Louis

The datalogging shield from Adafruit includes an integrated circuit that provides a Real-Time Clock (RTC). It gets the current time when you upload code. It will use the coin battery to maintain accurate time when the shield is not getting powered. If you notice that the time isn't being kept properly, it may be the coin battery that doesn't have a decent contact. I had that problem because I didn't put a significant enough blob on the circuit board. Let me know if you are having any issues and I can help you troubleshoot!

Indeed! Seems like a good design alternative for those that don't have easy cell phone access. I think also warrants a spot in the documentation at least as a note for now. Perhaps somebody will implement it and provide a little tutorial!

Good point! I think that would be nice to include in the tutorial. I can write it up when I have a minute unless you'd like to. PS: Welcome to the community!

I believe LiDAR would be used in this context to generate a topological map. It would be interesting to convert the 3D displays in topological maps and see how they match LiDAR. LiDAR is kind of expensive - last time I checked the most affordable ones were about $800 but those didn't have a huge range... In the practice of topology mapping I believe they fly over with LiDAR so I would guess you need a decent range.

If you have wiring for LED indicators then tapping into that with an Arduino would be a breeze and there wouldn't need to be much repurposing of Fido software for this. It wouldn't take too much time for me to hack something together for you... Just a few questions: what's the power situation out there? I take it that the power for the fence could also power this alert system. Also, how many miles is it from your internet? I'm antsy to start building Zigbee nodes rather than making different permutations of the Fido design although the remoteness and the generality of the on/off signal could still merit an independent cell phone node design.