Looking forward to getting a cat soon. Any good GPS Tracking modules? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bigfoot22
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2022, 05:44:33 pm
content: deleted

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2022, 06:32:14 pm
content: Just feed a cat and it will always return. A cat is not cattle; you don't need to track a cat.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2022, 06:58:18 pm
content: If you must, just get an Apple AirTag. I believe they work with white cats too.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2022, 07:55:16 pm
content: I use tractive with my dog. So far i've been pleased with it, but you have to recharge it frequently if you don't have good coverage and wifi (frequently: every 2 or 3 days when i'm outdoor, running 24/7)They also make a version for cats. Don't know the difference

author: SmallCog
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2022, 08:42:47 pm
content: Anything cellular is going to need recharging pretty regularlyI think an airtag will do what you need if you already have an apple product to use it with.Presume this is just in case it escapes your home? Cats really shouldn't be roaming freeContext for those in other parts of the world:News Article

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 12:06:37 am
content: Quote from: SmallCog on December 06, 2022, 08:42:47 pmUtter nonsense. If you live in a country where cats aren't allowed to roam free, don't get a cat. Cats go crazy when locked inside a home; they are not made for it. It is like keeping a gold fish in a tiny round bowl.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 12:13:38 am
content: If its all about the preservation of wild life maybe mankind should be confined indoors

author: WA1ICI
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 12:31:08 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 07, 2022, 12:06:37 amIt depends on the house. My house is rather large, and the cat has well over 100 feet to zoom around. He seems pretty happy. My old cat (R.I.P.) was a stray feral cat that I "domesticated", and was an indoor/outdoor cat. He had "street smarts" (nature smarts?) and could handle the dangers outdoors. I live in rural Nevada, and have both a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl living on my property (big birds that eat mammals). Coyotes are frequently around. My current cat was an indoor cat given to me by a friend. He has been outdoors a few times, but I don't trust him to evade predators.- John Atwood

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 12:37:46 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on December 07, 2022, 12:13:38 amStudies in the NL show that the effect of domestic cats on wildlife is grossly exaggerated. A lot of birds are very well capable of deterring cats. You should see a bunch of Magpies deal with a cat that gets near their nesting tree. The cat won't make that mistake again for sure. And cats are not the only predators around. Foxes have always been there and nowadays we have wolves as well.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 01:23:42 am
content: Cats live up to 20 years and more. You will get tired very quickly charging the collar every day. As to a cat standing still waiting for the charge to complete - it is a fantasy.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 01:49:10 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 06, 2022, 06:32:14 pmAlthough they will usually return to where they’re loved and looked after well, it’s still nice to have the peace of mind of gps.

author: Dundarave
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 03:20:47 am
content: Years ago, when I had a couple of Siamese cats, I used to round them up from their outdoor explorations by going outside and shaking some cat food kibble in a nice resonant cardboard box.I’d stand on the porch, shake the box for 30 seconds, and within 5 minutes they’d individually appear. They had amazing hearing. I have no idea how far away they were, but sometimes they’d be close and appear immediately, other times it’d take a good 5 minutes. But it always worked.If I were you, I’d be relying on the Pavlovian response rather than a technical solution. Cats like to nestle and hide, also: bad for GPS reception.

author: Foxxz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 03:49:14 am
content: The Fi collar might work for you.https://tryfi.com/

