22 ms·

FindMyCat – Open-Source Pet Tracker

615 points by popey 3y ago

brokenmachine 3y ago
Keep your cat inside, and if you're taking it outside have it under your control. They kill so much native wildlife.
smcleod 3y ago
Looks really nice on paper, how old is it though? I see it still has a microUSB connector which makes me think it’s been stuck in development for some time.
ev0lv 3y ago
Letting your domesticated cat roam the neighborhood is the worst thing you can do to the natural environment around you. In N America, domestic cats are the most invasive species. Why? Because they absolutely destroy the local wildlife population. Wonder why you don't see a ton of birds? Because your cat is probably murdering them for recreation. This is a great example of engineers optimizing the wrong thing.
pndy 3y ago
Looks interesting but I can't imagine my cat wearing this - she'd try to remove it; case is quite big and would annoy her
- SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
  Indeed, it looks very large for a small feline to wear. It would be useful as a "find my large dog".
  - Raed667 3y ago
    the answer to find my large dog is usually: snoring under the desk.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
      Your dog's mileage may vary, depending on breed and age of the dog.
- lagolinguini 3y ago
  First prototype is great anyway. Could be made smaller over subsequent iterations!
  - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
    Better to wait for v2 or later of "the ultimate solution for pet tracking" (from the video).
  - Nextgrid 3y ago
    Wondering if flex PCBs would allow to redistribute some of the components around the collar instead of having them as one big chunk.
lagolinguini 3y ago
My cat was missing for a few days about a month ago. It was really stressful. Currently, I’ve put an AirTag on her which works okay since she’s an outdoor cat but I still get paranoid when FindMy hasn’t updated in a while. I would really love to support this project!
- aivisol 3y ago
  Our cat once disappeared for a week and we still have no idea where he has been. We have already said good bye since we presumed it got caught by a fox or some other predator. Returned exactly 7 days later as nothing happened, in good shape, not particularly hungry, nor dirty. Go figure!
  - elzbardico 3y ago
    Some cats have multiple houses. Lots of people love cats, and if a cat starts frequenting their houses, they will start feeding them and kind of adopting them. Cat lives in the new house for a few days, then go back to original house, stay for a while, and go to the second house, and so on.
    - aivisol 3y ago
      We considered this option, and since we live in a remote countryside, we actually asked the neighbors around in few km radius. None knew anything. Mystery still unsolved. Happened only once.
      - NikkiA 3y ago
        Probably stuck in a shed, barn or other outbuilding that is infrequently used by the owner. Cat goes in while door is open, sleeps, resident leaves and closes door, cat is now stuck. The cat however will hear an approaching human and rush the door when it's opened next. It happens to cats all the time when you live near farms, you either get used to it or learn to keep your cat indoor. (If you only ever 'adopt' stray cats, it's a reasonable coping strategy to consider their presence somewhat ephemeral)
lynx23 3y ago
One of my cats almost killed himself when he tried to remove the flea collar, and those are supposed to break. No, it didn't. Luckily, I was around and managed to cut the damn thing before it would suffocate my cat. Never ever will I put anything artificial on a cat again, far too dangerous.
- qiine 3y ago
  Collars are indeed dangerous for cats, maybe harness are a better options.
  - kwhitefoot 3y ago
    Harnesses would be just as bad, perhaps worse, for outdoor free roaming cats. The risk is that they get caught on a tree or fence and fail to release themselves. Alway use a collar designed to snap open when snagged.
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benob 3y ago
Do they make a teenager-sized model?
- mrmoos 3y ago
  Most teenagers already carry a convenient tracking device
  - ale42 3y ago
    Was going to say the same :-D
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witx 3y ago
Looks really good, and I'm happy there's an open source version of this. With that said, who's going to put such a big gadget around their cats' neck? I'm envisioning a cat getting stuck by that collar somewhere and suffocating. I think in its current version its better for big dogs Still I hope to see new and improved iteration of it!
- michelb 3y ago
  Looking at some existing tags this one looks small actually.
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  They’re pretty tiny. “Mr Lee CatTrack" did this in 2014 with little more than a SIM card and a gps, which was small. This one doesn’t seem much bigger. Back in 2012 I was using a Zoombak for my cats, which was designed for dogs. Eventually one of them started getting less and less fur under his collar because the Zoombak was wiggling back and forth as he was running, causing the collar to chafe. He didn’t seem to mind it though, and eventually he’d recognize my car as I drove to pick him up. He’d jump into the back seat like a dog right when the door opened. I miss that fella.
  - michaelt 3y ago
    There's small and there's small. For a traditional cat collar, you might have an engraved nametag the size of a quarter. Even an apple airtag is clunky in comparison - and this thing looks several times the size of an airtag. It's impressively small for something with LTE, and a multi-month battery life, it's just a lot bigger than a quarter.
- dhritzkiv 3y ago
  Cat collars getting stuck can be a problem regardless of a bulky item being attached (though, it will probably be exacerbated by a tracker), so a breakaway/quick-release collar is a good idea in any case.
  - thr0w__4w4y 3y ago
herunan 3y ago
Love this project, although it makes me even more frustrated about how bad the pet-tracking business is right now. If you search for pet trackers on Amazon, it’s all these pesky devices with awkward shapes, high subscription costs and bad battery life. It’s pretty bad. I currently rely on an AirTag, and for the most part it’s great as long as someone’s iPhone is nearby. However, I’m missing that GPS component. I’d pay for this as I currently don’t have the time to build it nor the experience in building PCBs. Could be a fun project at some point, though.
- ajja 3y ago
  I burnt myself once when I didn't do enough research and bought whatever was first in the Google search results. Turned out to be a scam with legal address in farm in UK. Collar came but it was extremely poor quality, didn't match pics on the website, app was crap, GPS was not really working (it felt that it is tracking my phone's GPS that usually is off). Can't get to trying another product.
- olabyne 3y ago
  Yeah, it is thanks to the choice of a hybrid location service : at home it's only a few BLE packets and no 4G, but as soon the tracker is outside it's back to the hungry GPS chip and 4G data. You cannot expect a 4G + GPS to have a long battery life.
- phumberdroz 3y ago
  We are using tractive for our cat. He is fairly active and the battery last around 2 days. Not awesome but also not that bad for the increased comfort that we know where he is. With the collar that comes with it, he loses it every couple of weeks usually nearby bushes but we always find it and everything is good to go from there. But it comes with a subscription.
- ssl232 3y ago
  When I went down the rabbit hole of looking into pet trackers, the fact an iPhone needs to be nearby for AirTags to work is a problem to me, as well as the need for a SIM card in the tracker itself. I was thinking it could be nice to use a Zigbee type RF tranceiver as the range can be pretty fantastic [1] and they're very low power, and perhaps the base stations could forward messages they each received to each other to create a mesh across a neighbourhood to track far roaming cats. This wouldn't work for cats that go _really_ far (some can go several km in one day/night) but would for cats that only go a block or two. And the mesh could be used for any other item tracking needs too. [1] https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/rf-range-antennas-rfm69-library/rfm69hw-range-test!/ https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/rf-range-antennas-rfm69-librar...
peteforde 3y ago
I think that this is brilliant. I'd buy two. Important to note that this fellow has already published detailed engineering notes, BOMs, all of the gerbers. I believe this really matters when taking this to KickStarter, which is exactly what he should do. One thing to consider is that many animals will not wear collars. However, they might wear a well-designed harness.
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watchblob 3y ago
You shouldn't put collars on cats. If you have to then it should be a quick release collar. https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/news-collar-warning-after-cat-dies-from-injuries https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/news-collar-warning-after-cat-die...
- deleted 3y ago
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- politelemon 3y ago
  This should be the top comment. The product being advertised here does not look safe for cats.
- TowerTall 3y ago
  I came to write the same. I live in Thailand in a place with tons of jungle. It is common around here that cats die due to getting stuck in a tight spot because of the collar. I personally lost my first cat due to this. Now i am aware and will never put a collar on a cat if it hasn't got quick release. Such a horrible way to die. Quick release is for me a hard requirement.
- thecatspaw 3y ago
  I agree. Of course you could add a quick release/stretchy part to the collar so it is safe, but that also means that the tracker would easily get lost (especially if the cat isnt used to collars since kittenhood, they tend to be too annoyed by them and try to remove them)
  - TowerTall 3y ago
    That is not a problem. It is a tracker. You can just go pick it up if is falls off
    - thecatspaw 3y ago
      You're right, partially. Yes, you can track the tracker itself and go to that location. But that location might be inaccessible to humans, or the cat might drop the tracker somewhere where it gets unusable, say a bit of water for example. Also, whats the point of a tracker if its not on the cat?
shmde 3y ago
Can your cat sue you for violation of privacy ?
- politelemon 3y ago
  Because these are HN cats, they will have willingly turned it over.
thefz 3y ago
Absolutely no way this could be exploited to harm humans like it already happens with AirTag, no way sir.
- sdflhasjd 3y ago
  I think the err... cat is out of the bag on this one. The market is already saturated with trackers. Plus, this doesn't have the same potential for abuse as it has more limited battery life than NFC beacons.
  - Obscurity4340 3y ago
    Very cute comment, enjoyed that one ^¥^
eterevsky 3y ago
I would immediately buy those for my three cats. We are currently using Tractive and the battery barely lasts a whole day.
- phumberdroz 3y ago
  I had issues as well and reached out to their support they provided me with detailed graphs of the battery usage over time and when the cat was in the wifi zone where it does seem to turn off the gps as well as mobile network to safe energy. I adjusted my wifi to cover a bit more of my garden area and since then battery life has increased to 2-3 days.
  - wccrawford 3y ago
    We're using Tractive with our dog and regularly get a full week. And that includes 2-3 walks per day that are outside of the wifi zone.
ajb 3y ago
This is great. Looks a tad big, would be good to know it's measurements The main missing thing from this is waterproof design. Doesn't need to survive immersion (unless you have a Turkish Van) but it will get damp as the cat pushes through wet undergrowth or if the cat gets caught by a sudden shower. Main things would be an ip67 rated usb connector, and a channel for rubber seal along the case join. (edited to add) From the STL, this is much bigger than a tabcat. The tabcat is 23x33x12mm in its silicone cover. This is ~27x60x13mm. Another handy feaure of the tabcat (although not essential) is a beeper.
