A motorhome that runs itself.
Your factory panel is a remote control. RV Connect gives the coach a brain: lights that come on at dusk, an AC that stops freezing you out at 3 am, a text when the grey tank hits 80% while you're at dinner. Then add whatever the factory left out — propane level, cameras, door sensors — into the same system. One small box, one plug, no cloud, no subscription.
Remote control is what you have. Smart is what this adds.
Vegatouch, Firefly and Spyder let you tap a button. RV Connect lets the coach act on its own — on time, on temperature, on tank level, on whether you're home — and lets you add the sensors and cameras the factory never offered. It talks to what's already wired in the coach and to anything wireless you add later.
Three things it does. Tell us which you'd actually use — that decides what ships first.
Monitor Read
- Fresh, grey and black tank levels as real sensors — graph them, alert on them
- House and chassis battery voltage, charger and inverter state
- Interior and exterior temperatures, HVAC set-points and mode
- Generator status and hours, shore-power state
- Light, fan and awning states as they change
- Anything else the bus broadcasts shows up as an entity you can name
Control Write
- Lights and dimmers, ceiling fans, awnings and slides where the coach allows
- Thermostat set-points and modes from an HA automation or a wall tablet
- Water pump, water heater, generator start where supported
- Nothing is writable until you confirm what each device is — RV Connect never guesses at a control
- Coach-side controls (Firefly panel, Vegatouch, factory app) keep working exactly as before
Automate & extend Smart
- Rules that run without you: dusk, schedules, temperature, tank level, arrival and departure
- Bedroom AC that holds a set-point instead of cycling you awake
- Alerts by text or phone: tank thresholds, low battery, generator faults, door opened while away
- Add what the factory didn't: propane tank sender, cameras, door/window and leak sensors, mmWave presence, Victron and Starlink data
- One dashboard on your phone or a wall tablet — coach and everything you've added, side by side
- Runs on Home Assistant underneath, so it stays open, keeps working, and belongs to you
Automations already running on the development coach or asked for by owners: "turn on the porch light and awning lights at civil dusk", "text me if the grey tank passes 80% while I'm away", "if house battery drops below 12.1V and shore power is off, start the generator", "night mode: dim everything to 10% and set the bedroom AC to 68".
It tells you before it's a problem.
Most of the value isn't tapping a light from the couch. It's the coach watching itself while you're at dinner, asleep, or 300 miles away — and one message when something needs you. These are the alerts owners ask for first. The ones marked ADD-ON need a small sensor you stick on; the rest come off the coach's own wiring.
Every one of these is a rule you can turn on, turn off, or change the numbers on. Alerts arrive as normal phone notifications, and can also text or call a second person.
The whole coach in one app. From the couch or 1,000 miles away.
Everything RV Connect sees — and everything you add — lands on one dashboard: tank levels, batteries, shore and generator, every light and fan, the thermostats, the awning, your cameras. Tap to control, or let the rules handle it and just get the alerts.
- Free app for iPhone and Android, plus any browser. Same dashboard on a wall tablet by the door.
- Works on the coach Wi-Fi and, if you want it, from anywhere you have signal — checking the rig from the restaurant or the airport.
- Alerts as real notifications: tank thresholds, low battery, door opened while you're away, generator fault.
- If you already use Home Assistant at home, the coach shows up in the app you have. If you don't, the pre-configured hub comes with the app set up.
Start simple. Add more when you want to. Same box.
You don't have to be technical on day one, and you don't hit a wall later. Nothing here is a paid tier — it's the same hardware, and how far you take it is up to you.
Plug in and get the alerts.
Box in the bay, hub on the shelf, app on your phone. The common rules — power lost, tank thresholds, low battery, coach too hot — are already on. You change a number or two and you're done.
Add what the factory left out.
Stick a $20 sensor on a bay door or in the water bay, pair it in the app, pick the alert you want. Add a camera, a propane sender, a Victron shunt. Each one just shows up alongside the coach.
Write your own rules.
Turn a rule off, change one, or build one from scratch — "if the awning's out and wind hits 15 mph, retract it and tell me." Dashboards, voice control, a wall tablet by the door. It's the same open platform thousands of people run at home, so the ceiling is high and the help is everywhere.
