Loc8tor Tabcat Cat Tracker – Wireless Kitten Pet Collar Tracking Device, More accurate than GPS

My blind cat loves to spend her days outside in our large garden. I check where she is every 20 to 30 minutes, but it was sometimes taking me a (stressful!) 30 minutes or more to find her playing in the undergrowth or sitting up a tree. I got the Tabcat to solve this problem, and now I can find her easily and quickly - a huge relief! Also, when I was away for a week it was reassuring to know that my petsitter could easily find and check on her anytime. THE COLLAR TAG The collar tag is a little bigger than a bottle cap, 3cm diameter, 5mm thick and very light at only 9.5 grams with the silicon cover on. You can attach it to the collar by putting a lanyard/small cable-tie/string through the hole in the tag. Or, you can slip the tag into its splash-proof silicon cover and thread that onto the collar. I'm using the silicon cover, but the initial downside was, because my cat wasn't used to wearing a collar, she fought it and got the tag in her mouth several times. She could hold it in her teeth because of the soft cover. I’m not a fan of silicon covers for this reason. My solution was to cut and re-stitch the collar, cutting out any excess fabric, so it fits her better and is lighter and less noticeable to her. She ignores the collar and tag now and wears it all the time. She's a small cat, but strong, weighing 3.8 kg, and in terms of size/weight, the tag is no problem for her to carry, she still leaps about after insects as normal. I'm using a quick-release safety collar (so it will come off if she gets snagged), and the tag is perfectly compatible with this. THE LOCATOR HANDSET The second part of the Tabcat kit is the handheld locator. This is a small, light, simple device. It looks like a wafer-thin calculator but with far fewer buttons. Press the "On" button on the side, then press one of four channel buttons on the front, then follow the increasing beeps/flashing lights to find your cat. There's one other button to adjust the volume of the beeps. I assigned my cat's tag to channel 1 (a quick and simple process which the instructions explain). There are 3 other channel buttons, so you can use the same handset to locate up to 4 tags on 4 different pets. The set comes with 2 collar tags, 2 waterproof silicon covers, and the handheld locator – so you can immediately start locating up to 2 pets. You can buy 2 extra tags if you want. The handheld locator is small, light and has a hole for a lanyard so you can keep it around your neck - but it doesn't come with a lanyard string, so you might want to get one. To me the locator is so small and discrete that it could be easily lost. Both the tag and handheld locator have CR2032 button batteries installed. You can replace them if they run out, so you might want to get some spares. I haven't used this long enough to know how long the batteries last. RANGE The range is good, and only interrupted between the garden and the paddock when I get close to a thick stone barn wall, but once I go around the corner it picks her signal up again. The garden / paddock is roughly 100 metres long, and up to 50 metres at its widest so the Tabcat can easily cope with the whole area (It operates on radio frequency and can pick up your pet’s signal once they are within around 122 metres of you – according to the documentation). HOW I USE IT TO FIND MY CAT Essentially, I go in the garden, point the locator in different directions until it picks up her signal (the beeping indicates when I have pointed it in the right direction) and then I follow that direction and the beeps and lights go up and down depending on whether I am going in the right direction towards her or not. When she hears the beeps, she actually comes to meet me now. TABCAT OR GPS COLLAR? I was undecided whether to get the Tabcat or a more sophisticated GPS tracking collar. I ended up getting both to see what suited her and kept her safest. Tabcat…. The Tabcat is perfect for a pet you know is probably within a defined or known area most of the time and it's just a case of pinpointing where they are by walking around and pointing it in different directions. It’s also great for smaller cats/kittens because it is light and small. It’s size and shape (circular), means it is unlikely to get snagged. As mentioned before, if you use the silicon cover to attach it to the collar there is a risk your cat may be able to get their teeth into the cover and hold it. So, you need to make sure the collar is a snug (but comfortable fit) – and make sure you only use a collar with a quick-release safety clip so it will break off the cat if they get it hooked on anything. Use it inside for the first few days, check them regularly, and then they should get used to it and ignore it. If you have a kitten who you want to put a locator device on in future, get them used to a collar while they are still young. It took two weeks for me to get my 9-month old cat used to a collar, and we started out with it being on for only 10 seconds at a time, gradually building the time up. At 9.5g the Tabcat adds only 0.25% to my cat’s weight, the equivalent of a 53kg (10 stone) human wearing a 132g necklace. GPS Collar…. If you think your pet is going to go long distances in random directions outside of your immediate area, you may be better off with a GPS tracking collar that maps them in real-time using maps displayed on your phone/computer (and which you can also give friends / petsitters access to) – and which alert you if your pet goes beyond boundaries you set. Some are a similar price as the Tabcat to buy upfront, but the GPS collar usually requires a monthly/annual subscription to work. The Tabcat involves just a one-off purchase price, no subscription. The disadvantage is that GPS tags are heavier and larger than the Tabcat. At 34.5g the GPS one I got, which is meant to be one of the lightest/smallest, adds 0.9% to my cat’s bodyweight. That’s like a 53kg (10 stone) human wearing a 477g necklace! If I remember correctly the various vendors suggest that, because of their weight, GPS collars are only suitable for cats over 3kg, which my cat is. But again, she notices it more than the Tabcat and got her teeth in the silicon cover, so I will wait until she is bigger to use it. The Tabcat is perfect for the moment. Conclusion… I highly recommend the Tabcat. It’s great – as long as you are fairly confident you will be able to get within around 100 or so metres of where your cat may go by walking around their territory, and if there are walls / buildings around you may need to circle around a bit, or find some higher ground to pick up signal. It’s easy to show others how to use it, so if you are away and someone is minding your cat, they can also locate them easily – they only need the handset. GPS collars offer more functionality and unlimited distance, but involve more cost and weight.