DrSarez 3y ago
The best cat tracker in the world: ``` $ whereis cat cat: /bin/cat /usr/share/man/man1/cat.1 ```
- megapatch 3y ago
  No surprise a hungry cat will eventually be found inside the bin.
- totetsu 3y ago
  which cat?
  - matricaria 3y ago
    /bin/cat
    - pimlottc 3y ago
      Cat, son of cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_name#Arab_family_naming_convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_name#Arab_family_naming...
  - deleted 3y ago
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  - yencabulator 3y ago
    Yes, but definitely not command -v cat, commanding cats doesn't work.
  - scarmig 3y ago
    To see which cat, you pipe it through cat. which cat | cat
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jiofj 3y ago
You have a nice cat but please don't use huge png files to show it to us.
NL807 3y ago
People reporting on missing cats and such. The solution is simple: keep the indoors. That is the responsible thing to do. Cats are highly destructive to native fauna, they can get injured, die, breed, pick up parasites, or catch communicable diseases that may be incurable. Keep them indoors.
- ismayilzadan 3y ago
  Why is this getting downvoted? Indoor cats always have a longer lifespan than outdoors. It is the right thing to keep cats indoors but provide plenty of indoor play & stimulation to keep them active.
  - ajb 3y ago
    It's getting downvoted because this varies hugely by location. In the UK, the life expectancy is not that different, there are no large predators, so the consensus of cat owners is that cats life richer lives if let out. If you live in the US your cat could be eaten by a mountain lion or coyote.
    - FridayNightTV 3y ago
      > In the UK, the life expectancy is not that different, there are no large predators No, but there is traffic and plenty of people who take objection to cats fouling their gardens and will happily leave out a saucer of antifreeze. If you live in an urban area, the kindest thing to do is keep you cat indoors.
      - IneffablePigeon 3y ago
        This is pretty much the same attitude which leads to kids being wrapped in cotton wool, ferried everywhere in giant SUVs and never let outside to play. I find it a bit sad.
        FridayNightTV 3y ago
agilob 3y ago
This shouldn't be for cats only, but a general OSS GPS tracker for vehicles too (I know it can be used for that), lots of people from home-assistant community will be interested in it.
- tyingq 3y ago
  It's a common "market segmentation" approach. They can make different sites/pitches for other markets.
- michaelt 3y ago
  It could probably track vehicles, sure. But vehicles don't need the indoor tracking, or the home base station, and when moving have nigh-unlimited battery power available. So I imagine it depends on how much those features are adding to the price. Also, it looks like the device isn't commercially available, and with BGAs etc it's not easy to DIY either.
  - troyvit 3y ago
    Dang, lost my car. peeks under bed Theeeere you are lil' fella!
  - deepspace 3y ago
    Yes, this is mostly a solved problem for vehicles. I have a tracker in my car that does not even connect to the electrical system. It is a somewhat bulky brick with a battery that lasts 4–6 months. Smaller units are available, trading off battery life for size. The cost of the device is less than $100, excluding the cellular data cost.
    - agilob 3y ago
      Is it opensource tho?
prmoustache 3y ago
cat is always in my path, so I just do `command -v cat`. If yours isn't I´d suggest setting up slocate.
wortelefant 3y ago
I need this for my bike, it should be easy to hide the tracker in or underneath the frame
- e12e 3y ago
  Exactly. I recently looked at options available for (e)bikes - and this easily looks much better than everything I could find. Ideal device (for a bike) would: Fit inside the handlebar Have eSIM support and 5g Open sw/hw Bring-your-own data eSIM This comes pretty close already.
spacecadet 3y ago
Once again bunch armchair neckbeards downvoting and trolling people fully based on opinion. As a multiple cat owner with decades of experience and someone who has rescued many cats off the street in NY(T&R because yes its not good to have hundreds of strays per block), you downvoters have zero context here and your comments have been nothing but opinions. Heres a super simple usecase that can shut you all up. People have indoor cats escape! This is traumatizing to owners, like a family member being abducted. It can go on for months and yes, people find their pets (we did), at great cost and burden. And before you go claiming irresponsibility, this happen to us when someone broken into our unit. So fuck off please. There is research on how indoor cars live happier healthier lives that are yes 10x longer, because outdoor cats literally die at 1 and 2 years old (they are adults) and indoor cats live to be 20+
- demondemidi 3y ago
  Sad that a vitriolic rant with zero technical discussion is the top post. This is hacker news, not whinging news. I think the design is too big and the battery life too uncompelling but open source means better luck at being improved. Amazon sells a lot of bunk as I’ve tried a few and only had luck with jiobit. I’d like to tinker with this.
  - spacecadet 3y ago
    Actually agreed. I work in hardware and have given people all the same feedback to the question/realization that "my pets chip is not a tracker"... Its not practical to attach this to pet. And PS, I like to rant at hacker news, the community is so boring otherwise.
  - jalcazar 3y ago
    Which shows how bad are other comments, e.g., the one saying: "The solution is simple: keep the [cats] indoors"
- aranw 3y ago
  I find it sometimes genuinely upsetting to see the negativity in some comments. Different views are cool and for some people something might seem more obvious to them than to others, but there's a way to share without tearing down. Constructive feedback is one thing but no need to be negative for the sake of being negative
slmjkdbtl 3y ago
Is there anything specific about cats that prevents this from being a generic thing tracker?
- ilyt 3y ago
  Well it is probably bit too big for a hamster
mft_ 3y ago
I'd be super-interested in buying this hardware. A few thoughts: 1) One of our (indoor, house) cats is always keen to escape, and as such currently wears a breakaway collar with an Airtag attached via a 3D-printed holder, which seemed the best available solution. He copes with that without a problem, so if this isn't too much bigger then I'm sure it would also be fine, and I'd definitely upgrade him to this hardware. 2) I know that this HN, and people love to be experts and poke at any available hole, but let's assume good intent and not go overboard on the 'dangerous collar' thing. I totally agree that the picture on the website is wrong, but it looks like a render, and as such has probably been farmed out to someone who doesn't know better. Stick this on a decent-quality breakaway collar and you should be fine. (Anecdata: of our two housecats, one will remove any breakaway collar within minutes; the other one doesn't care and his collar only comes off every few months if it gets caught during a cat-on-cat play-fight.) 3) Also agree that there's huge potential in this market for tracking many other things - proven by the success of the Airtag.
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batch12 3y ago
[flagged]
- swader999 3y ago
  OnlyCats?
  - gruturo 3y ago
    I'm guessing something along the lines of FindMyPussy.
    - batch12 3y ago
      PawPatrol, geez.
demondemidi 3y ago
Months of battery life with gps is impossible. It is 20 hours in gps mode: https://www.findmycat.io/docs/TrackerModes#summary https://www.findmycat.io/docs/TrackerModes#summary I have a Jiobit. It starts in ble mode and switches to gps when the cat exits a 30 m radius. It gets about 8 hours of fulll gps gsm battery life once it starts updating every 60 seconds. Normally it is 2 weeks battery life. Note I take my cat out supervised in a large fenced in yard. He got away from me thrice over seven years. This is just a temporary safety feature now. He’s never ventured more than 100m during his getaways.
- helsinkiandrew 3y ago
  20 hours for Lost Mode seems much too low. Ideally if away from home for a certain period (or if no motion is detected - I'm not sure if the device has the technology) it should go into sending out position every hour rather than 30s so it can last indefinitely - days/weeks atleast (like some vehicle trackers do)
- gitgud 3y ago
  > Months of battery life with gps is impossible. Apple air tags last for 12 months apparently https://www.tile.com/en-au/blog/airtag-battery-life# https://www.tile.com/en-au/blog/airtag-battery-life#
  - wccrawford 3y ago
    They aren't GPS. They rely on a proprietary network of devices from one of the biggest tech giants in the world.
    - rplnt 3y ago
      That's why Apple makes it so damn hard (compared to any Android I've ever owned) to turn off Location, Bluetooth (and maybe WiFi) on their mobile devices.
      - binarymax 3y ago
c_o_n_v_e_x 3y ago
I was a product manager for a personnel tracking solution that relied on a bluetooth-like technology. I don't remember how it started exactly, but given the number of cat owners on the team, I started joking that I wanted to repurpose our tech and start a cat tracking app called "locatify." Not only has the name locatify since been taken, I keep seeing references to cat tracking solutions everywhere!
- jstarfish 3y ago
  I once created a spiked floormat intended for feline area denial. I wanted to call it Pussy Control but my wife wouldn't let me.
andrewstuart 3y ago
I have an Apple tag on my cat. It’s greatly helpful when they escape.
- lostNFound 3y ago
  I have one too. It is useless considering the range is less than the maximum possible distance in a mid sized house. When she escapes I open Find My and I generally visually find the cat with my eyes before the phone even picks the signal up. It keeps the "Get closer..." and only actually shows the arrow when I'm like 5 meters from it. I have iPad iPhone Mac Apple TV Airpods, more stuff and a bunch of Apple services. Honestly my most disappointing Apple purchase. In case it matters, phone is 13 Pro.
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aqme28 3y ago
I wonder if this has the same anti-stalking mechanisms that AirTags have.
rurban 3y ago
This is way too big for a simple cat GPS tracker. On AliExpress there are much smaller trackers, and much cheaper.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Most of these have a shit battery life, shit software and require GPS reception, this one does neither. You get what you pay for.
  - tredre3 3y ago
    > Most of these have a shit battery life, shit software and require GPS reception, this one does neither. Find my cat needs GPS and LTE when outside your home, and has shit battery when using it, just like the commercial offering. The software is a fairly convoluted stack that you'll have to setup, self-host, and maintain. And that's shit from most people's POV.
rurban 3y ago
This is only a stopgap measure until cats get their own cellphone devices. Then you can track them as your teenagers
- Tade0 3y ago
  My relatives showed me once how they track their children's every move and honestly I can't say I understand this idea - seems awfully intrusive.
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- yencabulator 3y ago
  This is a cellphone device, LTE.
  - rurban 3y ago
    Almost. But my cats also do watch cat and bird videos a lot. And some kind of social engagement would be needed, like swiping right and left
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whalesalad 3y ago
I have one of these for my dog (https://tryfi.com/ https://tryfi.com/) which has saved my GSD a number of times after running wild out in the woods of Northern Michigan. The battery lasts for months in normal operating mode but can be put into "lost mode" remotely where it will ping towers aggressively and give a precise location. This open source solution looks very polished and comprehensive though.
pimlottc 3y ago
I looked around the pages but I couldn't see any cost info. I realize this is an open source project but it would still be nice to get a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to build one of these yourself. Anyone know?