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 05:24:55 am
content: I don't know how your cat's home range is like. I have cats since 1976. Between me and my wife, high was 4 cats of which 3 roams outside freely but home at night. Being in the USA, the areas that my cats frequented is likely different than you down under.I do not think GPS would work so well. Apart from the GPS device that your cat has to wear, you need a receiver that can receive the GPS signal send by your cat and translate that to useful information very quickly. Pretty much like what Apple's airtag can do by pointing at the direction where your cat is (preferably with distance). If you have to enter the raw GPS info into a map (both your's and the cat's GPS coordinations), your cat could move a lot faster than you can enter the latest set of GPS coordinates into your map. You could be running around in circles. So thetranslation into useful information must be reasonably fast.Your DIY will have to deal with both the hardware and the software to do a useful job.Apple's airtag and FI Collar seem to do that job (present useful info quick). But each with their own short comings.From my experience (again, my area may be very different than yours), once the cat knows your home is his/her home, they would indeed come back. It is when quick-approaching storm, accident, and other unexpected events that causes problem. Other times are when we must lock up to go somewhere and must leaving the cat out until we are home. It appears to me that when the cat wants to come home but can't, that is when the cat may venture farther and do the less safe things. We lost one cat (car hit) and almost lost another one (locked in a basement near by) both were when we had unexpected absence. Otherwise, they each have their own routines.Personally, I would have liked a (garage door opener type) remote activated blinking LED (at a position that doesn't disrupt the cat's own vision). Even a constant-on blinking LED would not be bad, I can think of a few occasions that ablinking LED on the cat would have been very helpful in finding the cat. Added bonus of a constant-on blinker is, it may help cars avoid the cat. My first cat had a close call (lost a tooth) with a car. My wife's first cat did not survive his encounter with a car.By the way, if you love cats, you should see "A Street Cat Named Bob". An instant best seller when publish and made into a movie (starring Bob) - it is available in USA's youtube. It is about a recovering drug addict (author) adopted a young homeless street cat during very hard time for both. Both benefited. Bob died (hit by car) at age 14-ish (around 2019, there about) as a celebrity cat. There was a seating bench with his statue erected by donation from admirers -- "Every one deserves a second chance" is inscribed on the bench as they gave each other a second chance.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 05:37:14 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 07, 2022, 12:06:37 amIt depends greatly on the cat, they're as individual as people. I've had cats my whole life and some of them go crazy and try to bolt at every opportunity but others show no interest at all in going outside. I currently have four, the youngest is 16, none of them try to go out. One of them did bolt a couple of times and got out into the front garden years ago but it seemed to freak him out that there was no ceiling above him. He ran around the perimeter of the house huddling close to the wall under the overhang then came back in and never tried again. Now they just curl up on their heated pads or on my lap or perch on the sill of the front window and watch the world go by.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 05:39:35 am
content: A dog and cat were having an argument on who is the favourite of humans.The dog says, "Humans like us more. They even named a tooth (canine) after us. Naming such an important body part after us shows that they like us more."The cat smiles and says, "You are really not going to win this one you know."

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 06:25:01 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 06, 2022, 06:32:14 pmYep this^Cats don't easily get lost. As long as they are brought up to know how to deal with the outdoors they can handle anything. They might go missing for a day or two, but once they are hungry they come back home for food. Also getting them castrated will keep them from going around as much and getting into fights. It becomes more of a problem if they figure out they can be nice to other people too and get even more food.As for indoor only cats it depends on the cat. Not all handle it well. Also a lot of indoor cats can't handle the outdoors at all and might get stuck in the first tree they try to climb. The most important for indoor cats is to give them plenty forms of entertainment since they are missing out on a lot of outdoor stimulation and exercise.Anything with GPS and 4G is going to be too big and heavy for a cat and need constant charging. Apple Airtags are indeed the best solution since it is small and low power while still being good enough to find your cat. They are not going to go far from home willingly.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 06:39:53 am
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on December 07, 2022, 01:52:48 amYou can buy roller tops for fences, so that if your cat leaps onto the fence top, it rotates, & drops kitty on its bum!I doubt that your cat will dig under the fence-----that's more a "dog" thing!Dogs will persist at a seemingly (to humans) impossible task, & by persistence, eventually get there.Cats will say "@##*^%$$!! that!" & look for an easier way.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 06:45:37 am
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on December 07, 2022, 01:52:48 amThere are rules about thatWhich i admitelly not follow all the time, though i would *never* let my dog on the front seat, if its paws are clean i will sometime let it stay on back seats instead of being in the trunk in the transport, he just loves getting the head out and catch the wind, even though that's dangerous in case of a sudden braking. I'm unsure about dog seatbelts in my juristiction so i never bought one of thoseRe: animals on a leash, well.. Children Should be Kept on a Leash™I've started seeing cats on a leash recently. At first it left me uneasy but only because i'm not used to it but hey, i get that. I'm a dog person i'd love to have my big black shepherd dog with me all the time, at the workplace, at the groceries, always gets me in a better mood.Friend of mine travel with her two rabbits from time to time.This summer I've found one tourist in the mountains with a bird cage in the form of a backpack. Truly bizzarre, but not the most bizarre thing i saw in the dolomitesThere are probably many people who do not know who to trust with their animal for a week or two, i get that as wellbut bird backpack..

