Is There A Tracking Device For Animals? How Do You Use Helium Tracker For Pets Tracking
Dogs are great, but there’s also a lot of worrying coming along with them. At least for the owners. One of those worries is the dog running away and/or getting lost. You can save yourself a lot of worry and make sure your pooch will always be home with the help of The People’s Network – Helium.
One of Helium’s main projects is the LoRaWAN-based IoT wireless network it builds in a decentralized fashion. People from all walks of life are able to get Helium IoT hotspots and can add to the network’s range and capacity. In turn, people and businesses can use the Helium Network for their IoT projects and enjoy much lower fees and a lot more freedom. Well, near complete freedom, since the network is decentralized and there’s no single owner.
Usually, we associate IoT projects with static ideas. For example, building a smart grid in a factory or a smart air quality system for an office. In reality, IoT can be “on the move” and there’s a lot of benefits for using Helium for such a project. For example, to keep track of your pet’s movements.
Keeping pets safe
Helium is an open network and this allows companies to build and offer services which use it. And there are already a few smart dog collar projects that use Helium out there.
One of them is Inoxia Smart Dog Collar. It comes as a comfortable dog collar which has several smart features. Pet owners can monitor several health metrics on their pooch, including heart rate, respiratory rate and so on. A companion app uses the collar’s sensors and AI to detect various activities and movements such as walking, running, barking, scratching, eating, resting.
This is ideal to be sure your dog is doing well after a medical procedure or when you’re at work and your furry friend is home alone. The Smart Dog Collar also features Bluetooth, GPS, LTE and other modules, along with the Helium network compatibility. Thanks to them you can know the location of your dog in real time at all times. This way, if the dog jumps the fence again, you can track him down. And if it happens at night and you can’t quite see him, there’s a buzzer on the collar to help you locate him. These services will have a monthly subscription.
Another alternative is the Lynx Pet Tracker by BeeSecure. This one is a small device which you can attach to any dog collar. It will give you information about location, direction of movement and temperature. You can specify “safe” locations and when your dog moves out of them, you can get an instant SMS and/or email alert about that movement. The less features means you can recharge the battery once every few months, depending on the usage.
This device will also use LoRaWAN and thus the Helium Network. The benefit of this is you can use it anywhere in the US and Europe (certified for both) as long as there’s Helium coverage. And with more than 880,000 hot-spots globally (as of July 6th, 2022), virtually all major cities are already fully covered by Helium. A lot of smaller towns are now also getting better coverage.
The beauty of Helium and IoT in general is the freedom. So, if you want, you can actually build your own pet tracker system and use it without paying additional services. There’s one such project called VFence. It’s a DIY project which allows you to build a virtual fence and keep pets, kids or bikes in check. And of course, you can adapt and create your own ideas for the same purpose and enjoy Helium’s network.
Why choose Helium for your pet tracking?
IoT devices on the Helium network enjoy several benefits. First, Helium is designed for low-powered devices. This means you can use these sensors for much longer periods of time without having to recharge their batteries. Thus, the chances for the battery on your dog’s smart collar to run down right when you need it the most, are much, much lower.
Also, Helium provides a reliable and fast connection. This means you can have real-time data about your pet’s location and track the movements, so you can get to your furry friend quicker and safer.
And the usage fees are much, much lower than on any other wireless network. We’re talking about cents or a few dollars per year, depending on usage (if you have made a DIY project) or the subscription fee if you’re using a special service with more features. Either way, it’s much cheaper than traditional services and you get the same features, sometimes more. So, if you have a pet, do make sure you research the, available in your region, Helium pet trackers or make your own. You and your lovely pets will be much safer for it.