- sersnth 3y ago
  I imported the BOM for the tracker to Mouser and it looks like it's around $100 in components for one board. It looks like the boards with ENIG finish and filled and capped vias would be ~$40 for five boards + ~$17 shipping to the US from jlcpcb. ~$15 of the board cost comes from the via covering. The most expensive component, the DWM3001CTR13 Ultra-WideBand module, is $37.77 in single quantities. I don't know much about about UWB, but I wonder if instead putting a BLE beacon on the tracker and using a chip supporting Bluetooth direction finding on the home station could allow the tracker to be a bit smaller and cheaper at the cost of some localization performance for the indoor mode (actually I just saw someone already brought this up in the project Slack). This isn't including the Home Station part which doesn't seem fully documented yet.It looks like there is more discussion on the project Slack.
rapunkill 3y ago
Friendly reminder that most of us live in places where cats are non-native and should therefore either keep them indoors or on a leash.
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al_be_back 3y ago
I think these trackers create privacy issues since these furry friends regularly traverse the neighborhood (walk on fences, walls, roofs, enter homes etc). would be nice to see on the 'Why' page [1] stats around pets lost, stolen, the need to track, bit about price etc. as an engineering IOT project it's exciting for sure, looks good. [1] https://www.findmycat.io/why https://www.findmycat.io/why
- michaelt 3y ago
  What's the privacy issue? I mean, it doesn't impact my privacy if a GPS-tracked van drives past my home.
  - Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
    Maybe the cat decides to live a double life with some other family and doesn't want the first one to know about it?
  - al_be_back 3y ago
    like i said above, cats typically tend to "walk on walls, fences, enter other's homes etc" ... the cat strapped with a watch-sized device could be used to monitor/record (not necessary this proj). cameras and microphones are very cheap these days. of course if one's not bothered about privacy, then the issue doesn't exist (magic)
leros 3y ago
I've tried all the major pet trackers. Most of them are too big for cats. Many of them are just Bluetooth which doesn't help at all when your cat gets far away. The better ones have Bluetooth, wifi, LTE, and GPS. The ones with more than Bluetooth try to be clever to preserve power and only enable the other radios in certain situations. I haven't found one that does this well yet. I would prefer they use more power and track better. For something moving like a cat, you really need better tracking. There are a few uses cases I want to work well: 1) I want to know when my cat leaves home and then be able to find him with realtime GPS. 2) I want to find my cat when he's home. He can easily decide to nap under a bush in my yard and then he's impossible to find. The most common one I see people using is Tractive. I personally found it literally useless. When you're close to home, it only enables Bluetooth and your phone app is basically looking for the signal strength of the tracker's Bluetooth. I found that my phone (Samsung Ultra S22) didn't sense my cat unless I was 15-20ft away, which isn't very helpful as I already have to know where he is. The one I decided to use is JioBit. When you're close to home (based on it sensing your home wifi) it only has Bluetooth enabled but it makes a connection to your phone. I found this to work over about 50ft. When connected, you can ring a bell on the tracker and find your cat. Pretty useful. When your cat is away from home, it only updates the GPS location every 5-15 minutes over LTE which I find too infrequent. Another annoyance is that it only does GPS tracking when your cat is too far from your home wifi. My cat can get way beyond Bluetooth range but still close enough to detect my wifi and then I have no tracking at all. What I would really like is something like the JioBit but with better connectivity. I want: 1) It to check in with a server every few minutes. Using wifi when home or LTE when not home. I want this because I want to be able to enable realtime gps tracking when I'm looking for my cat. 2) When realtime tracking is enabled, actually be realtime. Give me updates every 15 seconds at least. 3) Give me the ability to ring the device over wifi or LTE. The JioBit can last a few weeks in its current mode. I'm willing to cut that down significantly. And I really don't mind it burning power when I'm actively trying to find my cat.
- deirdresm 3y ago
  I've been using FitBark for the last 2-1/2 years. The catch is that my cat's use case (being mostly outdoors, mostly out of Bluetooth range, and mostly draining power) doesn't match the engineering design model of a dog who's with you most of the time and might escape on occasion. They gave me a more power-conserving build, though. The one anomaly here is one I've noticed with Pokémon Go as well: "rounding" locations to be at the street even when the cat isn't even within BT range of the street. (For privacy reasons in PoGo's case, after multiple lawsuits.) The one time this is particularly annoying is when our fuzzball is hunting lizards in the local schoolyard at night, and the tracker says she's on the street next to the schoolyard, but she's somewhere in the middle of it. In practice, that means I know where my little darling was 10 minutes ago, rounded to the nearest street, and use a Bluetooth tracking app to narrow it down further. Naturally, a good third of the time, she's within BT range and just Not Interested™ in moving from wherever she happens to be. (We try to keep her fed on a regular schedule to reduce wildlife consumption.) We're going to try FindMyCat on the other cat (who currently doesn't have a tracker) and see how that goes. He spends more time at home.
hyperific 3y ago
You won't need to track them if they're always indoors. Please keep your feline friends indoors. Cats are horrible for local lizard and bird populations.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
  What if they escape?
hoosieree 3y ago
My indoor cats: "challenge accepted".
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xkcd-sucks 3y ago
A few usage tips: - Whatever attachment system is used for animal attachment, it should break open under the cat's weight or less. Otherwise you are running a hanging-to-death-site locator. - A harness with the tracker mounted on the top (spine) seems more tolerable and robust than a collar - Remember it is a *"collar tracker"* for your expensive purchase, not a *"cat tracker"*, and you will remain satisfied.
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aidenn0 3y ago
Having had a catalytic converter stolen, I was hoping this was about those instead...
- yreg 3y ago
  Well, you can slap it on one of those as well.
avh02 3y ago
We're fostering a dog and it recently ran away while with one of the prospective adopters, was missing for a week. We retrieved her 7 km from where we were searching. After that I looked in to GPS trackers for pets and it's all either subscription services (and their implications on your data/privacy) or otherwise some cheap Chinese crap. I eventually found one of the cheap ones you could configure with traccar but to get that working took a lot of guessing and testing. The cool thing is the only command that works via the server is "change update period", so when it's at home it pings occasionally and when it's outside the geofence, traccar tells it to up the reporting rate. (Plus idle detection, so when her harness is hanging there's limited battery use) I'm glad to see an open solution like this, would have loved to set this up if I had the dog longer term. Our cats on the other hand, we never trained for a collar so this wouldn't work unfortunately
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skratlo 3y ago
No Android app, no cigar
ENadyr 3y ago
I'm impressed with this project! I built something similar a couple of years ago but it wasn't as polished. This is a prime example of a well-executed open-source hardware (OSHW) project. I also noticed, like others here, that the tracker's size is a problem. My cat managed to remove the collar with my smaller tracker in just two minutes. I've been considering designing an even more compact tracker, integrating it into the collar itself. It would include a battery, GPS, LoRa with an antenna, and a microcontroller with power management. I'd use a small Heltec LoRa+Bluetooth transceiver for this. Your work has inspired me to revisit my old project. Thanks!
- doakes 3y ago
  I made something similar for my dog. Arduino Nano, GPS module, LoRa module, 18650 battery, and an antenna. I then had a "base station" using ESP8266 with a LoRa module and antenna that would forward the GPS data to the cloud. I was in a heavily wooded area and the LoRa signal would start dropping around 1000ft. I didn't know free SIM data was a possibility via Hologram.io or I probably would've gone that route. I really don't like the idea of attaching a lithium ion battery to my dog's neck, and I never learned how to design PCB's, so I'd also like to revisit my project with some improvements.
poopbutt7 3y ago
These days, I just let Strcat live his life. If he wants to move out, that's fine, his call. Just meow at the door if you change your mind.
catlover76 3y ago
People really should be letting their cats out to just roam around, it's (obviously) dangerous out there. But I support this nonetheless!
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Aissen 3y ago
Fascinating to see the dichotomy we have, even here on HN, with regards to subscription services. As a founder, they are great: recurring revenue ! But as a customer, of course they suck. I hope this inspires more companies to find a way to build more self-contained products. Even the awesome non-commercial, source available project here, findmycat, relies on a cloud service. For such a product, the cost could be quite low if done well, it could even be priced for 10 years in the initial package, assuming accounting is done properly.
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jaclaz 3y ago
The usual word of warning, if you are going to put a collar to a cat (or dog) free to roam, make sure that it will break with a force less than the pet's weight. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32660081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32660081
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endisneigh 3y ago
As someone in the USA I've compared GPS to an Airtag and the difference hasn't shown to be different enough to bother with GPS. Considering how cheap an airtag is and the difference in battery life - it's a no brainer to use an airtag. The density of iOS devices in the USA is such that it's very comparable to GPS in my experience. This is a cool project, though. One thing I didn't see is, how much does it cost to make this in practice?
- Beached 3y ago
  in rural America, airtags don't work.well. I live kn acreage, and so do all my neighbors. the odds that out cat is within Bluetooth range is slim.
- solardev 3y ago
  I wish Androids had a way to talk to the Airtags :/ iphones have that cool proprietary technology that points you in the direction of the Airtag even if no other phones are nearby
  - LeSaucy 3y ago
    I use that feature for finding my keys and wallet at least 2-3 a week. One of the many things keeping me on an iphone.
  - flax 3y ago
    That's Ultra Wide-band (UWB), and it's supported on several Android phones including Pixel 6/7 Pro. I don't know if the proprietary Apple bullshit prevents using Android to find them, but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well.
    - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
      > but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well. I think the problem is that these trackers get a lot of their benefits from network effects. I own a bunch of Tiles, and I find them really useful, but if I lose my luggage somewhere I'll only get a ping if they happen to be in range of another phone that also has the Tile app. Meanwhile, with AirTags, given the prevalence of iPhones in the US, you're much likely to be in range of someone with an iPhone at most times.
