https://www.tinyosshop.com/index.php?ro ... uct_id=714

I've been thinking about doing the same thing. I believe i would use something as above, and break the ac circuits.
I do not leave my A/C on when not on the boat for a few reasons. The main reason is, the unit has a limited amount of run hours until it dies. I want those hours to be while I am on the boat.
Another is, if you have a water flow issue, most units will continually try to run, then trip on high pressure and try again. this really shortens compressor life.

[km1125]

Source of the post https://www.tinyosshop.com/index.php?ro ... uct_id=714

I've been thinking about doing the same thing. I believe i would use something as above, and break the ac circuits.
I do not leave my A/C on when not on the boat for a few reasons. The main reason is, the unit has a limited amount of run hours until it dies. I want those hours to be while I am on the boat.
Another is, if you have a water flow issue, most units will continually try to run, then trip on high pressure and try again. this really shortens compressor life.

When I was putting a custom system in my boat a couple years ago, I was trying to incorporate a flow valve in the process so that the compressor wouldn't even try to start if there wasn't water already going through the system.

[Adaptel]

I also thought about using Raspberry PI or Arduino for accomplishing this task, but the protocol/signalling that happens on the 8-pin flat cable from the controller to the keypad is not documented anywhere. No matter what, it seems that the control board would need to be upgraded to the passport-io model because this is the only one that has a CAN (controller area network) bus that other digital devices can communicate to. I did find a pdf that provides all the details of the protocol spoken on the bus called "Airnet".

Going this route would cost me about $1400 for two control boards with new enclosures and two wifi thermostats. The control boards alone would be $800, but justifying time and effort needed to crate custom software with Raspberry PI would be hard to do compared to the out-of-the box solution offered by Micro-air. There seems to be much effort put into climate controls for RVs, but I am quite surprised by the lack of options for marine air conditioning systems.

I am not worried about problems due to me not being on the boat because I plan on only starting the system when I am on my way to the boat which would be 45min maximum. I cannot leave the system on all the time because my marina does not allow it (since electricity is included with slip rental). Does anyone else have one of these easytouch thermostats? They look pretty slick though.

Easytouch.jpg

ASY-351-X01-2T.jpg

[Midnightsun]

Just a little tip here to simplify your lives and not having to reinvent the wheel. The boat command unit I mention above has 3 wifi controlled trigger circuits. It would be fairly easy to install a solenoid that cuts the power to the AC unit which would be controlled by one of the trigger outputs. Since I am at the boat I tried flipping off the AC breaker which obviously shut down the AC, when I flipped the breaker back on, the AC fired up to the same cool setting and temp setting it was on when shut down so in my case the trigger from boat command could easily control the AC in an ON/OFF fashion. Obviously the AC must be in the on position and adjusted to your preferred temp when leaving the boat for this to function.

[g36]

There's really alot if options for this using a $20 smartswitch and a relay is cheap and easy and setting the desiredtemp before leaving the boat. I'm Doing this now. I'm not sure why you would need to complicate this. And as Midnightsun mentioned why "try and reinvent the wheel," also Midnightsun, If I'm thinking right If it's the same boat command system I had about 10 years ago there's a subscription fee for it. Correct? We were unsuccessful in getting accurate messages from the unit and got false readings several times and other times nothing from it. Good cell coverage however.. but the company was great on the customer service end and eventually refunded all the money for it to me. I'm glad its giving you satisfaction.