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Anonymous
RF/GPS Cat Tracking Project 2016-10-06 19:13:06 Post No. 56953804
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RF/GPS Cat Tracking Project 2016-10-06 19:13:06 Post No. 56953804
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Basically as the crude diagram suggests, I'd like to try and setup a live tracking system for my cat so I can find her easily and not have to worry when she stays out long.
I was thinking of setting up base stations as shown in the diagram, each listening for a signal from the cats transmitting collar, and broadcasting their data back to me/my house base station, which can then compute my cats approx location.
I'm not to worried about being to exact, just more or less pointing me in the right direction/area.
Is it possible to do this type of thing without GPS? I figured if I could just assign an arbitrary location to one base station, and assign the others relative to it, then I should still be able to produce a "cat location" relative to that base station.
And it shouldn't need be said, but obviously I'm trying to do this as inexpensively as possible (hence trying to avoid GPS) and with as small as possible equipment (my kitty is quite small guys).
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>>56953804
bumping with pussy
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3 cheap access points and a script to monitor link strength. with a battery powered wifi dongle on the cat.
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>>56953840
>access points
How to power though? Optimally, I was hoping to utilize cheap solar cells to power the base stations, but maybe batteries would be better.
If I understand right though, the wifi dongle would connect or not connect to the access points at a specific signal strength, which would be logged by the access points. Then I could use my home computer to connect to the access points, grab the signal strength data, and use a script to approx a direction, with some trial and error to determine approx distance as well.
I'm not to familiar with connecting to multiple access points though. Is it possible to have them all broadcast the same network signal?
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How good are you with circuit design?.
You could make a simple RF transmitter set it to a frequency and have it transmit 24/7. And than have a pair of antennas that listen to said frequency. Than and here is the fun part. You compare the signal delay from the two antennas. Accounting for the delay you could narrow down the cats location to roughly 2 points. If you do the same with 3 antennas you could pinpoint your cats location.
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>>56954158
Ya I understand the basics of triangulation, which is why I have more than two base stations in my diagram (4 corners to erase problems with obstructions)
I like the RF transmitter idea, though I'd probably want to make it send a signal when it receives one to save battery. So maybe a transceiver on the cat would work. It would listen for a signal from my handheld/base, then transmit a signal once or periodically until I tell it to stop.
Is it even really necessary to have base stations for triangulation though? If I use a handheld transceiver with a directional antenna, wouldn't I be able to track and eventually find the cat? Might be an easier setup overall.
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>>56954265
With a directional antenna you would need to do some walking around. And your results would very based off weather conditions.
You could power a collar off a AAA battery for a week if you set it to transmit every 5 seconds, maybe have it not transmit at night.
I don't know how big of an area you want to cover, but unless its more than a 100m radius you don't even need a very powerful transmitter. Just get a crystal resonator and an LM555.
You don't really need it to have a receiver just a transmitter.
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