WoodenChair 3y ago
How do you get cellular data coverage for an IOT device and how come the website says that it would only cost at most a couple of dollars a month? Which networks have a plan for hackers?
- jstarfish 3y ago
  Verizon, for one. 100 location updates/mo for $1.50. https://thingspace.verizon.com/marketplace.html https://thingspace.verizon.com/marketplace.html
- richardhawthorn 3y ago
  1nce [0] and Hologram [1] offer low cost SIM cards for these type of applications. 1nce for example charges €10 for 500MB of data which lasts 10 years. Assuming you are economical with the data it's €1 a year, which is a very appealing price point. Even if you need 500MB a year that's still less than €1 a month. Hologram charge by the MB (although I'm not sure exactly how much as their pricing page isn't fully transparent), with a 70¢ a month charge per SIM card. I think they offer a free SIM card with a certain amount of data a month free (maybe 1MB) if you just want 1 SIM card. [0] https://1nce.com/ https://1nce.com/ [1] https://www.hologram.io/ https://www.hologram.io/
brian_herman 3y ago
Is this compatible with doggies too?
- lambic 3y ago
  and bikes?
oaththrowaway 3y ago
I live on 20+ acres right now. I have an outdoor cat as a mouser. She'll disappear for days at a time and show up for a nap on the couch or to play with the kids and then be gone. I'd love to see what she gets up to when she's away since there really isn't any houses nearby (maybe 1/4 mile away at the closest). Unfortunately we don't have cell service outside of the booster range in the house so this wouldn't do much for me
didip 3y ago
This looks great, I can put it on my kid.
- deleted 3y ago
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opafan 3y ago
k
prvc 3y ago
Cats should not be left to roam freely in cities. They would catch and spread incurable parasites (including to humans), and they would be exposed to various other dangers, such as getting hit by cars or attacking or being attacked by other animals. Furthermore, they leave droppings, and other messes, such as the corpses of the animals they kill, and they damage bird populations. Keep housecats indoors, and do not feed feral cats.
- ivraatiems 3y ago
  This is absolutely true. I feel conflicted about feeding feral cats, because I don't love the amount of suffering they often endure, but I think the appropriate middle ground is to support trap/neuter/release (TNR) programs if you're going to engage with feral or domestic-but-outdoor cats. If they can't reproduce, then feeding them actually reduces the harm they cause because they won't need to go out hunting for food. I will say, though, as someone with cats who are escape artists, I love this product, I'd find it invaluable. We already have AirTags on them but it's an imperfect solution.
  - prvc 3y ago
    >If they can't reproduce, then feeding them actually reduces the harm they cause because they won't need to go out hunting for food. That's completely unfounded speculation and wishful-thinking. Would you like for cats to deposit their parasite-laden (human-infecting, incurable) feces in your herb garden, where your children play, or directly outside of a window you need for ventilation? If so, than there are certainly others who would not. Basic decency demands that you don't facilitate this.
    - ivraatiems 3y ago
      > That's completely unfounded speculation and wishful-thinking. It's not 'speculation' to suggest that logically, an animal which is not hungry won't expend energy to hunt for food. > Basic decency demands that you don't facilitate this. Basic decency demands showing compassion to animals in need. But if there's one thing I'm seeing in this thread, it's lots of people who seem to think their views on these matters are moral universals. > Would you like for cats to deposit their parasite-laden (human-infecting, incurable) feces in your herb garden, where your children play, or directly outside of a window you need for ventilation? Do you even know how cats decide where to poop, or what they do with their feces? Cat feces doesn't just sit out, they bury them. While it's true feral animals - including many cats - harbor parasites, healthy cats are typically fastidiously clean. Much cleaner than dogs, and I should know, I have both. You have awfully strong opinions but they don't seem like they're based in much knowledge.
alana314 3y ago
I'm curious about the UWB integration, I thought apple's Find My could only track airtags? Is it simulating one? And the only UWB dev kits / readers I can find are thousands of dollars.
- lights0123 3y ago
  UWB is an open spec implemented by both iPhones and Androids, which the chip this project uses supports: https://www.qorvo.com/newsroom/news/2021/qorvo-solutions-interoperable-with-apple-u1-chip-for-new-ultra-wideband-enabled-experiences https://www.qorvo.com/newsroom/news/2021/qorvo-solutions-int...
milin 3y ago
Wouldn't just using the iOS beacon have sufficed? Regardless the project looks very cool and informative.
dmitrygr 3y ago
Basically a neat wrapper over nRF9160 and the services that Nordic Semi provides. Cool
- e12e 3y ago
  Oh, thanks for pointing that out: > The nRF9160 supports both SIM and eSIM for connection https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF9160 https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF9160
dghughes 3y ago
>Precise Find for Indoors.Comes with Ultra-wideband (UWB) ... I was playing with the UWB on my Samsung S23 my cat was beside me. As I enabled it she jerked her head towards my phone. I know UWB is far beyond a cat's hearing range but whatever it was she instantly noticed it. No pain or anything she didn't run away but looked at it as if she could detect something.
- seanthemon 3y ago
  Could your cat perhaps have heard the sound of the whine of the electronic components? Maybe an interference with your phone and other electronics close by. Just a shot in the dark
- kstrauser 3y ago
  UWB is RF, not sound, and your cat didn’t hear it. It could be that the app you were playing with also happened to play a sound in addition to turning on the radio, or possibly your radio happens to resonate at some audible frequency. Consider that in the US, UWB is RF higher than 500MHz, and I’d be shocked if your phone’s speaker went all the way up to 20KHz, which is generally considered to be the upper limit of the human hearing range.
dmix 3y ago
Why not a kickstarter? I'd back this
munificent 3y ago
The best way to keep track of your cat is to not let it outside. Benefits: 1. Zero cost for cat tracking devices, never need to charge them, never need to worry about the cat losing the device. 2. Dramatically reduced chance of your cat being killed by a car. Despite blogs claiming otherwise, I can find no reputable statistics on the number of pets killed by cars in the US, but there are >250k collisions with animals every year. Most are deer, but anecdotally I know many many people who have killed cats accidentally. 3. Dramatically reduced chance of your cat being killed by a coyote or raccoon. Yes, coyotes and raccoons will absolutely fuck up your cat. Yes, they are very likely in your city. 4. Your cat will not be playing a part in the wholesale slaughter of billions of birds, small mammals, reptiles, and other fauna that domesticated cats are responsible for. 5. Significantly longer predicted lifespan for your cat. The life expectancy for an indoor cat is about 14 years. For an outdoor cat, it's 2 to 5 years. 6. Your neighbors will appreciate not stumbling onto your cat's poop while gardening. Seriously, keep your cat indoors.
- matsemann 3y ago
  I just checked. There is no coyotes or raccoons in my city. Not even anyone in my country!
  - wffurr 3y ago
    Oslo seems to be well within lynx territory, whom I am sure would be glad to snack on a housecat. Norway also has wolverines and in a few areas, wolves and bears.
    - e12e 3y ago
      Norwegian cats eat lynx. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_cat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_cat More seriously - biggest danger is probably cars.
      - wffurr 3y ago
        Wow that is one big house cat! Beautiful.
nickserv 3y ago
We've tried GPS trackers, but I think you would need military level precision for it to be of any real use. 10 meters can easily be the difference between your yard and the neighbor's across the street.
gcanyon 3y ago
I love the purity of his focus: search the documentation for “dog”: 0 hits…
- YeBanKo 3y ago
  Well, he does call it a pet tracker.
andix 3y ago
How do you get your cat to wear that? Isn't wearing a collar for a cat some kind of torture? All the cats I ever had were extremely unhappy with collars and often found a way to get rid of it.
- deleted 3y ago
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nerb 3y ago
[flagged]
- yreg 3y ago
  What the hell?
  - nerb 3y ago
    hey, if y'all get outdoor cats for "pest" reasons, i'll take care of the outdoor cats i see as pests :)
0xFF0123 3y ago
This is such a beautifully put together project!
palmer_fox 3y ago
A gentle reminder that cats are responsible for a significant destruction of the wildlife in the US (and the world). Please be a responsible pet owner and don't let your cat run outside unsupervised.
- deleted 3y ago
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- runescimitar 3y ago
  What wildlife? Rats?
  - palmer_fox 3y ago
    Billions of birds each year just in the US.
TurkishPoptart 3y ago
This is really cool, but provided one can get all the components in the BOM from Mosuer, I'm not seeing instructions about how to actually assemble it. The only other problem I foresee is if your cat refuses to wear the thing and pulls it off :D
meshaneian 3y ago
There is a much larger market for this tech - parents. Today's world is so crowded, kids or parents can be separated by less than 20 feet and devolve into panic. Give them each a way to know they're safe and can be found. You're already awesome, wish more people could share like you have, magnificent designs!
- deleted 3y ago
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doctor_radium 3y ago
YMMV but as a teenager I devised my own low tech solution: I taught my cat her name. We lived in a rural-ish area with little traffic and a large wooded area behind the house. She would be outside for sometimes 10 hours/day and if I ever needed her, I would shout her name from the back porch or partway into the back yard. Instant cat in <10 minutes. Except during or in the leadup to thunderstorms. She was afraid of thunder and would hide.
demetrius 3y ago
It's a cool project but it's not open-source. CC BY-NC-SA is not an open-source license, since it limits what the users can do with the code. This is openwashing.
- jrcplus 3y ago
  Meh. “open source” vs “Open Source”.
- wrycoder 3y ago
  Where do you see that? I see MIT license [0]. [0] https://github.com/FindMyCat/engineering-docs/blob/main/LICENSE https://github.com/FindMyCat/engineering-docs/blob/main/LICE...
  - demetrius 3y ago
    Interesting! The end of the page https://www.findmycat.io/ https://www.findmycat.io/ says this: “Completely Open-Source? What’s the catch? Yup. No catch. All Software and Hardware files can be found in the Engineering section and the Github page under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License”. This is in the Frequent Questions section. (You need to click on the question to see the answer.)
jrcplus 3y ago
I would gladly pay money for a commercial version of this. I don’t have a cat, but I have a mother who has dementia. I started looked at tracking devices (in case she starts to wander) but battery life is generally miserable. The power management on this looks fantastic.
anonme4ever 3y ago
Nice one! Keep it going and open! It could be awesome with tech like "Energy Harvesting Module that Efficiently Generates Power from Electromagnetic Wave Noise"[1]. If only big tech where thinking like you and opened their research... In EU I'm using a LoRa/GPS based pet tracker[2], but it's not enough to quickly find a lost pet. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37480512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37480512 [2] https://www.invoxia.com/ https://www.invoxia.com/
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615 points by popey 3y ago