And if you'd rather have someone else set it up: the pre-configured hub is that. Same box, same rules, arrives ready to plug in.
Plug it into a port your coach already has.
Coaches with Firefly or Spyder systems have a wiring bay with spare network-style jacks on the coach's control bus (called RV-C). RV Connect plugs into one of those, draws its power from it, and lives in the bay.
Find a spare jack
In the wiring bay behind your control panel. It looks like a network jack; the factory modules use the same ones.
Plug in
Powered by the coach. No splicing, no separate power supply, no tools.
Join coach Wi-Fi
Open the setup page on your phone, pick your network. Works with Starlink, cellular routers or a hotspot.
It shows up on your phone
Your tanks, batteries, lights, HVAC and more appear as things you can watch, name, and write rules for. Name what you recognise; leave the rest.
Built for coaches with an RV-C bus.
RV-C is the industry standard behind Firefly Integrations and Spyder Controls multiplex systems, so it covers most late-model Class A diesel pushers and many Class C and Super C coaches. Development is happening on a Winnebago Horizon (Firefly). Tell us your coach in the form and we'll prioritise the ones that show up most.
- Winnebago Horizon / Journey / ForzaFirefly · development coach
- Tiffin Allegro Bus / Phaeton / ZephyrSpyder
- Newmar Dutch Star / Ventana / London AireFirefly (recent) · Silverleaf (older)
- Entegra Anthem / Aspire / CornerstoneFirefly
- Fleetwood Discovery / Pace ArrowFirefly / RV-C
- Thor Tuscany / Venetian / AriaFirefly
- Jayco Seneca / EmbarkFirefly
- Something else with RV-CTell us — this list will grow
Coaches without an RV-C bus (most towables and older motorhomes) are not a fit. Not sure? Ask in the form — a photo of your wiring bay usually settles it.
If enough owners want it, it gets built.
This is a working prototype, not a store. Your email is a vote, and the coach and feature questions decide what ships first. Target price is in the $299–349 range for the bridge; a pre-configured Home Assistant hub would be optional for owners who don't already run one.
No spam, no sharing. Two or three updates while it's being built, then a "it's ready, here's your spot" email.
Straight answers.
Is this real or a Kickstarter that never ships?
It's a working prototype on a Winnebago Horizon: an ESP32 with a CAN transceiver, running ESPHome-based firmware that reads the RV-C bus and publishes to Home Assistant. What isn't done is a production enclosure, wide coach validation, and the safety work around control. That's why this is a waitlist and not a store. No money changes hands until units exist.
Will it break anything on my coach?
Reading is passive — the bridge listens the same way the factory panel does. For control, RV Connect only sends commands to devices you've explicitly confirmed, using the same public RV-C messages your factory panel already sends. Your Firefly, Vegatouch or Spyder controls keep working unchanged.
Isn't this just what Vegatouch / the Firefly app already do?
Those are remote controls: you tap, something happens. RV Connect adds the part they don't have — rules that run on their own, alerts, and the ability to add sensors and cameras the factory never offered. It sits alongside them; nothing is replaced.
Do I have to learn Home Assistant?
Under the hood, yes — that's what makes it open, extensible and yours instead of another vendor app. If you already run it at home, the coach becomes one more room. If you don't, the optional pre-configured hub ships with the common automations (dusk lights, tank alerts, bedroom set-point) already built; you turn them on and adjust.
Do I need internet in the coach?
You need Wi-Fi inside the coach that Home Assistant can reach — a cellular router, Starlink, or a phone hotspot with a travel router. You don't need internet for RV Connect itself; nothing leaves the rig.
Does it work with Vegatouch / Firefly G-series / Spyder?
Those systems talk RV-C on the same bus, so RV Connect sees what they see. Newer Firefly systems add a proprietary layer on top for some features; those may show up read-only at first. Your coach info in the form is how that list gets prioritised.
What will it cost?
Target is $299–349 for the bridge with an enclosure and cable, and an optional pre-configured Home Assistant hub for owners who don't run one. Final price depends on the volume the waitlist shows.
Who's building this?
An engineer and Horizon owner with a career in shipboard and theme-park systems, a small 3D-printing product shop, and a long-running Home Assistant habit. Details on request; the waitlist email is the best way to reach me.