I adopted two cats recently and one would just hide and we could never find her. I thought I would try this as I needed to find them in the house and not really outside. Setup is easy and the device is simple to use. However the range in the house is pretty limited, for example if the cat is upstairs the device will not react until I walk up the stairs. We have pretty thick walls but I think a stronger signal would be useful. But it did help me locate the cats faster than not having it on. Secondly the receiver will work for a few minutes and then turn off, this is irritating when you are trying to find a cat over longer distances as you have to turn the device back on all the time. However it did work for me and I like the strength signal as this guides you to the location.

I have used the predecessor to this system for many years. This new simplified 'credit card' style device works OK. The range doesn't seem as good as the larger earlier version (the one that had a screen). I also find that each time I come to use the tracking device (usually there's a couple of weeks between uses), the battery is always flat. I do turn it off each time, and even if I forgot, surely the device should turn itself off after a certain period of not being used. UPDATE: the batteries also fall out of the tags that you track. The only way to avoid this is to use the optional rubber covers. Not a patch on the old system, which I had used for many years until they discontinued it & replaced it with this cheap junk.

We bought this for a new cat before letting her out for the first time. Our location is suburban South London so lots of potential interference. As such, quite impressed with the range. It can tell you from indoors near a window whether your cat is in the back (100ft garden) or front of the house. If the cat has wandered several doors away you need to be outside and walk a few yards down the road to know roughly where it is. If there's a large obstacle like a house in the way (the cat is in a back garden whilst you are in the street) you probably won't locate it but this has only happened occasionally. So, for such a low power device the locator has a pretty decent range. In the open country you would get even more range but again, a large obstacle would block the radio signal. Battery life has proved excellent. If you only use it once every few days the batteries in both tracker and tab will last several months. This might be partly due to a modification I made (below) which makes the tab battery last even longer than it normally would. If you want the tab to be silent and not alert or spook the cat, this is easily achieved. Under the battery in the tab is an insulating sheet. If you lift this up with tweezers you will see two wires going from the circuit board to the tab's sounder. Just cut one of these wires, either one, and replace the insulating sheet. The tab is now completely silent, only the locator beeps, and as a side effect the tab battery probably lasts longer! Location is a matter of practice. You walk slowly around varying the direction of the locator and you will eventually home in on the tab. There can sometimes be confusing readings as the signal bounces off buildings etc. Locating your cat indoors is confusing because the signal is bouncing all over the place, and leaving the tab beeper intact would probably be a benefit here. But you wouldn't normally lose a cat indoors?! This battery multi pack https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07145D3WQ/ is perfect. It's a reputable brand of battery, suits both tab and locator, and will probably last several years.