Keep your cat inside, and if you're taking it outside have it under your control. They kill so much native wildlife.

Looks really nice on paper, how old is it though? I see it still has a microUSB connector which makes me think it’s been stuck in development for some time.

ev0lv 3y ago

Letting your domesticated cat roam the neighborhood is the worst thing you can do to the natural environment around you. In N America, domestic cats are the most invasive species. Why? Because they absolutely destroy the local wildlife population. Wonder why you don't see a ton of birds? Because your cat is probably murdering them for recreation. This is a great example of engineers optimizing the wrong thing.

pndy 3y ago

Looks interesting but I can't imagine my cat wearing this - she'd try to remove it; case is quite big and would annoy her

SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
Indeed, it looks very large for a small feline to wear. It would be useful as a "find my large dog".
- Raed667 3y ago
  the answer to find my large dog is usually: snoring under the desk.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
    Your dog's mileage may vary, depending on breed and age of the dog.
lagolinguini 3y ago
First prototype is great anyway. Could be made smaller over subsequent iterations!
- SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
  Better to wait for v2 or later of "the ultimate solution for pet tracking" (from the video).
- Nextgrid 3y ago
  Wondering if flex PCBs would allow to redistribute some of the components around the collar instead of having them as one big chunk.

lagolinguini 3y ago

My cat was missing for a few days about a month ago. It was really stressful. Currently, I’ve put an AirTag on her which works okay since she’s an outdoor cat but I still get paranoid when FindMy hasn’t updated in a while. I would really love to support this project!

aivisol 3y ago
Our cat once disappeared for a week and we still have no idea where he has been. We have already said good bye since we presumed it got caught by a fox or some other predator. Returned exactly 7 days later as nothing happened, in good shape, not particularly hungry, nor dirty. Go figure!
- elzbardico 3y ago
  Some cats have multiple houses. Lots of people love cats, and if a cat starts frequenting their houses, they will start feeding them and kind of adopting them. Cat lives in the new house for a few days, then go back to original house, stay for a while, and go to the second house, and so on.
  - aivisol 3y ago
    We considered this option, and since we live in a remote countryside, we actually asked the neighbors around in few km radius. None knew anything. Mystery still unsolved. Happened only once.
    - NikkiA 3y ago
      Probably stuck in a shed, barn or other outbuilding that is infrequently used by the owner. Cat goes in while door is open, sleeps, resident leaves and closes door, cat is now stuck. The cat however will hear an approaching human and rush the door when it's opened next. It happens to cats all the time when you live near farms, you either get used to it or learn to keep your cat indoor. (If you only ever 'adopt' stray cats, it's a reasonable coping strategy to consider their presence somewhat ephemeral)

lynx23 3y ago

One of my cats almost killed himself when he tried to remove the flea collar, and those are supposed to break. No, it didn't. Luckily, I was around and managed to cut the damn thing before it would suffocate my cat. Never ever will I put anything artificial on a cat again, far too dangerous.

qiine 3y ago
Collars are indeed dangerous for cats, maybe harness are a better options.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago
  Harnesses would be just as bad, perhaps worse, for outdoor free roaming cats. The risk is that they get caught on a tree or fence and fail to release themselves. Alway use a collar designed to snap open when snagged.
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benob 3y ago

Do they make a teenager-sized model?

mrmoos 3y ago
Most teenagers already carry a convenient tracking device
- ale42 3y ago
  Was going to say the same :-D
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witx 3y ago

Looks really good, and I'm happy there's an open source version of this. With that said, who's going to put such a big gadget around their cats' neck? I'm envisioning a cat getting stuck by that collar somewhere and suffocating. I think in its current version its better for big dogs Still I hope to see new and improved iteration of it!

michelb 3y ago
Looking at some existing tags this one looks small actually.
sillysaurusx 3y ago
They’re pretty tiny. “Mr Lee CatTrack" did this in 2014 with little more than a SIM card and a gps, which was small. This one doesn’t seem much bigger. Back in 2012 I was using a Zoombak for my cats, which was designed for dogs. Eventually one of them started getting less and less fur under his collar because the Zoombak was wiggling back and forth as he was running, causing the collar to chafe. He didn’t seem to mind it though, and eventually he’d recognize my car as I drove to pick him up. He’d jump into the back seat like a dog right when the door opened. I miss that fella.
- michaelt 3y ago
  There's small and there's small. For a traditional cat collar, you might have an engraved nametag the size of a quarter. Even an apple airtag is clunky in comparison - and this thing looks several times the size of an airtag. It's impressively small for something with LTE, and a multi-month battery life, it's just a lot bigger than a quarter.
dhritzkiv 3y ago
Cat collars getting stuck can be a problem regardless of a bulky item being attached (though, it will probably be exacerbated by a tracker), so a breakaway/quick-release collar is a good idea in any case.
- thr0w__4w4y 3y ago

herunan 3y ago

Love this project, although it makes me even more frustrated about how bad the pet-tracking business is right now. If you search for pet trackers on Amazon, it’s all these pesky devices with awkward shapes, high subscription costs and bad battery life. It’s pretty bad. I currently rely on an AirTag, and for the most part it’s great as long as someone’s iPhone is nearby. However, I’m missing that GPS component. I’d pay for this as I currently don’t have the time to build it nor the experience in building PCBs. Could be a fun project at some point, though.

ajja 3y ago
I burnt myself once when I didn't do enough research and bought whatever was first in the Google search results. Turned out to be a scam with legal address in farm in UK. Collar came but it was extremely poor quality, didn't match pics on the website, app was crap, GPS was not really working (it felt that it is tracking my phone's GPS that usually is off). Can't get to trying another product.
olabyne 3y ago
Yeah, it is thanks to the choice of a hybrid location service : at home it's only a few BLE packets and no 4G, but as soon the tracker is outside it's back to the hungry GPS chip and 4G data. You cannot expect a 4G + GPS to have a long battery life.
phumberdroz 3y ago
We are using tractive for our cat. He is fairly active and the battery last around 2 days. Not awesome but also not that bad for the increased comfort that we know where he is. With the collar that comes with it, he loses it every couple of weeks usually nearby bushes but we always find it and everything is good to go from there. But it comes with a subscription.
ssl232 3y ago
When I went down the rabbit hole of looking into pet trackers, the fact an iPhone needs to be nearby for AirTags to work is a problem to me, as well as the need for a SIM card in the tracker itself. I was thinking it could be nice to use a Zigbee type RF tranceiver as the range can be pretty fantastic [1] and they're very low power, and perhaps the base stations could forward messages they each received to each other to create a mesh across a neighbourhood to track far roaming cats. This wouldn't work for cats that go _really_ far (some can go several km in one day/night) but would for cats that only go a block or two. And the mesh could be used for any other item tracking needs too. [1] https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/rf-range-antennas-rfm69-library/rfm69hw-range-test!/ https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/rf-range-antennas-rfm69-librar...

peteforde 3y ago

I think that this is brilliant. I'd buy two. Important to note that this fellow has already published detailed engineering notes, BOMs, all of the gerbers. I believe this really matters when taking this to KickStarter, which is exactly what he should do. One thing to consider is that many animals will not wear collars. However, they might wear a well-designed harness.

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watchblob 3y ago

You shouldn't put collars on cats. If you have to then it should be a quick release collar. https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/news-collar-warning-after-cat-dies-from-injuries https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/news-collar-warning-after-cat-die...

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politelemon 3y ago
This should be the top comment. The product being advertised here does not look safe for cats.
TowerTall 3y ago
I came to write the same. I live in Thailand in a place with tons of jungle. It is common around here that cats die due to getting stuck in a tight spot because of the collar. I personally lost my first cat due to this. Now i am aware and will never put a collar on a cat if it hasn't got quick release. Such a horrible way to die. Quick release is for me a hard requirement.
thecatspaw 3y ago
I agree. Of course you could add a quick release/stretchy part to the collar so it is safe, but that also means that the tracker would easily get lost (especially if the cat isnt used to collars since kittenhood, they tend to be too annoyed by them and try to remove them)
- TowerTall 3y ago
  That is not a problem. It is a tracker. You can just go pick it up if is falls off
  - thecatspaw 3y ago
    You're right, partially. Yes, you can track the tracker itself and go to that location. But that location might be inaccessible to humans, or the cat might drop the tracker somewhere where it gets unusable, say a bit of water for example. Also, whats the point of a tracker if its not on the cat?

shmde 3y ago

Can your cat sue you for violation of privacy ?

politelemon 3y ago
Because these are HN cats, they will have willingly turned it over.

thefz 3y ago

Absolutely no way this could be exploited to harm humans like it already happens with AirTag, no way sir.

sdflhasjd 3y ago
I think the err... cat is out of the bag on this one. The market is already saturated with trackers. Plus, this doesn't have the same potential for abuse as it has more limited battery life than NFC beacons.
- Obscurity4340 3y ago
  Very cute comment, enjoyed that one ^¥^

eterevsky 3y ago

I would immediately buy those for my three cats. We are currently using Tractive and the battery barely lasts a whole day.

phumberdroz 3y ago
I had issues as well and reached out to their support they provided me with detailed graphs of the battery usage over time and when the cat was in the wifi zone where it does seem to turn off the gps as well as mobile network to safe energy. I adjusted my wifi to cover a bit more of my garden area and since then battery life has increased to 2-3 days.
- wccrawford 3y ago
  We're using Tractive with our dog and regularly get a full week. And that includes 2-3 walks per day that are outside of the wifi zone.

ajb 3y ago

This is great. Looks a tad big, would be good to know it's measurements The main missing thing from this is waterproof design. Doesn't need to survive immersion (unless you have a Turkish Van) but it will get damp as the cat pushes through wet undergrowth or if the cat gets caught by a sudden shower. Main things would be an ip67 rated usb connector, and a channel for rubber seal along the case join. (edited to add) From the STL, this is much bigger than a tabcat. The tabcat is 23x33x12mm in its silicone cover. This is ~27x60x13mm. Another handy feaure of the tabcat (although not essential) is a beeper.

