12v Chinese diesel/parking heater - control interface

Hi all,

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I've recently procured a (quite cheap) Chinese 5 kW diesel heater. The thing is controlled with a small "colour" LCD such as this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/12V-24V-LCD-Monitor-Parking-Heater-Controller-Switch-For-Car-Track-Air-Diesel-Heater/.html

I'm trying to find information on what kind of protocol these things run. There seem to be a couple of people online who have hacked these units before, but no clear reference implementation or blog post online - aside from some people that interfaced with the remote control (which is an alternative way to go).

My goals it to integrate the heater's control with my on-board Signal K (signalk.org) server, allowing me to control everything from an app I built.

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Any help is greatly appreciated!

dunedin said:

Is it safe to fire up a diesel heater from home with nobody on board? If there was a problem, would the insurers consider this not normal practice (hacked control) and decline to pay up?
Wouldnt electric tube heaters or similar on thermostatic plug be better for an unattended boat?

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If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Fire on your own boat is bad enough. Fire on a neighbour&#;s boat in a marina is especially distressing since it had a diminishingly low probability but is now very clearly coming your way.

Why is it so important to warm the boat before you get on board?

For years I had an efficient, problem free drip feed diesel heater. One evening I turned it down low and rowed to the pub. On my way back I saw flashes of red light from my boat. Turning down the heater had caused its parts to cool. The fuel delivery pipe and nozzle had contracted so that the drips slowed and fuel was delivered with a longer interval. The flame went out. Then a build-up of diesel rushed onto the still red hot metal burners and exploded. The thing cycled from out to an explosive flame. I don&#;t know how long it would have been before the timber of the boat or the paper of my books ignited. I wished I had not left the heater running.

My second mistake that day was to throw a fire blanket over the fire after I had turned the fuel off. Now I had what looked like a red hot gas mantle and horrible fumes. I sat in the cockpit with a fire extinguisher hoping not to use it.

What ignites the diesel in your heater? Does your remote turn off the diesel flow instantly? Do you have a camera to tell you that the boat is on fire while you are still on route?

If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Fire on your own boat is bad enough. Fire on a neighbour&#;s boat in a marina is especially distressing since it had a diminishingly low probability but is now very clearly coming your way.Why is it so important to warm the boat before you get on board?For years I had an efficient, problem free drip feed diesel heater. One evening I turned it down low and rowed to the pub. On my way back I saw flashes of red light from my boat. Turning down the heater had caused its parts to cool. The fuel delivery pipe and nozzle had contracted so that the drips slowed and fuel was delivered with a longer interval. The flame went out. Then a build-up of diesel rushed onto the still red hot metal burners and exploded. The thing cycled from out to an explosive flame. I don&#;t know how long it would have been before the timber of the boat or the paper of my books ignited. I wished I had not left the heater running.My second mistake that day was to throw a fire blanket over the fire after I had turned the fuel off. Now I had what looked like a red hot gas mantle and horrible fumes. I sat in the cockpit with a fire extinguisher hoping not to use it.What ignites the diesel in your heater? Does your remote turn off the diesel flow instantly? Do you have a camera to tell you that the boat is on fire while you are still on route?

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