Pet tracker - anyone got one?
Discussion
A quick question for you, the clue is in the title really, but has anyone bought or used a pet tracker?
A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
I've looked into this for the exact same reason, I've always wondered where they go when they don't show up for several days (which, btw, isn't unusual. Ours vanish for anything up to a week at a time!)
The currently available stuff seems to be more aimed at dogs that cats, simply down to the size of the tracker boxes. From memory they are around the size of a deck of cards, so not really the sort of thing you can fit to a collar.
Plus, my cats are always losing their collars so it would get quite expensive quite quickly!
The currently available stuff seems to be more aimed at dogs that cats, simply down to the size of the tracker boxes. From memory they are around the size of a deck of cards, so not really the sort of thing you can fit to a collar.
Plus, my cats are always losing their collars so it would get quite expensive quite quickly!
Miss Pitstop said:
A quick question for you, the clue is in the title really, but has anyone bought or used a pet tracker?
A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
You are joking aren't you??A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
paoloh said:
Miss Pitstop said:
A quick question for you, the clue is in the title really, but has anyone bought or used a pet tracker?
A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
You are joking aren't you??A quick google search shows they seem to be in the £100 region, and to be honest I wouldn't pay that much, as I only want it because I often wonder where my 2 cats go and what they get up to!! I had a scare a few weeks ago when I didn't see one of them for 2 days but it's more curiosity than anything else (and we all know what that did to the cat!!)
Does anyone know of any cheap and cheerful systems or shall I just leave them to their mystery hiding places!?
Cheers
Going by http://www.pet-tracker.co.uk/page3.html £100 is just the cost of a replacement transmitter.
Would you not feel rather odd by wandering around with an aerial system?
I do have a cheap version at home from ebay that works the other way round. It beeps the users handset IF the dog wanders more than about 20ft.
Anyhow whats the point? You know bloody well they are ALWAYS sitting on your freshly ironed clothes.
Would you not feel rather odd by wandering around with an aerial system?
I do have a cheap version at home from ebay that works the other way round. It beeps the users handset IF the dog wanders more than about 20ft.
Anyhow whats the point? You know bloody well they are ALWAYS sitting on your freshly ironed clothes.
Miss Pitstop said:
Morningside said:
Anyhow whats the point? You know bloody well they are ALWAYS sitting on your freshly ironed clothes.
Too true. I wouldn't really spend any serious money on it, it's hardly a must have item. £100 a pop is definitely not worth it!a guy in my office has a gps receiver for his mobile and it smaller than a box of matches. would it be poss. to use something similar for catnav?
i have always wanted to attach a micro camera and wireless transmitter into a collar so i can watch cat tv, but it would only work withn a hundred metres or so [the actual idea was to have one cam on the cat and another on a radio control car to chase cat]
i have always wanted to attach a micro camera and wireless transmitter into a collar so i can watch cat tv, but it would only work withn a hundred metres or so [the actual idea was to have one cam on the cat and another on a radio control car to chase cat]
big_rob_sydney said:
I saw something on the TV about bicycle theft in London, and they showed a device that was absolutely tiny, fitted to the underside of the seat. Not much bigger than a couple of AA batteries in total.
I'm sure its possible, though I cant see myself doing it.
Where you going to stick those???I'm sure its possible, though I cant see myself doing it.
Hedders said:
There simply MUSt be a better way to track something in this day and age.
What about these online services for phones? can you get a cut down phone that has no keyboard/display etc. could be tiny.
These services aren't accurate enough yet to be able to track a pet unless you want to know where they are within a few hundred metres, which wouldn't be enough if I lost my cat!What about these online services for phones? can you get a cut down phone that has no keyboard/display etc. could be tiny.
If you want real-time tracking, you need a unit which has GPS and mobile phone functionality built in and these are still a bit too big for a cat IMO. I'm sure it won't be too long before something comes out which will do the trick.
If you just want to record where they've been, there are a few small gps-based loggers which might be suitable.
The radio trackers are quite small but the batteries need changing very regularly and you still need to use an antenna and receiver to direction find where the cat is, so not that practical.
I looked at radio trackers for our cats after one went missing (turned up fortunately). I had a long conversation with someone, I think, at Aberdeen Uni who was using them for a research project who told me they were fine at locating even small animals quite accurately but they were something like 250 for the collar and receiver. Obviously more collars could be tracked on the same receiver.
You can't watch them obviously and I decided it was a bit steep. Having said that if one did go missing and being able to find them meant they stayed alive and with us I would happily pay it (as I imagine would others) but hind sight is a marvelous thing.
You can't watch them obviously and I decided it was a bit steep. Having said that if one did go missing and being able to find them meant they stayed alive and with us I would happily pay it (as I imagine would others) but hind sight is a marvelous thing.
Just to drag this thread up again:
On Skys website is this article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Techno...
Which links to their website: http://www.zoombak.co.uk/products/pet/ and video http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Technofile-...
£99 BUT it has a £3.99 monthly fee (£8 according to the video
).
Now I suspect it is using the mobile phone signal for a GPS type tracking system.
I cannot see why you could not strap a small mobile phone to their collar and then register for one of those child tracking websites.
Thinking back I think there is a PHer that does roughly this type of work.
On Skys website is this article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Techno...
Which links to their website: http://www.zoombak.co.uk/products/pet/ and video http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Technofile-...
£99 BUT it has a £3.99 monthly fee (£8 according to the video
).Now I suspect it is using the mobile phone signal for a GPS type tracking system.
I cannot see why you could not strap a small mobile phone to their collar and then register for one of those child tracking websites.
Thinking back I think there is a PHer that does roughly this type of work.
Edited by Morningside on Tuesday 19th August 11:28
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