Build his neighbourhood network.
Find the right places, compare the kit, then test it on your streets.
Your corner of Gouda
440 × 440 m · building-aware estimateDistances above are illustrative model limits, not field measurements or manufacturer guarantees.
A tiny radio, powered by one coin cell.
Buy the beacon assembled, configure it, then print a holder. Your home receivers do the listening.
Minew MWB01 + collar mount
31 mm diameter × 9.2 mm · 6.7 g before accessoriesMake it work, step by step
Select a step to see the explanation.Order from China · simplest assembled kit
Is that little battery really enough?
Yes, a coin cell can power a low-energy BLE beacon. It sends brief radio bursts, then sleeps between them. The collar does not run Wi-Fi or calculate GPS coordinates.
Conceptual timing illustration; burst duration is not measured here.
Explore the battery maths
An illustration using a 210 mAh cell, not a prediction for any product. Enter a measured average current once available.
Days = capacity (mAh) ÷ average current (mA) ÷ 24. Cold, battery voltage under radio pulses, board consumption and reporting settings can shorten runtime. The 70% factor is an assumption, not a validated reserve.
Your printable collar holder
Concept onlyThread the strap through two tunnels
The tag sits close to the outside of a commercial breakaway collar. Two integrated loops hold the strap; the printed part never bridges the release buckle. Use a retaining cover or bezel so the tag cannot pop out.
For an assembled tag, print a mount around the existing sealed housing. For the DIY board, a separate enclosure also has to protect the battery and electronics. No finished dimensions or water rating have been validated.
Measure before creating the final STL
- Collar strap width and thickness.
- The exact tag or board with its battery installed.
- Button and battery-cover clearance.
- Total printed mount + tag + collar weight.
PETG is a practical prototype choice. A final outdoor material and print profile depend on your printer. Start by printing an empty fit sample.
Check the complete assembly
Round and smooth the edges. Test retention and the commercial buckle’s release off the cat. Fit with two fingers snugly underneath and recheck. Test radio range with the finished mount, then introduce it under supervision.
A tracker is not a replacement for the collar’s release function. Weigh the tag with its holder; assess its bulk as well as its weight.
Sources, compatibility and what is still to be built
Product claims checked 6 November 2026. Minew MWB01 listing · MWB01 specifications · MG3 Standard listing · MG3 custom server support · MikroTik tag specifications · MikroTik manual · Dutch MikroTik listing · HAshop Dutch listing · Shelly ZB specifications · Fermion specifications / pinout · One-time programming instructions · Cats Protection collar guidance.
The site is a planner and manual test log. Receiver setup, a sighting backend and live dashboard integration still need to be implemented and tested with hardware. No tag-to-gateway combination here has been physically tested by us. Minew uses iBeacon-style advertisements; MikroTik can be configured for iBeacon. Shelly uses BTHome, so the receiver/backend must match the chosen tag. Local raw-BLE RSSI scanning and decoding do not require Shelly scene-control features. Verify firmware and encryption/key handling before ordering a gateway for a Shelly tag.
Advertised ranges are open-area claims, not coverage through your street’s buildings. This guide does not automatically calibrate the existing map. Manufacturer battery claims apply to their stated configurations, not our custom settings. Illustrations are schematic, not exact pad locations, CAD geometry or print instructions.
A small kit, with room to grow.
Supplier prices and complete setup allowances are shown separately. Prices checked 6 November 2026.
Your equipment list
Updates with the receivers enabled in your map| Complete setup allowance | Qty | Estimate |
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EUR totals are planning allowances including basic power, cabling and cases. USD supplier prices are not converted or added directly. Delivery, installation labour, paid hosting and any additional VAT/import charges are excluded.
What does “range” mean?
A receiver has no single fixed range. The tag, both antennas, walls, height, Wi-Fi traffic and the cat’s body all affect reception. Choosing a more expensive board here does not automatically increase coverage.
Turn estimates into evidence.
Carry the tag at collar height. Test the network before your cat wears it.
Record a reading
No point chosenChoose a test point on the map, then enter the receiver’s observed results.
No readings yet.
A simple 60-second test
01 Calibrate at 1 m outdoors using the final tag settings.
02 Walk to accessible points at 10, 20, 40 and 60 m. Hold the tag about 25 cm above ground and rotate it.
03 Listen for 60 seconds with Wi-Fi/MQTT running. Note RSSI and how many 10-second windows received a packet.
04 Repeat behind the closed window, at first-floor height and near garden boundaries you can access.
Your readings
Built for testing, not guessing.
