Test: Minifinder Atto Pro – simple GPS tracking of your dog or other pets

Most people who have had a pet know how hard it is when they run away, or worse, are stolen. There are various ways to prevent them from running away, but for example, hunting dogs or dogs that work with different search tasks may need to be uncoupled to perform their tasks. Being able to follow the dog in some way is both an opportunity to protect the dog’s safety, but can also have a calming effect on the dog owner. The same, of course, applies to several other animals, such as if you have an outdoor cat.

Minifinder Atto Pro is a small transmitter that is attached to the animal’s harness or necklace and can then be tracked in an app or a website. It consists of a small waterproof plastic box that has a built-in SIM card and a GPS receiver. The GPS data is sent with the GSM signal and in this way you can get location data from the transmitter.

Fence in

For example, if you have a large farm or an area where you hunt / train with your dog loose, you can set up a geofence in the app, ie a “fence” on the map. You can then choose whether the app should sound the alarm when the transmitter enters the area and / or leaves it. The app warns with a signal, vibrations and flashing lights and you can choose which of the alarm functions should be active. It should be possible to get the app to start the alarm even when the app is only running in the background, but I succeed with varying degrees of success with this. As soon as the transmitter leaves or enters the areas I set up, I get a notice, but it is only when I click on the notice and enter the app that the alarm goes off. On some occasions, the alarm goes off immediately, but it does not happen every time. I tested the app on two different phones and the result was the same on both phones. If you are aware of your notices, of course it works to inform that something has happened to the transmitter. You can also choose to have an alarm start if the transmitter travels over a certain speed, which could be a sign that your pet has been stolen. The transmitter also warns when the battery starts to run low.

There are also options for tracking the transmitter live. You always see the position of the transmitter in the app as long as it has GPS reception, but in live tracking mode, the app draws a red line where the animal moves. If you do not want to start live tracking, you can also choose to see the transmitter’s motion history based on a number of different time intervals. This can be interesting if, for example, you have an outdoor cat that you wonder where it is during the day.

Minifinder presents Atto Pro as having a skull indicator, but what this means is that you can call the sim card that is in the transmitter and then hear what the transmitter’s microphone picks up. This can be useful if, for example, you are hunting and the dog has come out of earshot and you want to know if it is running or barking.

Some weaknesses

On the whole, the Minifinder Atto Pro is a pretty good thing for those who have the need to be able to track a stray pet. As I said, you can choose different refresh rates, where the shortest is 30 seconds. This means that the transmitter can be moved for 30 seconds before you can see that it has been moved or before an alarm is activated. Anyone who has a pet knows how far they can go in half a minute. As theft protection or to make sure that the transmitter is within a fairly small area, it is not the best solution. But out in the woods on larger areas, it is not a major problem.

The transmitter has between 24 and 32 hours of battery life, which is perfectly okay. The transmitter is not something that is used all the time if you have an animal that at least sleeps indoors, unless the animal escapes and is away for a long time. Then a longer battery life would of course have been desirable. The charger, on the other hand, is a bit bulky, it fixes the contacts with magnets, but the magnets are too weak so the charger easily falls out of position. When charging, the transmitter is completely stationary and the charging cable is not disturbed.

In summary, I would say that the Minifinder Atto Pro works for its purpose, for those who want a flexible transmitter for their hunting dog or an outdoor cat. You can easily follow the animal and circle areas that you want to know if it leaves or enters. The interface in the app is relatively simple and it is easy to perform the various settings that are available even if the web interface is a bit more cumbersome.