Does anyone selfhost a tracker for a dog or cat? A reputable company charges 5€-13€ per month for it. I’m not sure I want to pay that for more than 10 years
Does anyone selfhost a tracker for a dog or cat? A reputable company charges 5€-13€ per month for it. I’m not sure I want to pay that for more than 10 years
Connecting to GPS satellites uses a LOT of power. Most GPS units small enough to go on a collar will only last for a day or two without a charge. That’s why people are suggesting AirTags, because they don’t use GPS and the battery lasts for like…a year? But if you’re worried about your dog getting lost in the wilderness rather than near humans, then an AirTag won’t help much.
You don’t connect to the GPS satellites. On “client side” GPS is passive. Periodically getting the GPS position and sending it via mobile data is actually quite “cheap” regarding battery. Good GPS tracking hardware can get up to 40-90 days availability without having to recharge.
And there are cheap options on aliexpress that are solar powered
That’s not how GPS works.
It’s basically a radio signal your device listens for. Power consumption is tiny for that purpose. My smartwatch can go weeks with GPS active. Hell I have a 20 year old Garmin GPS for my motorcycle that will go several months on a couple AA batteries, and that tech is ancient by todays standards.
To be fair, GPS itself is ancient by today’s standards too. It has been operational for 30 years and first started development another 20 years before that.