Radio & Signals is the engineering view of the network the welfare analytics ride
on. When positions drift, tags go quiet or a collar never fixes, this is where the
cause usually shows up first. Pick the time window at the top right.
LoRa: relays
- LoRa link quality charts the signal strength of uplinks arriving at each relay.
A line that keeps falling means a collar is drifting out of range, or an antenna
or cable problem is developing.
- Relay throughput compares frames heard over LoRa with frames published to
MQTT. Some gap is normal, because heartbeats aren’t published. Rising drops mean
trouble with the broker or the relay’s WiFi.
Both come from the relay’s status heartbeat, sent every 60 seconds once it is
connected.
- BLE signal strength shows how loudly the collars hear each ear tag. Tags
advertise at low power on purpose, so a slide toward −90 dBm means a tag is at
the edge of coverage.
- BLE link budget by pair lists every tag and collar link in the window: how
often it was heard, how loud, and when last.
GNSS: collars with a receiver
Collars fitted with a GNSS module report what their receiver can see every epoch,
with or without a position fix. A collar that sees plenty of satellites but can’t
fix is a very different problem from one that sees none. This section appears once
any collar on the farm reports.
- Stat cards summarise the latest report per collar: satellites used in the
position, accuracy (HDOP), signal strength (C/N0), and how often collars had a
full 3D fix.
- GNSS satellites charts the satellites each collar used, against the farm’s
average number in view. Four is the minimum for a 3D fix. A collar running well
below the in-view line is shaded: under trees, in a gully, or wearing its antenna
badly.
- GNSS accuracy charts horizontal dilution of precision. Under 2 is good.
Spikes line up with the positions most likely to wander on the map.
- GNSS sky by collar breaks the latest report down by constellation (GPS,
GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo): satellites used / tracked / in view and their average
signal, plus how long the collar took to get its first fix after power-on.
Read signal and satellite counts together. Lots of satellites tracked at weak
signal (low 30s dB-Hz) points at the collar’s antenna or how it sits on the animal.
Few satellites at strong signal points at the sky being blocked where the animal is.
