Vodafone V-Pet Tracker, A Kippy EVO GPS Dog, Cat, Pet Tracker with GPS Tracking and Activity Monitoring & V-Sim Built in 12 Months of Subscription Included Then £4 Per Month
Download the V by Vodafone & Kippy app
You’ll also need to download the Kippy app from the App Store or from Google Play to use the device and the V by Vodafone app to control your subscription and activate your V-Sim.
| Dimensions: | 13.4 x 13.2 x 5.2 cm; 250 Grams |
| Manufacture: | Vodafone |
Very accurate compared to a lot of devices we have tried before. Doesn’t hinder our dog at all. This is our second Kippy and wouldn’t go for anything different.
Allora…
L’involucro esterno di amazon era integro ma la scatola del prodotto aveva i sigilli rotti e mancava il velcro previsto in dotazione.
Detto ci il prodotto sembra funzionare bene!
Attendo di poterlo provare in un’area estesa indossato dal cane.
Me ha sorprendido mucho el tamao que tiene y que es muy ligero, tengo un perro de aguas y le queda perfecto, no le molesta cuando corre ni le pesa.
El proceso de instalacin fue muy fcil con la app en el Smartphone. Estoy muy contenta con la opcin de monitorizacin de la actividad que no saba que la tena, as le tengo ms controlado y gestiono mejor los paseos.
Works very well and as there is no monthly payment for a year good value for money.We live in countryside so there are no issues with gps etc.
Out of the box, the device needs to be charged. The device uses a charging cradle, which looks odd but works fine. Note that it will check for firmware updates while charging, so watch the indicator to see if this is happening, as you won’t want to interrupt that.
The device itself is a very reasonable size for a dog, but our cat didn’t like it at all. It’s too big for cat. It fitted to her collar, but it hung there like a millstone. She wasn’t happy. The dog was fine with it. It’s a bigger animal.
Attachment is via a Velcro strap, which is secure, but not as nice as a neat mount fixed to the collar.
The device collects data, something like a Fitbit, and transmits its location to your phone, via the app — you’ll need two. One app is for your Vodafone account; the other is the bit that actually connects to Kippy. Here, you make a profile for your pet, so the data from Kippy makes sense for the breed and age of dog, and so on.
The app looks fine, and seems to be robust, but it isn’t very intuitive. You really need to read the manual for this; tapping things won’t suffice. These days, that shouldn’t be necessary. Plenty of apps manage much more complex tasks while remaining very simple to use. Amazingly, there’s no real-time tracking. The map shows you where the Kippy was, but it is periodic, meaning you don’t get a continuous line on the map to show where your pet went — its route. It’s really about pet location, which is a feature that works well on Kippy. Once the app has connected to Kippy, it will guide you to the right location. We had no problem with that.
This is the first pet GPS we’ve tried. It was easy enough to set up, not exactly intuitive to use, and the feature set was a bit lacking. I really wanted the full picture of my pet’s every move, but I didn’t get that. A big plus is that the pack includes a full year’s subscription. It means you can try it for a while to see if you want to continue.
Well where do I start? The device is of ample size and has a bit of weight to it. I’ve strapped said device to my feline.
Said feline is named Elmo.
Elmo was instantly appalled that I strapped this device to him. He instantly had the look of, “WHY ON EARTH DOES HE NEED TO KNOW WHERE I GO?”
I sent Elmo off into the unknown with the Kippy attached. Unsure whether the device would return as Elmo has form for losing his collars either that or he sells them for catnip.
I monitored Elmo for three days to see how he gets on. It appears he’s a lazy cat who cannot be arsed to move more than 50m from his food bowl.
The Kippy also acts as an activity tracker for your cat…. This means very little to Elmo as he appears to spend most of his day sleeping.
The only bonus of the tracker is that I can see when he is on my doorstep. This is highly amusing to me as when I’m 30 miles away I can look on my cctv camera and call him in.
The look of shear joy of, “THAT AWFUL HUMAN IS FINALLY LETTING ME IN” is on his little fluffy face. The look of joy soon goes when I don’t actually open the door, until several hours later when I arrive home.
So in all the tracker would be great for an active pet…. Not an Elmo!
The app itself is very easy to use and to monitor. It works much like Strava but for kitty feet.
Very useful gadget for pet owners in many ways. My dog is accurately tracked in real time and its really handy as we live pretty far out in the countryside in Scotland and it’s easy to lose my little Bichon between the woods and the fields. It comes a Vodafone data only sim with a year of subscription but even after the 12 month it cost only 4 for a month which is a fair price compared to the worry this is saving me. I’m not sure how is it will be after the Brexit but right now teher is no extra fee to use data in the EU so this will work outside of uk with no problem. To see the real time location and all the activity data require a smart phone or tablet to download the app. the activity tracker feature it is almost the same like a fitbit for humans it tracks the activity from walking, running, sleeping, eating and even the data of the calorie burned. The app it self is easy to use, very user friendly, it has a dashboard with a daily view, and it can be set a goals too. The Battery is the weak part of this GPS tracker I charge them every 1 or 2 day. Other than that I highly recommend this.
Setting this up was ok but a little bitty; you have to register this with both virgin first then with kippy. The kippy app needs to evolve a bit more as this is a little cluttered to a first view. Its well written though just a classic case of technologists have designed and engineered this without giving a human factors scientist more input. . For the montg i tested this on twosmall very active dogs. The strong velcro attachment to the colar works but i think a few options may be a good step for the future. On a small dog this looks a big unit, but the dogs soon accept it as it is very light. When out on walks even through dense undergrowth it remained securely attatched to the collar which is good. The gps tracking mode had about 20s latency and in an active dog this is very notixable as they were often back before the data! That mode is perhaps more intended to provide feedback data of say a long bike ride or running session with the pet and free roam ‘self-walks’. The virtual lead uses Blutooth and is a really good feature as this is responsive real time data. The step and activity tracking worked well. Loved this and the virtual lead. As a product its a nice start at a technology area that clearly is going to grow and evolve. Overal i like it and happy to recommend. Andrew
I hope I never have to use this because our hound has gone walk abouts without us, however the the info it provides is so interesting.