Public geography, transparent assumptions and your own field measurements.
How this estimate works, and what it misses
RSSI = reference RSSI at 1 m − 10 × exponent × log10(3D distance) + net antenna gain − building loss − optional stress margin. Paths cross actual BAG building footprints. A building is treated as a solid block at its maximum 3DBAG roof height above local ground; missing heights use an explicit 8 m assumption. A ray above a block avoids that block. Each blocked entry/exit costs the chosen wall loss, with 0.3 dB/m extra inside buildings.
All antenna and cat heights are metres above an assumed common local ground level. Cat height is 0.25 m. This is a straight-ray screening model with no diffraction, reflections, Fresnel clearance, individual roof shapes, interior walls, foliage, fences, cars, glass coatings, antenna beam patterns or body-shadow model. The 8 dB stress option is a sensitivity check, not a statistical confidence interval. Coverage is sampled every 5 m and limited to 180 m from a receiver; inspect individual points for a more exact calculation. It is not safe-zone proof or a precise position estimate.
First-floor height defaults to 4 m because you described first-floor Wi-Fi access. Roof defaults to 11 m and is separate. The house’s maximum model roof height is about 9.9 m, with a source quality flag; verify before using it for mounting. Front and rear pins are placed just outside the estimated building edges; relocate to real windows or outside mounting points. A window inside the facade, especially coated glass, can worsen reception.
Test procedure and useful next changes
First calibrate RSSI at 1 m outdoors with the final tag settings and collar attachment. Then test 10, 20, 40, 60 and 100 m along accessible streets, plus rear garden boundaries where you have access. Compare outside versus behind the closed window, ground floor versus first floor, and stock versus proposed antenna. Use the same advertising interval and transmit power each time. Start at 2 seconds. Test with Wi-Fi/MQTT running and at several times of day.
A useful initial acceptance criterion is at least one received advertisement in each of six 10-second windows in repeated trials at important points. Log zero reception too. Never send the cat out to make a range measurement. Add a receiver where repeated measurements find a gap; distant strong RSSI alone does not establish which side of the house the cat is on.
Hardware, costs and the roof antenna
For the first test, use one configurable BLE tag and two Seeed XIAO ESP32C3 receivers. Add a third first-floor node only to compare height or cover a gap. The XIAO lists at $4.99, with an external antenna included according to Seeed’s documentation. Our €15–25 allowance per indoor node includes USB power, a cable and a basic case; it is not a supplier quote.
Minew’s E8 store page lists $8, 6.5 g, one-year claimed battery life and up to 150 m range; its older poster says 50 m. Confirm the exact variant, transmit power, configurable interval and weather protection before ordering. Shipping and VAT can dominate a single-unit order. No verified waterproof rating is given on that E8 page; a suitable enclosure adds weight. The one-year claim is not verified at our 2-second advertising setting.
For a permanent outdoor receiver, an Olimex ESP32-PoE-ISO-EA-IND lists at €35.05 including tax, before its weatherproof box, cable and power equipment. It receives ordinary BLE beacons; do not assume it supports LE Coded long-range advertisements. A future Coded-PHY tag needs a compatible receiver and firmware at both ends.
A roof experiment should start with a 2.4 GHz outdoor omni antenna around 3–5 dBi, using a radio-approved antenna configuration. Higher gain narrows the vertical beam and can hurt nearby ground coverage: for example this 8 dBi antenna has a 15° vertical beamwidth. This indoor model is an illustration, not an outdoor shopping recommendation. Keep RF coax short; mount the receiver beside the antenna and carry Ethernet/PoE indoors. Wi-Fi is practical at the first floor if reliable, but scan while sending MQTT to test coexistence. Roof labour and professional mounting/protection are excluded from the budget.
With our default assumptions, an unobstructed receiver reaches the chosen −90 dBm model cutoff at about 39 m; +3 dB net gain gives about 53 m. One assumed 8 dB wall crossing reduces 39 m to about 17 m, before other losses. These are mathematical scenarios, not measured ranges for your beacon. The best investment after the home test may be another receiver near an inaccessible garden, rather than a bigger antenna.
No BLE subscription is required. Existing Wi-Fi and a server you already operate can avoid a new service bill. Electricity and server hosting remain separate. For illustration, three nodes averaging 1–2 W each would use 26–53 kWh/year, about €8–16/year at an assumed €0.30/kWh. Measure real power use; this is not an electricity tariff quote. This page itself is a planner, not a live receiver backend.