DrSarez 3y ago

The best cat tracker in the world: ``` $ whereis cat cat: /bin/cat /usr/share/man/man1/cat.1 ```

megapatch 3y ago
No surprise a hungry cat will eventually be found inside the bin.
totetsu 3y ago
which cat?
- matricaria 3y ago
  /bin/cat
  - pimlottc 3y ago
    Cat, son of cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_name#Arab_family_naming_convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_name#Arab_family_naming...
- deleted 3y ago
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- yencabulator 3y ago
  Yes, but definitely not command -v cat, commanding cats doesn't work.
- scarmig 3y ago
  To see which cat, you pipe it through cat. which cat | cat
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jiofj 3y ago

You have a nice cat but please don't use huge png files to show it to us.

NL807 3y ago

People reporting on missing cats and such. The solution is simple: keep the indoors. That is the responsible thing to do. Cats are highly destructive to native fauna, they can get injured, die, breed, pick up parasites, or catch communicable diseases that may be incurable. Keep them indoors.

ismayilzadan 3y ago
Why is this getting downvoted? Indoor cats always have a longer lifespan than outdoors. It is the right thing to keep cats indoors but provide plenty of indoor play & stimulation to keep them active.
- ajb 3y ago
  It's getting downvoted because this varies hugely by location. In the UK, the life expectancy is not that different, there are no large predators, so the consensus of cat owners is that cats life richer lives if let out. If you live in the US your cat could be eaten by a mountain lion or coyote.
  - FridayNightTV 3y ago
    > In the UK, the life expectancy is not that different, there are no large predators No, but there is traffic and plenty of people who take objection to cats fouling their gardens and will happily leave out a saucer of antifreeze. If you live in an urban area, the kindest thing to do is keep you cat indoors.
    - IneffablePigeon 3y ago
      This is pretty much the same attitude which leads to kids being wrapped in cotton wool, ferried everywhere in giant SUVs and never let outside to play. I find it a bit sad.
      - FridayNightTV 3y ago

agilob 3y ago

This shouldn't be for cats only, but a general OSS GPS tracker for vehicles too (I know it can be used for that), lots of people from home-assistant community will be interested in it.

tyingq 3y ago
It's a common "market segmentation" approach. They can make different sites/pitches for other markets.
michaelt 3y ago
It could probably track vehicles, sure. But vehicles don't need the indoor tracking, or the home base station, and when moving have nigh-unlimited battery power available. So I imagine it depends on how much those features are adding to the price. Also, it looks like the device isn't commercially available, and with BGAs etc it's not easy to DIY either.
- troyvit 3y ago
  Dang, lost my car. peeks under bed Theeeere you are lil' fella!
- deepspace 3y ago
  Yes, this is mostly a solved problem for vehicles. I have a tracker in my car that does not even connect to the electrical system. It is a somewhat bulky brick with a battery that lasts 4–6 months. Smaller units are available, trading off battery life for size. The cost of the device is less than $100, excluding the cellular data cost.
  - agilob 3y ago
    Is it opensource tho?

prmoustache 3y ago

cat is always in my path, so I just do `command -v cat`. If yours isn't I´d suggest setting up slocate.

wortelefant 3y ago

I need this for my bike, it should be easy to hide the tracker in or underneath the frame

e12e 3y ago
Exactly. I recently looked at options available for (e)bikes - and this easily looks much better than everything I could find. Ideal device (for a bike) would: Fit inside the handlebar Have eSIM support and 5g Open sw/hw Bring-your-own data eSIM This comes pretty close already.

spacecadet 3y ago

Once again bunch armchair neckbeards downvoting and trolling people fully based on opinion. As a multiple cat owner with decades of experience and someone who has rescued many cats off the street in NY(T&R because yes its not good to have hundreds of strays per block), you downvoters have zero context here and your comments have been nothing but opinions. Heres a super simple usecase that can shut you all up. People have indoor cats escape! This is traumatizing to owners, like a family member being abducted. It can go on for months and yes, people find their pets (we did), at great cost and burden. And before you go claiming irresponsibility, this happen to us when someone broken into our unit. So fuck off please. There is research on how indoor cars live happier healthier lives that are yes 10x longer, because outdoor cats literally die at 1 and 2 years old (they are adults) and indoor cats live to be 20+

demondemidi 3y ago
Sad that a vitriolic rant with zero technical discussion is the top post. This is hacker news, not whinging news. I think the design is too big and the battery life too uncompelling but open source means better luck at being improved. Amazon sells a lot of bunk as I’ve tried a few and only had luck with jiobit. I’d like to tinker with this.
- spacecadet 3y ago
  Actually agreed. I work in hardware and have given people all the same feedback to the question/realization that "my pets chip is not a tracker"... Its not practical to attach this to pet. And PS, I like to rant at hacker news, the community is so boring otherwise.
- jalcazar 3y ago
  Which shows how bad are other comments, e.g., the one saying: "The solution is simple: keep the [cats] indoors"
aranw 3y ago
I find it sometimes genuinely upsetting to see the negativity in some comments. Different views are cool and for some people something might seem more obvious to them than to others, but there's a way to share without tearing down. Constructive feedback is one thing but no need to be negative for the sake of being negative

slmjkdbtl 3y ago

Is there anything specific about cats that prevents this from being a generic thing tracker?

ilyt 3y ago
Well it is probably bit too big for a hamster

mft_ 3y ago

I'd be super-interested in buying this hardware. A few thoughts: 1) One of our (indoor, house) cats is always keen to escape, and as such currently wears a breakaway collar with an Airtag attached via a 3D-printed holder, which seemed the best available solution. He copes with that without a problem, so if this isn't too much bigger then I'm sure it would also be fine, and I'd definitely upgrade him to this hardware. 2) I know that this HN, and people love to be experts and poke at any available hole, but let's assume good intent and not go overboard on the 'dangerous collar' thing. I totally agree that the picture on the website is wrong, but it looks like a render, and as such has probably been farmed out to someone who doesn't know better. Stick this on a decent-quality breakaway collar and you should be fine. (Anecdata: of our two housecats, one will remove any breakaway collar within minutes; the other one doesn't care and his collar only comes off every few months if it gets caught during a cat-on-cat play-fight.) 3) Also agree that there's huge potential in this market for tracking many other things - proven by the success of the Airtag.

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batch12 3y ago

[flagged]

swader999 3y ago
OnlyCats?
- gruturo 3y ago
  I'm guessing something along the lines of FindMyPussy.
  - batch12 3y ago
    PawPatrol, geez.

demondemidi 3y ago

Months of battery life with gps is impossible. It is 20 hours in gps mode: https://www.findmycat.io/docs/TrackerModes#summary https://www.findmycat.io/docs/TrackerModes#summary I have a Jiobit. It starts in ble mode and switches to gps when the cat exits a 30 m radius. It gets about 8 hours of fulll gps gsm battery life once it starts updating every 60 seconds. Normally it is 2 weeks battery life. Note I take my cat out supervised in a large fenced in yard. He got away from me thrice over seven years. This is just a temporary safety feature now. He’s never ventured more than 100m during his getaways.

helsinkiandrew 3y ago
20 hours for Lost Mode seems much too low. Ideally if away from home for a certain period (or if no motion is detected - I'm not sure if the device has the technology) it should go into sending out position every hour rather than 30s so it can last indefinitely - days/weeks atleast (like some vehicle trackers do)
gitgud 3y ago
> Months of battery life with gps is impossible. Apple air tags last for 12 months apparently https://www.tile.com/en-au/blog/airtag-battery-life# https://www.tile.com/en-au/blog/airtag-battery-life#
- wccrawford 3y ago
  They aren't GPS. They rely on a proprietary network of devices from one of the biggest tech giants in the world.
  - rplnt 3y ago
    That's why Apple makes it so damn hard (compared to any Android I've ever owned) to turn off Location, Bluetooth (and maybe WiFi) on their mobile devices.
    - binarymax 3y ago

c_o_n_v_e_x 3y ago

I was a product manager for a personnel tracking solution that relied on a bluetooth-like technology. I don't remember how it started exactly, but given the number of cat owners on the team, I started joking that I wanted to repurpose our tech and start a cat tracking app called "locatify." Not only has the name locatify since been taken, I keep seeing references to cat tracking solutions everywhere!

jstarfish 3y ago
I once created a spiked floormat intended for feline area denial. I wanted to call it Pussy Control but my wife wouldn't let me.

andrewstuart 3y ago

I have an Apple tag on my cat. It’s greatly helpful when they escape.

lostNFound 3y ago
I have one too. It is useless considering the range is less than the maximum possible distance in a mid sized house. When she escapes I open Find My and I generally visually find the cat with my eyes before the phone even picks the signal up. It keeps the "Get closer..." and only actually shows the arrow when I'm like 5 meters from it. I have iPad iPhone Mac Apple TV Airpods, more stuff and a bunch of Apple services. Honestly my most disappointing Apple purchase. In case it matters, phone is 13 Pro.

