(PRESS RELEASE) They say never work with animals or children, but having had the pleasure of working with Pawtrack on their industry-leading GPS and GLONASS, WIFI & 4G enabled cat tracking collars over the past few years, flynn-product-design.com , one of the UK’s leading product design consultancy reveal that developing the world’s most compact sky facing GPS cat collar has been a fantastic experience.
Pawtrack has been in development for 10 years after an incredible Kickstarter success. Through tireless research Flynn Product Design have helped them develop custom over-moulding techniques to find the perfect encapsulation solution. This led to an incredible 55% reduction in weight, down from 80g to 36g. Working collaboratively with Pawtrack and their electronic development team led to changes to the electronic specification driving more cost effective component layouts – prompting a revised approach for the 2018 product.
The upgraded model is now shipping to 170 countries worldwide distributed direct from Pawtrack.
Head of Pawtrack Jeremy Price recalls “Before working with Flynn in 2015 our previous designers had provided us with a tracking collar which was too bulky & heavy. With previous designers I had just accepted without questioning what had been designed for me. Working with Flynn was like a breath of fresh air. They started looking at my product, concentrating on what my customers would want rather than what would be a quick and easy solution.”
This project was a case study in packing in more consumer benefits with increased endurance using Lithium Polymer cells, better range, better cross network tracking and greater resolution. Squeezing more into a smaller and lighter package than the world has ever seen before, pet owners are now able to hot swap out a battery using curved quick release power modules to replace the power pack whilst the other charges.
Over the past 12 months Pawtrack worked closely with a team of Product Designers at Flynn-Product-Design.com Their brief was to deliver a collar that even small cats can comfortably wear, with next generation technology, battery uptime and a modular build that was flexible to cover a range of sizes at no additional cost. With material and space efficiency at a premium they stripped things back as much as possible while the electronics themselves were developed by partners. Following guidelines set out by animal welfare charities and Veterinarian advisers on how tight a collar should be (too loose and the cat will leave the collar at the first tight squeeze on its daily route). They established a simple but effective quick release system which can be customized for different weights of cat if the collar gets snagged.
The Pawtrack GPS cat collar is the new industry standard in reliability and feline comfort. Using the Galileo system of satellites, as well as GPS and Glonass it achieves industry defining levels of reliability. Providing industry defining tracking reliability and resolution across 3 types of satellite networks, working in 170 countries due to the specialist SIM card that works almost anywhere in range of cell towers. Pawtrack lets you know where your moggy is 24/7.
Flynn Product Design experimented with novel ways to place the battery, inside and outside the collar, curved batteries and segmented batteries, all using our novel and inventive ‘S’- Connector System. Flynn also explored the options of redesigning the PCB Layout and configuration of components internally.
New features for the 2018 model include extra battery endurance and an innovative system to log the collar’s last known location in case it loses satellite connection. There is even a built in WIFI enabled location technology to help you go and locate your furry friend on the ground via the new app.
This was a really challenging project for Flynn Product Design , but the result is a pioneering design sure to give global cat owners more peace of mind, and a unique insight into their pet’s life.
Find out more about the project by visiting flynn-product-design.com.