This provides the tracking base station and two dongles that you fit to your cat's collar. Part of the usefulness of this will depend on whether your cat can keep his collar on. We used a Rogz one which has an adjustable breaking point for the safety release depending on the heft of your moggy. Before we realised this our cat lost his collar in a variety of places, which allowed us to test out the tracking capabilities. First off, this seems a bit expensive for what you get, when you open the box. The packaging is very nice but the base station itself feels like one of those cheap remotes you get with Chinese portable DVD players. Things don't get that much more reassing when you approach the tags. They're made of two fairly brittle plastic disks that snap together with a friction fit. There is some attempt at waterproofing around the hole for a lanyard or ring, with a rubber gasket. But it isn't cut to size and mine was already out of position from the factory. The rest of the perimeter is just plastic You push together and it takes very little effort to prise it apart. The company says you can also use these to attach to car keys and the like as they are, but I can't see them staying in one piece in your pocket for long. They are a bit bigger than I expected but at least weigh next to nothing and our cat is oblivious to his. To toughen things up a bit the Tabcat comes with a silicone pouch for the locator tabs, which is where the extra cost comes from from the non pet version. It envelops the disk, with a couple of slits to pass through the cat's collar. It's therefore not waterproof at all but is presumably better than the nothing you get already, and at least it should hold it together. Tethering the locators to the base station was quite quick, but was bafflingly unlike the instructions described, and was different for both tabs. Keep mashing buttons and you should get there. When you do, operation is very simple. Your press a button on the base station which activates the collar tab. This beeps and blinks (which you won't ever see because the silicone tab covers up the light) and gives you a sort of geiger counter reading to your tab. There are lights which show signal strength. Line of sight range is about what the company claim at 120 metres, but is hugely reduced if there's anything in the way. A brick wall, your hand, or foliage will reduce this down 10 - 20 metres or so. In practise we still found this ok, as you walk around - a 20 metres radius around you is quite a bit and allows you to eliminate a lot of territory quickly. Nevertheless I wonder if the company couldn't increase the signal strength at the expense of a bit of battery life. So far our cat has only not been around once at dinner time, and the beeping of his collar made him hurry back. His lost collar was found under a neighbour's bush, in another neighbour's garden, and the tab inspired another neighbour to call us when he entered her house as she thought it meant he was on some kind of house arrest, like an offender, and wasn't allowed out. So it's been great for getting to know our neighbours and also getting an idea of what he gets up to. To be fair to the company it was well rained on before we found it and still works. So 3 stars out of 5. With better build quality and range this would be excellent. As it is, it's a decent compromise over the GPS locators which are still bulky and have short battery life. But I feel that £70 is a lot for what is in the box. There is nothing wrong with low tech RF technology being put to good use but I am not as confidently I should be for my seventy notes that these tabs will hold up to a knock or sustained rain shower. It is however much better than nothing.

We’ve had several of these over the years. They are a good piece of kit (on the whole). But the last two sets we’ve purchased haven’t lasted longer than 12 months. We recently contacted the vendors (tabcat) as our remote broke after just a few months of occasional use - but they have been incredibly unhelpful and quite rude. We were treated so suspiciously, as if we were trying to con them out of a free handset (the broken one we offered to send back!) and now, after 3+ weeks of asking for support or a new remote we’re still being spoken to like children and still no sign of a new handset despite being told we’d be sent one. This is the last time we buy this product - and i’d say consider the above before purchasing as quality is clearly lacking.

