So, while I'm waiting for hardware to arrive, I will ponder some of the project objectives and challenges.
1) I'm making a pet collar, so I need a pet collar and a way to attach the board to it. This will require a 3D print and some board measurements.
2) To send data to the cloud, the unit currently uses an App on a phone, I'll need to do some range testing on the board and maybe some antenna mods.
3) I've downloaded documentation and code examples from hackster.io and developer.atmosphereiot.com
4) Some code features:
- Determine if the dog is in the house
- Determine what room the dog is in
- Determine if the dog is sleeping or wandering around
- Determine if the dog is by the door and may need to go out
- Determine if the dog is by the food dish and may be hungry or thirsty
- Locate nearby bluetooth devices and connect if possible
- Use NFC as a "dog tag" for home address and phone number information for lost dog
- Dog-to-dog communication (secret feature)
Update...
I've been looking at pet tracking collars online, and the best ones have features I probably won't be able to duplicate.
https://puplifetoday.com/best-gps-dog-trackers/
- Waterproof - we'll see
- Smart LEDs - maybe
- GPS tracking and GEO-fencing - probably not
- Cellular communications - probably not.
- Remote "radar" tracking - I don't think so. (Garmin Astro Bundle cost $650 )
I like this design by Xingqijia, I'll 3D print something similar for this project
