Signal loss alarm for dog

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello from Italy, this is my first post!

I recently entered the Arduino world and I am thinking Arduino might be useful for a problem I am currently experiencing. My dog keeps finding new ways to run away from my garden! Since cars run rather fast in the area around where I live, I am worried that someone (or my dog) might get hurt. I would like an alarm (a loud sound would be sufficient) to be triggered when the dog goes too far away (50m or 60m, say) from a receiver that I would locate in the house. The transmitter would have to be located in the dog collar and so should necessarily be small and lightweight. Is this possible? Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks, Matteo

2

A cheap solution (4.65$) :

http://www.ebay.es/itm/Keychain-Anti-Lost-Baby-Pet-Theft-Safety-Security-Alarm-/271031568725?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f1abd8955

You can hack this device.

3

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try it. However, I think it's probably hard to hack this device to make it work for a 50m range. Has anybody experiences/suggestions in this regard?

Matteo

4

My teacher always says: "the best amp is a good antenna"

Think in this device like a wifi router or acces point hack

Regards.

5

This might help:

http://shop.moderndevice.com/products/jeenode-kit

These JeeNode devices are quite small, should be able to fit them into a small container attached to his collar. They can be powered from a single AA battery with another device:

http://shop.moderndevice.com/products/jeelabs-aa-power-board

According to a page I found you might expect a range of 100 m outdoors, so that seems to fit into your requirements.

You would have a second one in the house, listening for a "heartbeat" from the dog. If it didn't get one after (say) 30 seconds, it would sound an alarm.

Meanwhile, on the dog, the device could go to sleep to conserve power, and wake up every 8 seconds using the watchdog timer (watchdog for the dog, eh?) and sound out a "I am here" message.

6

Heke:
My teacher always says: "the best amp is a good antenna"

Thank you, I agree. This device is really too inexpensive not to try it out and I am about to order one. However, here there is also a transmitter and, for this price, I honestly doubt it will work beyond a few feet. There are a few videos showing how this device works (one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX_veMIs8dI), but all of them seem to test the device only for very short ranges.

Now, this really seems to be what I was looking for! I have been researching into the JeeNode all afternoon. This really opens up a world of new possibilities!

Thanks, Matteo

7

you could also teach your dog not to leave the property...i guess that would be the cheapest solution