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 08:34:47 am
content: implanted animal electronics has been done before, the 1960s project Acoustic Kitty.somehow I doubt 2023 Kitty needs its own GPS phone app.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 10:26:51 am
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on December 07, 2022, 01:52:48 amI don't think it is particulary weird. It is just that not all cats like strange new places. When I was a teenager we got a kitten and I took him for a walk around the neighbourhood on a leash (*) to get him acquainted with his new habitat. After a couple of weeks he could roam around freely (which soon let to becoming friends with another cat from the neighbourhood so we ended up with 2 cats). Anyway, your best bet is to make a cat used to walking on a leash with a harness in strange places from day 1 and see if your cat has a good time or not. Every cat is different.* With a harness that goes around the chest; not just the neck as cats consist of 90% fur and they easely escape a collar if they have to.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 11:03:28 am
content: We had a few Tractive collars but unfortunately due to their size the cat tends to lose them (they get caught on shrubs etc), and if they aren't pointing in the right direction when they fall off, you often can't get a GPS fix on the now lost collar. So a number of times I've gone out with an Android tablet running a Bluetooth scanning app in the area the tag last reported itself, and have managed to find it after about half an hour of searching in both cases by using the RSSI... After the third time, no luck, I suspect our cat lost it near the river and it got swept away. So we stopped putting it on her, it is a significant cost to replace them every few months. She always comes back, as another poster noted, if you feed them they will be loyal.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 12:29:34 pm
content: https://catmax.com.au/or similar.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 01:53:30 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 06, 2022, 06:32:14 pmTrue, if they are ok.Cats rarely get lost, unless some mafia cat attacks/chases them, then he might end in some remote area and/or hurt and not be able to return.I lost a cat that way, we normally let him go to the outer windowsill, as we lived at the lower level, there was just ~6ft/2m to ground, so no risk of falling, in fact he ocassionally went away to see the world or try making friends with ferals.Then a very huge black feral appeared, all cats flew away and he became the only one around.My cat was a neutered male, so he didn't have any of the agressiveness, behaved like a big sweet kitty, so he went outside to salute him and got badly beaten, had to take some surgery because he got a deep bite at the base of the tail, got badly infected, was hard to detect with all that fur, until few days later a potato-sized lump appeared.The vet said it had become necrosis, but it wasn't very extended so it looked like it could go well, but few days more and it would have extended to the spine, that would've been really bad.Luckly he did great and healed in no time!We didn't let him outside anymore, the poor thing cried all day wanting to outside.Once we opened the windows for venting, accidentally left the door open without noticing, he probably took 2 nanoseconds to fly away and start smelling/watching everything.Sadly that was the last time we saw him.So yeah, a GPS tracker would have been be a great thing. Sadly not a common thing in 2003!

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2022, 06:17:30 pm
content: To have an idea of where your cat may roam, watch this 50 minutes documentary. It is a study of what the cats do when they are out. The study was done in a town in Germany. A few cats were tagged with GPS and tracked by the researchers, analyzed, tried to understand and explain their movements.You may find it as enjoyable as I did.

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2022, 07:20:41 pm
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on December 08, 2022, 05:23:16 pmYour reply therestirred up something very sad deep in my mind. Humans are indeed not always kind to animals. I've lost a cat to an unfriendly human neighbor. Suffocation, the cat was 12 years old. I found his body in the courtyard of our apartment complex.I thought he encountered a stray dog that held him very hard to the ground. While I was leaving a wooden cross at the spot where I found his body, a neighbor (wife of offender) said something strange that sounded like some kind of apology "he was from a different culture..." I didn't know what to make of it at the time.I adopted a kitten a few months later. One night coming out of the laundry room of the apartment complex, I saw this man trying to do the same to my newly adopted kitten. He saw me and let the kitten go. I then put 2 and 2 together. Had the laundry took another 10 minutes, I would have found my new kitten in the same manner I found my dead cat. I moved shortly after.I must admit, that experience changed me. I'd rather live with more compatible neighbors.EDIT: (Forgot part 2 of the reply, added below)Watch the video. Those GPS collar shown in the show may give you some idea on how to DIY it yourself.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2022, 08:02:26 pm
content: Quote from: Rick Law on December 08, 2022, 07:20:41 pmYou handled that better than I would have. If I saw someone kill one of my cats, I would kill kill them on the spot without a second thought, and deal with the consequences later. The cat is no match against a human aggressor, I am.

