One dashboard
Tank levels, temperatures, battery and solar at a glance, on cards you can restyle, resize and reorder.
All your RV's Bluetooth gadgets, in one app.
OpenRV is a small gateway that listens to your propane sensors, thermometers, coolers, door lock and solar controller, keeps watch while you're away from them, and shows everything on your phone. It's open source, and it needs no cloud, no account and no internet.
What it does
Every maker ships its own app, and you end up checking five of them. OpenRV puts them on one dashboard.
Alerts that keep working
Low propane, a warm fridge or a low battery: rules run on the gateway, even when your phone is away.
Control, not just watch
Set your cooler's temperature and mode, lock or unlock the door, with an optional PIN.
Watchdogs
If the cooler is found switched off, or its panel unlocked, the gateway puts it right.
Private by design
Everything stays between the gateway and your phone, over Bluetooth. Nothing leaves the RV.
Updates from the app
New gateway firmware installs from your phone, and rolls back by itself if an update fails.
How it works
The gateway lives in the RV, powered from its 12 V system. It reads devices that broadcast their readings, and connects briefly to the ones that need it, so their makers' own apps still work in between. It stores your devices, settings and alert rules, and your phone connects to it to see and control everything.
Supported devices
Devices are grouped by kind, so every thermometer or tank sensor looks the same in the app, whoever made it. Each new device is a small, self-contained addition, and contributions are very welcome.
| Kind | Devices |
|---|---|
| Liquid level sensor | Mopeka Pro Check (propane) |
| Temperature sensor | Inkbird IBS-TH, IBS-TH2 |
| Refrigerator | Alpicool-protocol coolers (Alpicool, Renogy, Brass Monkey and others) |
| Lock | RVLock Trek |
| Solar controller | Go Power PWM (experimental) |
| Battery monitor | None yet: could yours be first? |
| Surge protector | None yet: could yours be first? |
Missing yours? Request it, or add it yourself.
Get started
You need an ESP32-S3 board with 4 MB of flash or more, such as the Espressif ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1, a USB power adapter for it, and an Android phone. The flasher checks the board for you.
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Flash the gateway
Plug the board into a computer and use the web flasher in Chrome or Edge. It takes about a minute and ends with a QR code to keep with the gateway. Later updates install from the app.
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Install the app
Get OpenRV from Google Play or the App Store, or build it from the source. You can try it in demo mode without a gateway.
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Add your devices
Power the gateway in the RV and scan its QR code: your phone pairs with it and becomes its owner, and only phones you let in can use it. In Devices, the gateway lists what it hears nearby; tap one, name it, and it's on your dashboard.
Step-by-step help, troubleshooting and what the gateway's light means: the getting started guide.
Open source
OpenRV is MIT licensed and built in the open. The firmware is C++ on ESP-IDF, the app is React Native, and they share a documented JSON protocol. Adding a device is one folder of plain C++ with its own tests, and the app needs no change.