It was a bit of a faff to load all the info as the app is not the easiest to install. I also forgot when my big boy was born (bad Mummy!) it required his length to be put in. For anyone who has an Irish Wolfhound like us or a Great Dane, just to let you know the longest you can put in is 200cm.
So far today, I can see how long he has walked for, ran for, how many calories he’s used up etc. He sleeps way more than I thought. He’s not reached his required number of steps yet today, but he’s not had his evening walk yet.
I did test out the GPS part when he was in the back garden & it gave our address!
There is also a “live” setting where it shows the map & exactly where he is.
I am so impressed with this device. I would definitely recommend. It’s grea
Our cocker spaniel is full of life and when she gets her nose down and focused can get a bit lost, this gps tracker and health monitor is an ideal way to help find her when she gets away. The packaging is minimal and the app is ok but the real headache was the initial setup, it took over 30 minutes of installing apps, registering accounts and payment information to get the item working. Although a headache when setting up, once its going you do get 12 months free subscription and it has worked flawlessly. After a few days of walks we discovered from the information provided (age, breed etc) that she was getting enough exercise but could do with a little more so we extended the walks to give her the best health possible. The app takes information such as age/breed and uses vet reference information to tell you if they are getting enough exercise. Its pretty clever and I expect they will continue to develop the services further. The gps is accurate and will warn you if your dogs strays too far away, if she does you can locate her via the map in the app. Our dog doesnt run away often but has got distracted a couple of times leading to a small search party on the caravan site looking for her, this is ideal for assisting with finding her quickly and safely. The unit itself isnt that big and doesnt bother the dog at all. After the 12 months free it is 4 a month to keep the services, which isnt too bad.
when this is working well, it actually works
however there are to many bugs in the app and is not that user friendly, this is like it is still in beta and needs an update
i tried it on the cat as well and cat came back without it ! i did manage to find it
i think it may be to heavy for a cat but i wanted to test its range
overall it does work as stated and its nice the sim is for 12 months no added costs
battery life is good
just the app needs an update to make it easier to use and less buggy
A smart and convenient pet tracker simple attaches to an existing collar. Comes with a 12 month subscription which is great value for money when it ends, at only 4 a month. A great Vodafone connected product which gives you peace of mind, comes with an app also which has some really handy features. Great connectivity, easy to set up, managed to do it in under five minutes. Comes with easy to follow instructions. Smart looking, like the colour, doesn’t look too bulky or add weight to the colour. Easy, no fuss! A pet owner must. I will be purchasing additional items for my other pets. Love it!
The choices are Bluetooth for immediate tracking from your mobile phone. This is called a ‘virtual leash’. This will simply tell you, based on an maximum Bluetooth range of 10 metres (and in practical use it will be less), that your pet is nearby, or rather not nearby when you’ll get an alert! This uses very little power. Second, you can choose set a WiFi safe zone. This simply lets you know if your pet has moved out of range of WiFi based in your house. Again this doesn’t use much power but won’t, like Bluetooth, give you a precise location. As WiFi has a greater range than Bluetooth the areas your pet can wander before you get an alert is larger. Next, using GPS you can set a geofence zone so if your pet goes outside a set area defined by you – which could be determined by an area being near to a busy road. This approach will give you better locational information with updated locations every two minutes. Finally live tracking gives you detailed geolocational information in real time. This will plot a more or less precise roaming path for your pet but as it is updating every few seconds it uses a vast amount of battery power and the device will need charging at least every day. There’s a hybrid mode that turns GPS on for the first two tracking modes but only updates every 15 minutes, hour or more. This will deplete battery life but not as fast.
The tracker uses all of these technologies – assisted GPS – to reduce its reliance on information from GPS satellites themselves to reduce power requirements. And of course GPS will not work well if the sky is obscured but you can turn GPS on when you need it – when your pet is missing and a precise location is needed.
For all of this there’s a 4 charge per month, waived for the first year (although the tracker with the included subscription actually is about double the price). This, in the UK, allows the system to link to Vodafone’s mobile network. If the Vodafone network is poor in your area the tracker won’t be for you. You need the phone network for the tracker to let you know where your pet is. Without this the app on your phone wouldn’t know where the pet was or be able to turn real-time GPS tracking on from a distance. A reviewer has questioned why there’s a subscription when other GPS devices don’t require it. It’s simply for this reason – a phone connection is needed to tell you via a data connection where your pet is! GPS devices won’t tell you where you are when you’re not holding the device, or they reply on using other app users Bluetooth signals to locate the device which offers nothing approaching real-time tracking. Nor will those devices allow you to change the tracking system from your phone at a distance.
Other observations for now, well as ever the kit is a bit large for cats. It’s not heavy but is bulky. The tracker is attached to your existing pet’s collar by Velcro that might not be that robust. Usefully though you can turn an LED on on the tracker to help locate your pet in poor light. You also get activity-level information which is interesting.
I’ll update the review once I’ve been using it for a few more days. For now it seems interesting and I like the range of tracking technologies that are used. Of course of battery life was better more reliance could be placed on GPS alone but that’s an industry-wide issue. A promising four stars pending an update in a few days.