author: PaulAm
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2022, 09:30:35 pm
content: I've had cats for 40 years now and it's a myth that they need to be outside. There's very little upside to allowing them outside unsupervised between predators (animal and human), traffic, predation on small animals, rabid animals and other infectious diseases (FIV, among others). Just recently we had a local story about a 6 month old kitten that had to be euthanized because of a rabies infection.My first cat was allowed outside until one of her kittens was hit by a car. He survived, but was never the same. Vet bills were not something I could afford at that time, but you do what you have to. Everyone became indoors only after that, despite some complaints.I picked up one stray one cold winter. She had been declawed and thrown outside. Once she realized life was OK again, she almost never left the bedroom. She looked out the window if she was interested in what was happening outside.Sometimes one cat or another will be allowed outside under supervision. Even that's not really safe. One of my cats picked up a grub by her eye poking her head into a chipmunk hole, had a massive reaction to it and almost died. She had to take cortisone for the rest of her life.It can be difficult, but it is possible to train cats to accept a leash. Cats are supreme narcissists who do not understand negative reinforcement. This little personality quirk makes patience a requirement if you want to train them to do anything. You're not really training them anyway, you just have to make them think they wanted to do whatever in the first place.Right now I have seven furry monsters (yeah, excessive, I didn't plan on getting there, but long story yada yada) and they are all indoor only. None of them have any real interest in going outdoors (although the boys would probably go after the chipmunks if given half a chance).Some cats like being solitary, some like company. If you get a cat from a shelter or foster, try to get one to match up with your situation. Provide a stimulating environment with toys, furniture, places to explore and hide and they will be happy. If you get a kitten, prepare for 2 years of unrelenting energy before they settle down. Kittens are cute, but they have tradeoffs. Every time I've gotten a new kitten they have managed to destroy something valuable. E.g artwork I thought was a) out of reach (ha), 2) too large to tip over (haha), 3) too massive to move off the shelf (hahaha). Nothing is safe, they're not malicious, just curious and some like the sound of pottery smashing. Habits may need to change (yours, see note on training). After getting doused we no longer keep open glasses of water on the headboard of our bed at night. Fun way to wake up at 3 AM.Also, kittens are extremely curious and very good at getting into stuff that they shouldn't. Lock EVERYTHING up and I mean EVERYTHING. I had multiple vet runs with the boys because they got into stuff that I didn't think either they would, or could (like pulling a plastic bag out of the trash and eating the bag, or pulling the bag of squeeze up treat out of the cupboard, opening the bag and eating the treat along with some of the packaging, or opening the cupboard, pulling out the bag of crunchies and ripping it to pieces in the middle of the floor and gorging on the contents). One time they managed to knock the jar of crunchies off the counter and unscrewed the lid. I still don't know how they managed that. Cats do not have opposable thumbs (thank god), but claws can be extremely effective.My experience is that cats will bond with you quickly if you have rescued them from some kind of trauma. Othewise, it may take 3 to 5 years for them to grow to like you and be demonstrative (and some cats just are not demonstrative at all, even if they do like you). Some cats just love people and will take a shine to you immediately so when you go to save one, remember it's a two way interview. Do not overlook an adult cat.Having a 7 kilo carnivorous ball of fur, emotion, teeth and claws purring in your lap makes it all worthwhile.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2022, 11:17:34 pm
content: I have had cats in the past that were impossible to keep inside, they start to literally go insane and devote more and more of their efforts to escaping. Some can be quite clever, observing human behavioral patterns and hiding somewhere to bolt at just the right moment. Most have not been like this but a few, they were rescued strays that had been outside when found.