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aqme28 3y ago

I wonder if this has the same anti-stalking mechanisms that AirTags have.

rurban 3y ago

This is way too big for a simple cat GPS tracker. On AliExpress there are much smaller trackers, and much cheaper.

mschuster91 3y ago
Most of these have a shit battery life, shit software and require GPS reception, this one does neither. You get what you pay for.
- tredre3 3y ago
  > Most of these have a shit battery life, shit software and require GPS reception, this one does neither. Find my cat needs GPS and LTE when outside your home, and has shit battery when using it, just like the commercial offering. The software is a fairly convoluted stack that you'll have to setup, self-host, and maintain. And that's shit from most people's POV.

rurban 3y ago

This is only a stopgap measure until cats get their own cellphone devices. Then you can track them as your teenagers

Tade0 3y ago
My relatives showed me once how they track their children's every move and honestly I can't say I understand this idea - seems awfully intrusive.
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yencabulator 3y ago
This is a cellphone device, LTE.
- rurban 3y ago
  Almost. But my cats also do watch cat and bird videos a lot. And some kind of social engagement would be needed, like swiping right and left

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whalesalad 3y ago

I have one of these for my dog (https://tryfi.com/ https://tryfi.com/) which has saved my GSD a number of times after running wild out in the woods of Northern Michigan. The battery lasts for months in normal operating mode but can be put into "lost mode" remotely where it will ping towers aggressively and give a precise location. This open source solution looks very polished and comprehensive though.

pimlottc 3y ago

I looked around the pages but I couldn't see any cost info. I realize this is an open source project but it would still be nice to get a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to build one of these yourself. Anyone know?

sersnth 3y ago
I imported the BOM for the tracker to Mouser and it looks like it's around $100 in components for one board. It looks like the boards with ENIG finish and filled and capped vias would be ~$40 for five boards + ~$17 shipping to the US from jlcpcb. ~$15 of the board cost comes from the via covering. The most expensive component, the DWM3001CTR13 Ultra-WideBand module, is $37.77 in single quantities. I don't know much about about UWB, but I wonder if instead putting a BLE beacon on the tracker and using a chip supporting Bluetooth direction finding on the home station could allow the tracker to be a bit smaller and cheaper at the cost of some localization performance for the indoor mode (actually I just saw someone already brought this up in the project Slack). This isn't including the Home Station part which doesn't seem fully documented yet.It looks like there is more discussion on the project Slack.

rapunkill 3y ago

Friendly reminder that most of us live in places where cats are non-native and should therefore either keep them indoors or on a leash.

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al_be_back 3y ago

I think these trackers create privacy issues since these furry friends regularly traverse the neighborhood (walk on fences, walls, roofs, enter homes etc). would be nice to see on the 'Why' page [1] stats around pets lost, stolen, the need to track, bit about price etc. as an engineering IOT project it's exciting for sure, looks good. [1] https://www.findmycat.io/why https://www.findmycat.io/why

michaelt 3y ago
What's the privacy issue? I mean, it doesn't impact my privacy if a GPS-tracked van drives past my home.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
  Maybe the cat decides to live a double life with some other family and doesn't want the first one to know about it?
- al_be_back 3y ago
  like i said above, cats typically tend to "walk on walls, fences, enter other's homes etc" ... the cat strapped with a watch-sized device could be used to monitor/record (not necessary this proj). cameras and microphones are very cheap these days. of course if one's not bothered about privacy, then the issue doesn't exist (magic)

leros 3y ago

I've tried all the major pet trackers. Most of them are too big for cats. Many of them are just Bluetooth which doesn't help at all when your cat gets far away. The better ones have Bluetooth, wifi, LTE, and GPS. The ones with more than Bluetooth try to be clever to preserve power and only enable the other radios in certain situations. I haven't found one that does this well yet. I would prefer they use more power and track better. For something moving like a cat, you really need better tracking. There are a few uses cases I want to work well: 1) I want to know when my cat leaves home and then be able to find him with realtime GPS. 2) I want to find my cat when he's home. He can easily decide to nap under a bush in my yard and then he's impossible to find. The most common one I see people using is Tractive. I personally found it literally useless. When you're close to home, it only enables Bluetooth and your phone app is basically looking for the signal strength of the tracker's Bluetooth. I found that my phone (Samsung Ultra S22) didn't sense my cat unless I was 15-20ft away, which isn't very helpful as I already have to know where he is. The one I decided to use is JioBit. When you're close to home (based on it sensing your home wifi) it only has Bluetooth enabled but it makes a connection to your phone. I found this to work over about 50ft. When connected, you can ring a bell on the tracker and find your cat. Pretty useful. When your cat is away from home, it only updates the GPS location every 5-15 minutes over LTE which I find too infrequent. Another annoyance is that it only does GPS tracking when your cat is too far from your home wifi. My cat can get way beyond Bluetooth range but still close enough to detect my wifi and then I have no tracking at all. What I would really like is something like the JioBit but with better connectivity. I want: 1) It to check in with a server every few minutes. Using wifi when home or LTE when not home. I want this because I want to be able to enable realtime gps tracking when I'm looking for my cat. 2) When realtime tracking is enabled, actually be realtime. Give me updates every 15 seconds at least. 3) Give me the ability to ring the device over wifi or LTE. The JioBit can last a few weeks in its current mode. I'm willing to cut that down significantly. And I really don't mind it burning power when I'm actively trying to find my cat.

deirdresm 3y ago
I've been using FitBark for the last 2-1/2 years. The catch is that my cat's use case (being mostly outdoors, mostly out of Bluetooth range, and mostly draining power) doesn't match the engineering design model of a dog who's with you most of the time and might escape on occasion. They gave me a more power-conserving build, though. The one anomaly here is one I've noticed with Pokémon Go as well: "rounding" locations to be at the street even when the cat isn't even within BT range of the street. (For privacy reasons in PoGo's case, after multiple lawsuits.) The one time this is particularly annoying is when our fuzzball is hunting lizards in the local schoolyard at night, and the tracker says she's on the street next to the schoolyard, but she's somewhere in the middle of it. In practice, that means I know where my little darling was 10 minutes ago, rounded to the nearest street, and use a Bluetooth tracking app to narrow it down further. Naturally, a good third of the time, she's within BT range and just Not Interested™ in moving from wherever she happens to be. (We try to keep her fed on a regular schedule to reduce wildlife consumption.) We're going to try FindMyCat on the other cat (who currently doesn't have a tracker) and see how that goes. He spends more time at home.

hyperific 3y ago

You won't need to track them if they're always indoors. Please keep your feline friends indoors. Cats are horrible for local lizard and bird populations.

Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
What if they escape?

hoosieree 3y ago

My indoor cats: "challenge accepted".

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xkcd-sucks 3y ago

A few usage tips: - Whatever attachment system is used for animal attachment, it should break open under the cat's weight or less. Otherwise you are running a hanging-to-death-site locator. - A harness with the tracker mounted on the top (spine) seems more tolerable and robust than a collar - Remember it is a *"collar tracker"* for your expensive purchase, not a *"cat tracker"*, and you will remain satisfied.

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aidenn0 3y ago

Having had a catalytic converter stolen, I was hoping this was about those instead...

yreg 3y ago
Well, you can slap it on one of those as well.

avh02 3y ago

We're fostering a dog and it recently ran away while with one of the prospective adopters, was missing for a week. We retrieved her 7 km from where we were searching. After that I looked in to GPS trackers for pets and it's all either subscription services (and their implications on your data/privacy) or otherwise some cheap Chinese crap. I eventually found one of the cheap ones you could configure with traccar but to get that working took a lot of guessing and testing. The cool thing is the only command that works via the server is "change update period", so when it's at home it pings occasionally and when it's outside the geofence, traccar tells it to up the reporting rate. (Plus idle detection, so when her harness is hanging there's limited battery use) I'm glad to see an open solution like this, would have loved to set this up if I had the dog longer term. Our cats on the other hand, we never trained for a collar so this wouldn't work unfortunately

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skratlo 3y ago

No Android app, no cigar

ENadyr 3y ago

I'm impressed with this project! I built something similar a couple of years ago but it wasn't as polished. This is a prime example of a well-executed open-source hardware (OSHW) project. I also noticed, like others here, that the tracker's size is a problem. My cat managed to remove the collar with my smaller tracker in just two minutes. I've been considering designing an even more compact tracker, integrating it into the collar itself. It would include a battery, GPS, LoRa with an antenna, and a microcontroller with power management. I'd use a small Heltec LoRa+Bluetooth transceiver for this. Your work has inspired me to revisit my old project. Thanks!

doakes 3y ago
I made something similar for my dog. Arduino Nano, GPS module, LoRa module, 18650 battery, and an antenna. I then had a "base station" using ESP8266 with a LoRa module and antenna that would forward the GPS data to the cloud. I was in a heavily wooded area and the LoRa signal would start dropping around 1000ft. I didn't know free SIM data was a possibility via Hologram.io or I probably would've gone that route. I really don't like the idea of attaching a lithium ion battery to my dog's neck, and I never learned how to design PCB's, so I'd also like to revisit my project with some improvements.

poopbutt7 3y ago

These days, I just let Strcat live his life. If he wants to move out, that's fine, his call. Just meow at the door if you change your mind.

catlover76 3y ago

People really should be letting their cats out to just roam around, it's (obviously) dangerous out there. But I support this nonetheless!

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Aissen 3y ago

Fascinating to see the dichotomy we have, even here on HN, with regards to subscription services. As a founder, they are great: recurring revenue ! But as a customer, of course they suck. I hope this inspires more companies to find a way to build more self-contained products. Even the awesome non-commercial, source available project here, findmycat, relies on a cloud service. For such a product, the cost could be quite low if done well, it could even be priced for 10 years in the initial package, assuming accounting is done properly.

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jaclaz 3y ago

The usual word of warning, if you are going to put a collar to a cat (or dog) free to roam, make sure that it will break with a force less than the pet's weight. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32660081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32660081

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endisneigh 3y ago

As someone in the USA I've compared GPS to an Airtag and the difference hasn't shown to be different enough to bother with GPS. Considering how cheap an airtag is and the difference in battery life - it's a no brainer to use an airtag. The density of iOS devices in the USA is such that it's very comparable to GPS in my experience. This is a cool project, though. One thing I didn't see is, how much does it cost to make this in practice?

Beached 3y ago
in rural America, airtags don't work.well. I live kn acreage, and so do all my neighbors. the odds that out cat is within Bluetooth range is slim.
solardev 3y ago
I wish Androids had a way to talk to the Airtags :/ iphones have that cool proprietary technology that points you in the direction of the Airtag even if no other phones are nearby
- LeSaucy 3y ago
  I use that feature for finding my keys and wallet at least 2-3 a week. One of the many things keeping me on an iphone.
- flax 3y ago
  That's Ultra Wide-band (UWB), and it's supported on several Android phones including Pixel 6/7 Pro. I don't know if the proprietary Apple bullshit prevents using Android to find them, but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    > but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well. I think the problem is that these trackers get a lot of their benefits from network effects. I own a bunch of Tiles, and I find them really useful, but if I lose my luggage somewhere I'll only get a ping if they happen to be in range of another phone that also has the Tile app. Meanwhile, with AirTags, given the prevalence of iPhones in the US, you're much likely to be in range of someone with an iPhone at most times.

