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Tim Evdokimov
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  • Jun 26,2025
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Cat-as-a-thing in IoT - tracking cat walks with LoRa and TTN

LoRaWAN + BroWAN tracker + TTN gateway yield a lightweight, cost-effective, long-range cat tracking system, bypassing commercial restrictions. Hardware and software are open to further customization and alert automation.

Cat-as-a-thing in IoT - tracking cat walks with LoRa and TTN
 
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Story

Context & Motivation

 

An engineer in Duivendrecht, near Amsterdam, wanted safe outdoor roaming for his cat Escobar.

 

Commercial trackers (Invoxia, Findster, Tractive, AirTags) failed due to poor coverage, high SIM fees, sluggish updates, or excessive bulk.

 

Chosen solution

 

LoRaWAN + TTN gateway

 

Deployed indoor TTN LoRaWAN gateway (~€70), extended range via external antenna setup (Aurel GP‑868 + cable) 

 

Tracker hardware

 

Selected BroWAN Object Locator: 28 g, 540 mAh battery, movement-activated, ~8–10 hr life at 1 min intervals, 1 km range.

 

Cat harness modified with Velcro pockets to hold BroWAN, Findster (backup), Tile (local buzzer) 

 

Functionality & pros/cons

 

LoRa sends ~50 bytes uplink per minute with GPS & battery data; TTN gateway forwards via console/API 

 

Lacked buzzer in BroWAN; Findster & Tile added to assist locating when nearby 

 

Setup supports low-cost transmissions over community TTN mesh with no SIM fees.

 

Software stack

 

TTN console configures device/app and byte parser.

 

HTTP integration pushes data to custom backend (Scala + TypeScript).

 

Real-time route tracking via websockets in browser 

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License: Attribution-MIT License

Cat-as-a-thing in IoT - tracking cat walks with LoRa and TTN

LoRaWAN + BroWAN tracker + TTN gateway yield a lightweight, cost-effective, long-range cat tracking system, bypassing commercial restrictions. Hardware and software are open to further customization and alert automation.

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