Nermal

Not Quite Normal

CATaLOG | An RFID Cat Tracker

The CATaLOG project aims to track our two cats Bobbin and Tuffin as they go in and out of the house so we can see which cat spends more time outside, what their favourite time to go out is, and also get sent SMS messages if a cat goes missing for a certain amount of time. 

The current cat status and statistics are viewable at http://catalog.nermal.net. You can also follow the cats on Twitter.

catalog-exterior  catalog-interior

The system is designed around the Arduino Microcontroller linked to a low cost RS232 RFID reader and uses the Arduino Ethernet Shield and a Linksys WAP11 router acting as a wireless network bridge to send the data over the internet.

The tags used are standard 125Khz RFID keyfobs attached to the cat's collar; the RFID reader coil is stuck to the bottom of the cat flap tunnel.

Project Pages

Testing the RFID Reader
Programming the Arduino
Getting it online and talking to Twitter
Adding an LCD
Ignite Cardiff Talk
Testing the whole system
Adding an external antenna

Once most of the bugs have been ironed out I hope to release the code under the GPL.