WoodenChair 3y ago

How do you get cellular data coverage for an IOT device and how come the website says that it would only cost at most a couple of dollars a month? Which networks have a plan for hackers?

jstarfish 3y ago
Verizon, for one. 100 location updates/mo for $1.50. https://thingspace.verizon.com/marketplace.html https://thingspace.verizon.com/marketplace.html
richardhawthorn 3y ago
1nce [0] and Hologram [1] offer low cost SIM cards for these type of applications. 1nce for example charges €10 for 500MB of data which lasts 10 years. Assuming you are economical with the data it's €1 a year, which is a very appealing price point. Even if you need 500MB a year that's still less than €1 a month. Hologram charge by the MB (although I'm not sure exactly how much as their pricing page isn't fully transparent), with a 70¢ a month charge per SIM card. I think they offer a free SIM card with a certain amount of data a month free (maybe 1MB) if you just want 1 SIM card. [0] https://1nce.com/ https://1nce.com/ [1] https://www.hologram.io/ https://www.hologram.io/

brian_herman 3y ago

Is this compatible with doggies too?

lambic 3y ago
and bikes?

oaththrowaway 3y ago

I live on 20+ acres right now. I have an outdoor cat as a mouser. She'll disappear for days at a time and show up for a nap on the couch or to play with the kids and then be gone. I'd love to see what she gets up to when she's away since there really isn't any houses nearby (maybe 1/4 mile away at the closest). Unfortunately we don't have cell service outside of the booster range in the house so this wouldn't do much for me

didip 3y ago

This looks great, I can put it on my kid.

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opafan 3y ago

prvc 3y ago

Cats should not be left to roam freely in cities. They would catch and spread incurable parasites (including to humans), and they would be exposed to various other dangers, such as getting hit by cars or attacking or being attacked by other animals. Furthermore, they leave droppings, and other messes, such as the corpses of the animals they kill, and they damage bird populations. Keep housecats indoors, and do not feed feral cats.

ivraatiems 3y ago
This is absolutely true. I feel conflicted about feeding feral cats, because I don't love the amount of suffering they often endure, but I think the appropriate middle ground is to support trap/neuter/release (TNR) programs if you're going to engage with feral or domestic-but-outdoor cats. If they can't reproduce, then feeding them actually reduces the harm they cause because they won't need to go out hunting for food. I will say, though, as someone with cats who are escape artists, I love this product, I'd find it invaluable. We already have AirTags on them but it's an imperfect solution.
- prvc 3y ago
  >If they can't reproduce, then feeding them actually reduces the harm they cause because they won't need to go out hunting for food. That's completely unfounded speculation and wishful-thinking. Would you like for cats to deposit their parasite-laden (human-infecting, incurable) feces in your herb garden, where your children play, or directly outside of a window you need for ventilation? If so, than there are certainly others who would not. Basic decency demands that you don't facilitate this.
  - ivraatiems 3y ago
    > That's completely unfounded speculation and wishful-thinking. It's not 'speculation' to suggest that logically, an animal which is not hungry won't expend energy to hunt for food. > Basic decency demands that you don't facilitate this. Basic decency demands showing compassion to animals in need. But if there's one thing I'm seeing in this thread, it's lots of people who seem to think their views on these matters are moral universals. > Would you like for cats to deposit their parasite-laden (human-infecting, incurable) feces in your herb garden, where your children play, or directly outside of a window you need for ventilation? Do you even know how cats decide where to poop, or what they do with their feces? Cat feces doesn't just sit out, they bury them. While it's true feral animals - including many cats - harbor parasites, healthy cats are typically fastidiously clean. Much cleaner than dogs, and I should know, I have both. You have awfully strong opinions but they don't seem like they're based in much knowledge.

alana314 3y ago

I'm curious about the UWB integration, I thought apple's Find My could only track airtags? Is it simulating one? And the only UWB dev kits / readers I can find are thousands of dollars.

lights0123 3y ago
UWB is an open spec implemented by both iPhones and Androids, which the chip this project uses supports: https://www.qorvo.com/newsroom/news/2021/qorvo-solutions-interoperable-with-apple-u1-chip-for-new-ultra-wideband-enabled-experiences https://www.qorvo.com/newsroom/news/2021/qorvo-solutions-int...

milin 3y ago

Wouldn't just using the iOS beacon have sufficed? Regardless the project looks very cool and informative.

dmitrygr 3y ago

Basically a neat wrapper over nRF9160 and the services that Nordic Semi provides. Cool

e12e 3y ago
Oh, thanks for pointing that out: > The nRF9160 supports both SIM and eSIM for connection https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF9160 https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF9160

dghughes 3y ago

>Precise Find for Indoors.Comes with Ultra-wideband (UWB) ... I was playing with the UWB on my Samsung S23 my cat was beside me. As I enabled it she jerked her head towards my phone. I know UWB is far beyond a cat's hearing range but whatever it was she instantly noticed it. No pain or anything she didn't run away but looked at it as if she could detect something.

seanthemon 3y ago
Could your cat perhaps have heard the sound of the whine of the electronic components? Maybe an interference with your phone and other electronics close by. Just a shot in the dark
kstrauser 3y ago
UWB is RF, not sound, and your cat didn’t hear it. It could be that the app you were playing with also happened to play a sound in addition to turning on the radio, or possibly your radio happens to resonate at some audible frequency. Consider that in the US, UWB is RF higher than 500MHz, and I’d be shocked if your phone’s speaker went all the way up to 20KHz, which is generally considered to be the upper limit of the human hearing range.

dmix 3y ago

Why not a kickstarter? I'd back this

munificent 3y ago

The best way to keep track of your cat is to not let it outside. Benefits: 1. Zero cost for cat tracking devices, never need to charge them, never need to worry about the cat losing the device. 2. Dramatically reduced chance of your cat being killed by a car. Despite blogs claiming otherwise, I can find no reputable statistics on the number of pets killed by cars in the US, but there are >250k collisions with animals every year. Most are deer, but anecdotally I know many many people who have killed cats accidentally. 3. Dramatically reduced chance of your cat being killed by a coyote or raccoon. Yes, coyotes and raccoons will absolutely fuck up your cat. Yes, they are very likely in your city. 4. Your cat will not be playing a part in the wholesale slaughter of billions of birds, small mammals, reptiles, and other fauna that domesticated cats are responsible for. 5. Significantly longer predicted lifespan for your cat. The life expectancy for an indoor cat is about 14 years. For an outdoor cat, it's 2 to 5 years. 6. Your neighbors will appreciate not stumbling onto your cat's poop while gardening. Seriously, keep your cat indoors.

matsemann 3y ago
I just checked. There is no coyotes or raccoons in my city. Not even anyone in my country!
- wffurr 3y ago
  Oslo seems to be well within lynx territory, whom I am sure would be glad to snack on a housecat. Norway also has wolverines and in a few areas, wolves and bears.
  - e12e 3y ago
    Norwegian cats eat lynx. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_cat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_cat More seriously - biggest danger is probably cars.
    - wffurr 3y ago
      Wow that is one big house cat! Beautiful.

nickserv 3y ago

We've tried GPS trackers, but I think you would need military level precision for it to be of any real use. 10 meters can easily be the difference between your yard and the neighbor's across the street.

gcanyon 3y ago

I love the purity of his focus: search the documentation for “dog”: 0 hits…

YeBanKo 3y ago
Well, he does call it a pet tracker.

andix 3y ago

How do you get your cat to wear that? Isn't wearing a collar for a cat some kind of torture? All the cats I ever had were extremely unhappy with collars and often found a way to get rid of it.

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nerb 3y ago

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yreg 3y ago
What the hell?
- nerb 3y ago
  hey, if y'all get outdoor cats for "pest" reasons, i'll take care of the outdoor cats i see as pests :)

0xFF0123 3y ago

This is such a beautifully put together project!

palmer_fox 3y ago

A gentle reminder that cats are responsible for a significant destruction of the wildlife in the US (and the world). Please be a responsible pet owner and don't let your cat run outside unsupervised.

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runescimitar 3y ago
What wildlife? Rats?
- palmer_fox 3y ago
  Billions of birds each year just in the US.

TurkishPoptart 3y ago

This is really cool, but provided one can get all the components in the BOM from Mosuer, I'm not seeing instructions about how to actually assemble it. The only other problem I foresee is if your cat refuses to wear the thing and pulls it off :D

meshaneian 3y ago

There is a much larger market for this tech - parents. Today's world is so crowded, kids or parents can be separated by less than 20 feet and devolve into panic. Give them each a way to know they're safe and can be found. You're already awesome, wish more people could share like you have, magnificent designs!

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doctor_radium 3y ago

YMMV but as a teenager I devised my own low tech solution: I taught my cat her name. We lived in a rural-ish area with little traffic and a large wooded area behind the house. She would be outside for sometimes 10 hours/day and if I ever needed her, I would shout her name from the back porch or partway into the back yard. Instant cat in <10 minutes. Except during or in the leadup to thunderstorms. She was afraid of thunder and would hide.

demetrius 3y ago

It's a cool project but it's not open-source. CC BY-NC-SA is not an open-source license, since it limits what the users can do with the code. This is openwashing.

jrcplus 3y ago
Meh. “open source” vs “Open Source”.
wrycoder 3y ago
Where do you see that? I see MIT license [0]. [0] https://github.com/FindMyCat/engineering-docs/blob/main/LICENSE https://github.com/FindMyCat/engineering-docs/blob/main/LICE...
- demetrius 3y ago
  Interesting! The end of the page https://www.findmycat.io/ https://www.findmycat.io/ says this: “Completely Open-Source? What’s the catch? Yup. No catch. All Software and Hardware files can be found in the Engineering section and the Github page under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License”. This is in the Frequent Questions section. (You need to click on the question to see the answer.)

jrcplus 3y ago

I would gladly pay money for a commercial version of this. I don’t have a cat, but I have a mother who has dementia. I started looked at tracking devices (in case she starts to wander) but battery life is generally miserable. The power management on this looks fantastic.

anonme4ever 3y ago

Nice one! Keep it going and open! It could be awesome with tech like "Energy Harvesting Module that Efficiently Generates Power from Electromagnetic Wave Noise"[1]. If only big tech where thinking like you and opened their research... In EU I'm using a LoRa/GPS based pet tracker[2], but it's not enough to quickly find a lost pet. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37480512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37480512 [2] https://www.invoxia.com/ https://www.invoxia.com/

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