OpenClaw · Victron · Python · Open Source

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Every morning before I take out Pitter Patter or head out to Pegasus, I’d do the same ritual: pull up the Victron VRM dashboard on my phone, squint at the battery readout, check the solar numbers, make sure nothing was screaming at me. Two boats. Five minutes of manual work before I’d even had my red bull.

I’m a developer by trade. I know better than to spend five minutes doing something a computer can do for free.

So I built Boat Daily Check — an OpenClaw skill that queries the Victron VRM API every morning and sends me a single, beautiful HTML email summarizing everything I need to know about my power systems before I walk down to the dock.

Here’s what lands in my inbox at 7 AM:

⚓ BOAT POWER SYSTEMS STATUS

🚤 Pitter Patter                [✓ Healthy]
   Battery SOC ......... 100.0 %
   Voltage ............. 14.17 V
   Yesterday's Solar Output ....... 0.59 kWh

🚤 Pegasus                      [⚠️ Alert]
   Battery SOC ......... 100.0 %
   AC Input ............ 121.4 V
   🚨 Active Alarms: "Active input"

No login. No navigating. Just the facts. I see it, I know what I’m walking into, I go sailing.

Wait — This Isn’t Just for Boats

I want to be upfront about something: this works for anything running Victron hardware. That means:

• RVers monitoring their lithium banks across weeks of dry camping
• Off-grid homesteads with solar arrays and battery walls who want a daily power summary without logging into a dashboard
• Liveaboards who care as much about their house bank as I do about my engine starts
• Fishing charter operators watching multiple vessels remotely

If you have a Cerbo GX, a SmartShunt, or any Victron hardware connected to VRM, this skill works for you. Rename your “boat” to “RV” or “Cabin” in the config and the email adapts automatically.

What Is OpenClaw, and Why Does It Matter?

OpenClaw is an open-source agentic AI framework — think of it as a personal automation engine where AI agents can execute skills, run cron jobs, and chain together tasks. It’s what I use to run my morning surf report, fishing conditions summary, and now my boat power check — all delivered as a single consolidated email.

A “skill” in OpenClaw is a self-contained, reusable module. Think of it like an npm package for agentic workflows. Boat Daily Check is one of the first community skills I’m releasing publicly, and it’s fully MIT licensed.

If you’re not on OpenClaw yet, the script also runs standalone — just call it from any cron job or shell script. OpenClaw just makes it stupid easy to combine with other automations.

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How It Works

The skill hits three Victron VRM API v2 endpoints per installation:

• BatterySummary/latest — SOC, voltage, current, temperature
• diagnostics — hardware names, firmware versions, last-seen timestamps
• alarms — any active alerts

It compiles everything into a responsive HTML email with color-coded status badges and battery progress bars, then hands it off to OpenClaw’s delivery layer (or your own email sender).

Total runtime: under 15 seconds for two boats. Suitable for a 7 AM daily cron.

Getting Set Up in 5 Minutes

1. Get your free VRM API token Head to vrm.victronenergy.com/access-tokens and create one. It’s free.

2. Grab your Installation ID It’s in your VRM dashboard URL:

https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/123456/dashboard
                                              ^^^^^^

3. Clone and configure

bash

git clone https://github.com/lkilpatrick/boat-daily-check
cd boat-daily-check
pip install requests

Edit scripts/boat-email-report.py with your token and installation IDs:

python

INSTALLATIONS = {
    "pitter_patter": {
        "id": 123456,
        "name": "Pitter Patter",
        "batteryInstance": 279,
        "hasSolar": True,
        "hasInverter": False,
    }
}

4. Run it

bash

python3 scripts/boat-email-report.py
open out/boat-daily-email.html

5. Automate it (OpenClaw)

json

{
  "name": "boat-daily-check",
  "schedule": { "kind": "cron", "expr": "0 7 * * *" },
  "payload": { "kind": "agentTurn", "message": "python3 /path/to/boat-email-report.py" }
}

Full docs are in GETTING_STARTED.md.

What I Actually Learned Building This

The Victron VRM API is solid but not well-documented for community developers. I put together references/vrm_api_guide.md and references/victron_attributes.md in the repo specifically because I had to reverse-engineer half of it from scratch. If you’re building your own Victron integrations, those reference files alone are worth cloning the repo.

Also: the batteryInstance attribute (default: 279 for SmartShunt) will trip you up if you don’t know about it. I documented the fix.