To demonstrate the merits of this product, I'd like to share a story. I've adopted a couple of cats who were rescued from Dubai. While one of them is considered an "outdoor" cat and the other an "indoor" cat (suddenly keen to go outside, too), I still had my reservations about letting them out. My sister had bought a Loc8tor tab for her cat, since he'd recently been missing for weeks, and so I picked up the set of two for mine. After some initial tests indoors, I let them out and it was great for tracking their whereabouts as they never roamed too far from home. Then, one evening, the "outdoor" cat didn't return. I searched the entire neighbourhood but the only place I could get a small bit of signal was by a fenced-off site which, of course, I couldn't enter. The signal would go between 1-3 blips (of 8) but I couldn't see my cat running around anywhere and she wasn't responding to my calls (she usually comes running to me when the tag makes its beep). Since this had quite some range, I figured she was through the site and off revelling in the wooded areas I knew were behind the nearby school and would return when she was ready, i.e. hungry. A small part of me suspected something within the site messed with the tracking ability as it had done with location services on my phone previously. So, I was up all night, watching and waiting for her return when not patrolling every 15 minutes, but kept coming to this same bit of fence where I'd occasionally got a bit of signal. Eventually tired and defeated, I went to bed to get a couple of hours' sleep, worried that she had been struck and wandered into the fenced-off area. I awoke early the following morning and visited the main gate of the site to ask security if I'd be allowed to enter just to search for the cat or if they could at least keep a look out for her or the collar (in case it had broken off). I was denied access but, fortunately, through luck, my parents lived next door to someone who worked at the site who ever so kindly agreed to assist. On a Sunday of all days. So, having been allowed to enter the site, I followed the tracker to where I guessed the cat might be and soon caught her trail again. This time it was 3, then 4 blips. As we moved farther and farther from the fence where I'd stood, the signal got stronger and stronger until... we reached the fence on the other side. I called and a wave of relief rushed over me when my cat answered... except we couldn't see her. She continued meowing in distress but wasn't getting closer. "She must be trapped," we had surmised. And, in a sense, she was. We looked up, and there she was, about 8 metres up, hanging for dear life on the thinnest, most shaky pillar of wood that could even be considered a tree. She must have been up there for about 9 hours by the time, we found her. This required another journey out and round into the school which, in another stroke of luck, was open on a Sunday because it rents out its sports facilities. There we found the tree and coaxed the silly cat down with treats. What a relief. All of this possible because of the enormous range of the tracker. Without it, I can't imagine how I ever would've been able to find her until maybe it was too late. Long story short: this thing is a life-saver. I cannot recommend it enough.

There were a lot of bad reviews about these cat trackers and this one has had its share of bad reviews too, but it still seemed to be the best on the market so I gave it a go. I didn't want a GPS version as they seem to drain the battery within a day or so. If the cat disappears for more than a couple of days you cannot track them. Our cat is also quite small and the GPS trackers are heavy so this seem an ideal alternative being so light. Delivery was prompt and the instructions easily understandable - I had it up and working withing a couple of minutes. I can see what others have said about the pouch for the tracker being susceptible to wear but time will tell for us. It is still in perfect condition after a month. The battery life on the unit is excellent, we have had ours for around a month now and the battery is still going strong. The main factor is how much you use it. Due to the way it works it only uses a lot of power when you are actually tracking it. It came into its own today when our cat arrived home minus her collar. After a few minutes scanning with the tracker I picked up the signal and it took me to the Raspberry bushes in the neighbour's garden. It seems her collar had got caught on a branch and the collar had released as it is supposed to and was left behind with the tracker. The poor cat now has her collar and tracker back on. So far I would definitely recommend this tracker. I can assure you the company have not offered me anything to write this review, I was just really pleased to get it and the collar and tracker back today.

Le batterie si consumano molto in fretta. Purtroppo dopo 1 anno ora non funziona piu il sensore. tuttavia la copertura come da legge vale x due anni.

M'a permis de retrouver mes deux chats dans le jardin sans aucun problème. Celle qui était cachée dans les fourrés et même sortie d'elle-même quand je me suis rapprochée. Le montage est très facile, les chats le supportent bien. Le traqueur bipe de plus en plus vite quand on se rapproche et les lumières passent du rouge au vert petit à petit. Je dirai que c'est amplement suffisant si le chat ne s'éloigne pas trop de la maison. Sinon, il faut avoir une idée où chercher. Le traqueur fonctionne même à travers le mur : je sais si le chat est dedans ou dehors.

Mi gato no volvió en varios días y por poco muero del susto. Así que cuando volvió decidí comprar este localizador. Es perfecto. Con los pitidos y los leds te indica cómo de lejos o cerca está. Vienen 2 localizadores y las pilas incluidas. Estoy adiestrándolo para cuando escuche el pitido venga (estoy en ello). Muy práctico y cómodo. Apenas pesa y a mi gato no le molesta. Es verdad que quizás la señal no alcance 100 metros de distancia, pero te mueves y al final empiezan los leds a moverse. Yo lo recomiendo sin duda.

utilissimo per sapere dove è il micio, che dopo un po' si abitua a tornare indietro quando sente il bip attivato da me col telecomando. Le batterie durano a lungo: un anno per un utilizzo medio di 5 minuti al giorno. Difetti: i tag tendono a rovinarsi, per questo li proteggo con la pellicola trasparente. Comunque, però, si rovinano e per questo occorre averne di riserva. Da tenere presente il corto raggio d'azione che per me non è un problema perché il gatto si ferma nel cortile. Chi vuole accuratezza e lungo raggio dovrà unire un gps al lockator.

