Good questions. Unless someone pops in to the conversation that has done it I will have to wait until I can be bothered to pull the van apart a little to do some investigation.
The parts for a key fob system should be about £20 on Amazon, probably less on eBay so that sounds more practical for my use than the SMS system.
As posted earlier, I have done it with a simple gate opener. I just use a Giffgaff SIM and loaded it with £10. Cheap and works. If all you want is to prewarm the van, then it works great. I did think about using a remote control, but not great when your a mile from the van out walking and want to pop the heater on.
The good thing with the gate controller, it has an input for a switch. So you could pop a switch in the sleeping area and put the heater on without getting out of bed.
Connection wise, it is not done via the controller wires. You will need to access the heater. There will be a brown and white wire heat shrinked together, this is the wire to use.
Don't make the mistake of using the brown and white wire on the main 6 pin multiplug. I initially did that and couldn't get it to work. I just assumed as the opposite side of the multiplug had no wires in it I would add my own as it seemed the obvious wires to use!
DO NOT apply any voltage to the wires, it must be a volt free contact. Just extend the wires into the van to your required location and make the connections to your switch or whatever you use.
As my heater is newer than 2019, it will only put the heater on full power and switch it off after 2 hours. If I give the heater another call, it will power it off. The earlier heaters will use the last setting or full power. Depends if you keep the switch closed or momentarily closed. When the wires get connected it will power up the control panel up. I have the comfort controller, so it'll lights up red to say it's heating and the controller can be used as normal.
This might not suit everyone as you have no control over the heater other than on and off, but to be honest, most people just want to get the van heated before going into it. Save £100 and do it this way.
planarheaters.co.uk
play.google.com
