Does anyone selfhost a tracker for a dog or cat? A reputable company charges 5€-13€ per month for it. I’m not sure I want to pay that for more than 10 years
You can’t self host a tracker like that, at least not for free, because the only way for the data to be reported is through a cellular connection which costs money. The subscription fee seems perfectly reasonable
Not true. Free cellular connections exist in some places. And there are non-cellular solutions like LoRA trackers.
That’s not true at all! I’m using some 1NCE SIM that cost 10€ for 10 years of connectivity with 500MB of data. For my car I’ve calculated that it should last about 6/7 years, but even if it would last 1 year, it’s still less than 1€/month!
OP “just” needs to find the tracker and selfhost something like Traccar.
I don’t know the ins and outs of how they work, and I’m sure there’s some catch and they overall skeeve me out a bit, but I have seen a few companies that offer very limited free service, something like 25 mb/month. I don’t know how much data a gps tracker would use but that might be doable
I’m sure those companies do everything in their power to get you to pay more than nothing, automatically change your plan if you go over, deceptive emails, etc. so definitely something to be careful about. I also wouldn’t have a whole lot of confidence in those companies sticking around for very long.
And while not free, there are some pretty affordable prepaid plans and such that may be competitive or slightly cheaper than what a regular subscription might cost.
Depending on where you live, it may be possible to forego the call plan entirely, in a dense urban area with lots of open public WiFi networks, you may be able to work it entirely off of WiFi.
If you wanted to get real weird with it and jump through the loopholes to get licensed, there might also be some options using ham radio stuff like APRS, though that’s probably going to leave your dogs location exposed to any ham who happens to be playing with their radios in your area.
Now I’m not saying that any of that is necessarily a good idea or worth the hassle of setting any of that up, I’m just spitballing some ideas for what someone could potentially do if they did want to homebrew such a thing.
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Imo, such trackers aren’t useful for that. No other phone will report in which forest the dog is
Exactly right, anyone recommending those doesn’t understand how they work.
OR anyone suggesting those lives in a city and doesn’t generally let their pets out near forests and therefore didn’t think of that use case.
Seconded. And the more populated the area, the better the tracking is/will be.
You are basically paying them to have a sim card connected to cellular. It’s the same way with vehicle/trailer trackers.
There appear to be some on Ali express that you have to get your own cell service.
Some SIM costs 10€ and lasts for 10 years with 500MB (1NCE) that for a tracker are a lot! (Maybe not enough for 10 years, but some year is still a very good deal.)
https://www.findmycat.io (no personal experience, just aware of it)
That looks fantastic, if only the parts were available rather than needing to find a pcb manufacturer, 3d print the case, etc.
If you find anything let me know. I have a couple of dogs I would love to keep taps on, when they are out hunting. And I don’t have any iDevices, so AirTags are not useful for me.
I’ve not thought of such a thing before. How does it work on a technical level? Can’t imagine a sim+gps being useful for long.
Why wouldn’t it be useful for long?
You have to charge it once in a while obviously
I imagine something that either reports the geo location each couple of minutes or once an hour would be sufficient I guess. On request could also be an option.
Connecting to GPS satellites uses a LOT of power. Most GPS units small enough to go on a collar will only last for a day or two without a charge. That’s why people are suggesting AirTags, because they don’t use GPS and the battery lasts for like…a year? But if you’re worried about your dog getting lost in the wilderness rather than near humans, then an AirTag won’t help much.
Connecting to GPS satellites uses a LOT of power. Most GPS units small enough to go on a collar will only last for a day or two without a charge.
You don’t connect to the GPS satellites. On “client side” GPS is passive. Periodically getting the GPS position and sending it via mobile data is actually quite “cheap” regarding battery. Good GPS tracking hardware can get up to 40-90 days availability without having to recharge.
And there are cheap options on aliexpress that are solar powered
Then please point me to all of the cheap, long lasting options that are small and light enough to clip to a dog’s collar and last for 40-90 days on a charge.
Edit: I’m waiting…these pedants like to pounce on my sloppy use of the word “connect” but haven’t actually presented me with a product that proves me wrong.
That’s not how GPS works.
It’s basically a radio signal your device listens for. Power consumption is tiny for that purpose. My smartwatch can go weeks with GPS active. Hell I have a 20 year old Garmin GPS for my motorcycle that will go several months on a couple AA batteries, and that tech is ancient by todays standards.
To be fair, GPS itself is ancient by today’s standards too. It has been operational for 30 years and first started development another 20 years before that.
Sort of. It is iterated upon and improved. The satellites up there now are quite advanced from the early ones, and another refresh is coming.
https://ts2.space/en/the-evolution-and-future-of-gps-satellite-technology/
No honey, that IS how GPS works. Triangulating your position via GPS requires connecting to no less than three satellites. Your smartwatch does not have GPS active 99% of the time. It’s getting location data by mostly by looking at cell towers and WiFi networks nearby, and only uses GPS very sparingly. If your GPS was constantly active (which is what you would want when trying to catch a lost dog) then your smartwatch battery would be dead within hours, not days.
Your Garmin runs on AA’s for weeks because it’s not TRACKING anything, it’s just showing your location on a map, locally. It’s ONLY using GPS and not using any sort of data connection. The energy required to constantly check GPS and constantly report back a device’s location via LTE is actually quite a lot, even if you only check in every five minutes. This is why GPS trackers only last a couple days unless they have a big battery. And this is why AirTags are popular; they last a long time because they don’t use GPS and they don’t need a data connection.
The fact that you keep saying “connect to GPS satellites” shows you don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no connection. And your response also has several other inaccuracies, but I’m going to end this conversation due to your aggressive tone.
Lol
What’s with the space in the nick? I don’t know how to cite you! Have a look at my answer to rbesfe.
We used this when we had cats: https://tabcat.com
It’s expensive up front but works pretty well and no hosting fees. Of course it’s not GPS so you kinda gotta know the general area the cat is in. But it was great for getting the cats in out of the yard. They would hide when it was time to come in until we got this. Worked ok for finding them in the neighborhood as well, just walked around pointing the remote everywhere. The collar tags are nice and small as well.