NO ES UN LOCALIZADOR GPS, es un LOCALIZADOR POR RADIOFRECUENCIA. A ver, estuve mirando un montón de localizadores para mi gatita que es muy rondadora. Los localizadores GPS son muy grandotes y no me parecieron idóneos para mi gatita de 4 meses, entiendo que le molestaría, y por nada del mundo quiero molestar lo menos posible a mi minina. El localizador GPS te sirve porque si tu gato se va muy lejos, o alguien se lo queda y se lo lleva a su casa, te va a indicar la localización exacta, pero claro, suponiendo que no le quite el collar, si es de mala fe, obviamente se lo quitaran, pero esperemos que no. Al final me decanté por el TABCAT, que como digo, es por radiofrecuencia, es decir, no necesita geolocalizacion por satelite, ni contratar un plan de datos de telefonia (necesario en los GPS's). Inconvenientes: - Sirve para localizar a tu gato cuando éste está pasturando por su territorio, que siempre es en la casa y alrededores (los gatos ya conocemos que son territoriales). Si tu gato/a está en celo, se puede ir muy lejos y no te servirá el TABCAT, necesitarías un localizador GPS, pero son muy grandotes como he explicado. Otro inconveniente es que el radio de localización indican que es de mas de 100mts, puede ser, pero en línea recta y sin obstáculos de por medio. En mi casa hay árboles, vallas, la propia casa, el almacén, todo esto hace pantalla y el aparato acorta su detección, puede que a unos pocos metros (20-30 mts) a lo máximo. No es mucho problema, pues cuando quiero localizar a mi "michi michi" pues doy una vuelta por mi casa hasta que el TABCAT empieza a pitar y enseguida la localizo. Pero bueno, hay que pasear un poquito, nada, hacer ejercicio y por mi "michi" lo que sea. Ventajas: -No necesita plan de datos de telefonia (funciona por ondas de radiofrecuencia) -Abulta y pesa muy poco, tamaño moneda de 50 céntimos, aunque un poquito más grueso (para gatos adultos ningún problema, la mía ya tiene 5 meses pasados y ya prácticamente no le molesta, si es más pequeña le incomodará pero se acostumbra rápido, cuanto más pequeña sea la gatita, más fácil será que se acostumbre al TABCAT, aunque más grandote le quedará. - Cuando pierdo el "michi" de vista, salgo por los alrededores de mi finca y en un lugar u otro empieza a pitar el TABCAT, así que localizo a la gatita en menos de 1min. normalmente. Si no tienes TABCAT tendrás que buscar a ciegas como un loco, así que en este sentido, TABCAT es fenomenal. En resumen, lo recomiendo para tener controlado tu "michi michi" en su territorio habitual, los gatos suelen ponerse en sitios recónditos, agujeros, etc, y te vuelves loco localizandolos. Ahí es donde mejor funciona TABCAT. En general estoy muy contento, tienes 30 días para devolverlo y es fácil de usar. Así que, aunque es carillo, puedes devolverlo si no te convence. No le pongo 5 estrellas porque si tuviera un poco más de alcance ya sería casi perfecto, pero por radiofrecuencia, ya sabemos que no da para más. En resumen, recomiendo su compra para las condiciones que expongo en una situación similar a la que expongo en esta valoración del producto. En zonas de edificios y tal, no es adecuado, hay que tirar de GPS o tendrás que ir por el barrio con el TABCAT hasta que empiece a pitar, lo cual también es una posibilidad, pero lo vecinos fliparán un poco. Si tienes cualquier consulta, yo ya llevo 15 días con TABCAT y te puedo aconsejar bien, me escribes y comentamos [email protected] Espero que aunque largo, ahora entiendas bien para que sirve TABCAT y si es lo que estás necesitando para cuidar y controlar a tu "michi michi". Saludos