What’s Next

A few things I’m planning for future versions:

• Week-over-week solar efficiency trends — compare this week’s kWh against last week
• Tank level monitoring — for boats with Victron-connected tank sensors
• Push notifications — Twilio integration for critical alarm thresholds
• clawhub publish — install with a single openclaw clawhub install victron/boat-daily-check

If you build on this, open a PR. The whole point of open-sourcing it is to make something useful for the Victron community — boaters, RVers, and off-grid homesteaders alike.

Get the Code

👉 github.com/lkilpatrick/boat-daily-check

MIT licensed. Free forever. Fair winds and following seas. ⛵

I’ve been thinking about this for a while — how do you reach readers where they are?

Today, I’m excited to announce that all four Mia Kingtide novels are now available as audiobooks, with full professional narration powered by ElevenLabs. Three of the four are live on Spotify, with the final book coming tomorrow.

Why Audiobooks?

Kids are on YouTube. They’re listening to podcasts. They’re consuming stories in new ways. If Mia Kingtide is going to inspire the next generation of ocean protectors, I need to meet them where they actually are — not where I think they should be.

So this week, I did something I’d been planning for a while: I turned the entire series into professional audio experiences.

The Creative Process

This wasn’t a simple text-to-speech job. Each audiobook is a full production:

ElevenLabs for professional voice acting — not a robot, but real narration that brings the characters to life. I even created a custom voice for Mia herself.

Adobe Premiere and Photoshop for the visual side — original illustrated scenes, refined artwork, and full chapter experiences.

ChatGPT and Gemini for generating supporting imagery that matches the story’s tone and aesthetic.

What started as a creative experiment became a week-long deep dive into bringing these stories to life in a completely new way.

Where to Listen

Spotify: All four books are now on Spotify (with Book 4 launching tomorrow). Perfect for commutes, homework time, or just chilling with a great story.

ElevenLabs Reader: Full collection with even more customization options.

YouTube: I’m also releasing full chapter videos with narration, illustrations, and animation — the full cinematic experience.

A Pilot Program

I’m calling this a pilot. If these audiobooks find an audience, I’ll continue producing the full series this way. If not, I’ll learn something valuable either way. That’s how creation works.

But here’s what I know: Mia Kingtide was born from real adventures on the water in Monterey Bay. It’s been shared with thousands of readers who care about ocean conservation. And now, it’s reaching people in a completely new format.

Redemption Codes

If you have a Spotify subscription, the books are included for free. Don’t have Spotify? Let me know — I have redemption codes for anyone who wants to listen.

The ocean needs new heroes. And maybe your kids will find theirs in Mia’s story.

Get listening.

— Luke

There’s nothing quite like a morning on Pitter Patter with a mission—and yesterday proved why.

Met at 7:30, loaded up, and out of the harbor by 7:45. The conditions were ideal: calm water, clear skies, and that electric feeling of anticipation. We hit the spot by 8:00 and within minutes, we were hooked into action.

Two incredible ocean whitefish made their way into the boat yesterday. The first was a solid 6-pounder—exactly the kind of fight that reminds you why we get out on the water in the first place. But the second? That was the monster. Over 10 pounds of pure silver fury, making every cast-off worthwhile.

What makes ocean whitefish such a delight is their spirit. They’re aggressive, they fight hard, and they reward you with some of the best eating you can pull from the California coast. Fresh whitefish has a delicate, buttery flavor that’s perfect for the grill or the pan. Last night was BBQ night at our place—and let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like eating something you caught just hours before.

We were back at the dock by 9:15, mission accomplished. Some of that catch is being saved for next weekend with Mia—there’s something magical about sharing a meal together that started with an adventure on the water.

If you’re in the Monterey Bay area and want to experience this yourself, we’ve got slips available on Pitter Patter. There’s nothing quite like the ocean when you’re living it firsthand.

See you on the water soon.

– Luke

After many years of sharing my underwater experiences and journeys here on f social media, I have opened up a fine art website to allow folks to take some of it home.

Many of my friends and family have my pictures up in their homes, and I would like to share my pictures with more people. In partnering with Art Storefronts I have been able to build out the site and offer quick printing and shipping to folks.

Check out http://art.pitterpatterdiving.com offering my images on everything from Canvas to Phone Cases.

Getting a new dive charter operation setup and running is no small task, while we are preparing to start making Pitter Patter available for hire via boatseeker.com Pitter Patter Diving would like to share images of the sea that have been taken by Luke over the past several years around the world. Stay tuned for the new art store launching in early January 2024.