--- title: Meshtastic Pet Tracking | daily.dev description: Jon G Aguado built LIA, a pet tracking collar that uses Meshtastic and LoRa instead of a subscription or network connection. The custom PCB packs an ESP32-S3,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-pet-tracking-oeeay8zyg twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Meshtastic Pet Tracking | daily.dev og:description: Jon G Aguado built LIA, a pet tracking collar that uses Meshtastic and LoRa instead of a subscription or network connection. The custom PCB packs an ESP32-S3,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-pet-tracking-oeeay8zyg og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OEEAY8ZyG.png og:image:alt: Meshtastic Pet Tracking og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Meshtastic Pet Tracking **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 1 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Jon G Aguado built LIA, a pet tracking collar that uses Meshtastic and LoRa instead of a subscription or network connection. The custom PCB packs an ESP32-S3, LoRa radio, and a GPS/GNSS receiver, powered by an 18650 or 5023450 pouch Li-ion cell. It charges through a magnetic 4-pin USB pogo connector for weather resistance. A high power mode gets a location fix every 30 seconds and lights two LEDs, while low power drops to about once a minute, with an off setting too. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I build a pet tracker that doesn't need cellular service or a subscription? An open-source project called LIA uses Meshtastic and LoRa instead of cellular networks to track pets off-grid. It runs on a custom PCB with an ESP32-S3, a LoRa radio, and a GPS/GNSS receiver, powered by an 18650 or 5023450 pouch Li-ion cell, and charges through a magnetic 4-pin USB pogo connector for weather resistance. _Makers comparing off-grid tracking builds can follow Meshtastic and LoRa hardware projects on daily.dev._ ### What's a reasonable GPS fix interval for a battery-powered LoRa tracker? The LIA pet tracker offers a high power mode with a location fix every 30 seconds plus bright LEDs for visibility, and a low power mode that fixes location only about once a minute, with an off setting to save battery entirely when tracking isn't needed. _Anyone tuning battery life versus fix frequency on LoRa trackers can track similar hardware tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A weatherproof, solar-powered, nRF52840-based LoRa \+ GPS development kit](https://daily.dev/posts/a-weatherproof-solar-powered-nrf52840-based-lora-gps-development-kit-4jzpoz96m) · CNX Software · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meshtastic Does More Than Simple Communication](https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-does-more-than-simple-communication-emvxpltjw) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Introduction](https://daily.dev/posts/introduction-vmn1zgf5q) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Makerfabs Nomad Terminal features ESP32-S3 WiSoC, LR1121 LoRa transceiver, 3.5-inch touchscreen display](https://daily.dev/posts/makerfabs-nomad-terminal-features-esp32-s3-wisoc-lr1121-lora-transceiver-3-5-inch-touchscreen-disp-y729f6bst) · CNX Software · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This $35 ESP32 touchscreen makes Meshtastic feel less like a commitment, and you still get a great display if it doesn't stick](https://daily.dev/posts/this-35-esp32-touchscreen-makes-meshtastic-feel-less-like-a-commitment-and-you-still-get-a-great-d-wqrhhyhac) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#lora](https://daily.dev/tags/lora) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-pet-tracking-oeeay8zyg) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Meshtastic Pet Tracking","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-pet-tracking-oeeay8zyg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meshtastic-pet-tracking-oeeay8zyg"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T11:23:07.113Z","dateModified":"2026-10-25T11:23:37.183Z","description":"Jon G Aguado built LIA, a pet tracking collar that uses Meshtastic and LoRa instead of a subscription or network connection. 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