As someone in the USA I've compared GPS to an Airtag and the difference hasn't shown to be different enough to bother with GPS. Considering how cheap an airtag is and the difference in battery life - it's a no brainer to use an airtag. The density of iOS devices in the USA is such that it's very comparable to GPS in my experience.
This is a cool project, though. One thing I didn't see is, how much does it cost to make this in practice?
I live out in the sticks, and the whole reason I invested in a GPS/LTE collar for my dog is because there are broad swaths where he'd only be in range of an apple device if he had line-of-sight to it. Considering his favorite exploring path is the creek bed set 8 feet below grade, that means he'll just disappear.
I'd love to own the data from that collar, but I also looked into the BOM of doing this, and (considering what my time is worth doing the full-stack embedded electronics thing) it was absolutely cheaper to buy it and lose access to the data. It's a lot cheaper than fully fencing 2.5 acres out in the country.
My friend lives in a suburb of a city and her cat's airtag rarely went off enough to be useful. He mostly hangs out in the bushes where she was most worried about not finding him.
There's also the issue of keeping him on our land. There's added correction capabilities (first a signal noise, then a mild shock) as part of the Halo collar that we got him. And an entire training program that comes with it, so prior to enabling the feedback mechanisms, I train with him so its not just a bolt from the blue.
He's an 80lb Belgian Malinois, a breed known for their high drive, and for being pretty scary looking. People out here keep goats, horses, chickens, etc. He knows not to go after our chickens, but do the neighbors know he won't go after theirs? The last thing I want is for him to wander onto a neighbor's property and get shot because he looks like he's helping himself to their livestock. He'll get shot for that (or less), and I'd have zero recourse, even legally.
The Halo collar is the exact same price (including data plan) as the apple watch, but I trade remote feedback to him if he leaves the property (and a collar ruggedized to the rigors of an active dog), vs owning the data, but on a device that's not at all designed to be worn by a dog that likes to roll in dead fish and coyote shit.
Meanwhile, adequately fencing the property (so he won't jump over it) will cost me between $12k and $30k. Compare that to $700 + $5/month.
Are you asking me if, in the situation where my failure to build a $12k-$30k fence (for materials alone, not including labor, and the environmental impact survey that has to go along with 1200 linear feet of 6' high fencing in a wildlife corridor) gets my dog shot, will I wish that I spent tens of thousands of dollars when the ~$1000 or so I spent on equipment, and a few weeks' worth of after-work training should have done the trick?
No, I won't wish I had fenced the property. I'll wish I'd done a better job of training my dog.
I’m guessing the big downside to that is that an Apple Watch running a workout continuously has a battery life of maybe 6-8 hours at best, so you’d have to buy at least 2 of them and fiddle with them several times a day to swap them and start a workout. And also they cost $300 each but I haven’t looked at what any other option costs, admittedly.
Honestly if that's the only spot where there's an issue I'd get an old iPad LTE and solar panel and permanently mount it somewhere with solar. Then the airtag will be able to find your doggo there as well.
It's cheaper than fencing thousands of feet of perimeter, anyway.
That creek is miles long, forms one border of my property, and its all of below grade. I'd have to install numerous repeater stations to accomplish that, all on somebody else's property, all along that creekbed. Turns out the government and the telecos have made those investments for me.
I did a very rough BOM analysis of just the raw components and if you buy them at their highest rate (1pc cutoffs), the raw component cost excluding the PCB was about $100 USD. My guess is you would be looking at about $200.
Personally, I would be jumping in if I could buy a fully populated PCB and take care of 3D printing, final assembly and software. However, doing electronics like this is far out of my wheelhouse.
So I put an AirTag on my cat, who promptly lost it in about a week.
I only know very roughly where the tag is. Its location is still being updated after two years. (Lost mode activated: Sept 6, 2021. Last seen 16 minutes ago.) I used to think it was two doors down, but its somewhere near the end of the block.
That's it. I have no better idea, because I have to be near it to make it beep, and I can't make it beep. The arrow mode doesn't trigger because I'm not close enough to it. Once -- and only once -- did the signal get strong enough to trigger mode, but it went away before I could do anything.
AirTags kind of suck. Even when I was playing with the tag in the house, I could only get the beep/arrow mode to work when I was in the same room with it, and at that point, I could literally see it.
My partner runs an at-home business that results in people coming & going a bunch throughout the day - so we put AirTag collars on all 3 of our cats for peace of mind. So far none have gotten out but even in the home it's nice to just open the 'Find My' app & know exactly where cat X is when you can't seem to find them.
My only hope is that in the future Apple designs an AirTag mini of sorts. Right now they're juust on the edge of being too big to keep strapped around their necks. They don't really seem to care, even at the current size, though.
I wish Androids had a way to talk to the Airtags :/ iphones have that cool proprietary technology that points you in the direction of the Airtag even if no other phones are nearby
That's Ultra Wide-band (UWB), and it's supported on several Android phones including Pixel 6/7 Pro. I don't know if the proprietary Apple bullshit prevents using Android to find them, but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well.
> but there are UWB trackers from Tile and Samsung as well.
I think the problem is that these trackers get a lot of their benefits from network effects. I own a bunch of Tiles, and I find them really useful, but if I lose my luggage somewhere I'll only get a ping if they happen to be in range of another phone that also has the Tile app.
Meanwhile, with AirTags, given the prevalence of iPhones in the US, you're much likely to be in range of someone with an iPhone at most times.
> In addition, Google is updating its Find My Device experience to make it easier to locate devices by ringing them or viewing their location on a map — even if they’re offline, it says.
> This, too, will arrive later this summer, along with new support for Bluetooth trackers from Tile, Chipolo, and Pebblebee, as well as audio devices like Pixel Buds and headphones from Sony and JBL.
100%. That’s the reason I would only buy something on the Find My network (have recently had great success with “ATUVOS” ones for about $12 each and one found on Temu for like $10ish) or maybe if there was another that would enjoy 90%+ coverage of Android phones - although I suspect the fragmentation and unavailability of system updates to many devices that aren’t brand new would mean it would take 5 years for such a network to be built.
I've thought about an AirTag for my cat, but she doesn't tolerate large collars well (meaning if she doesn't like it - it will get lost on a branch somewhere).
This is a cool project, though. One thing I didn't see is, how much does it cost to make this in practice?