PetTrack

Good day everybody!

It’s been a long day. I have done a lot of things today, mainly with pettrack_monitor. Basically:

Firstly, I did a git rebase and made my last few commits make a bit more sense. There were commits that weren’t that useful or had the wrong name; it’s always better to have a good commit history. Next, I finally installed the app on a real device, and let’s just say, there were some problems. The flashlight was on while taking pictures, which is what I fixed first. It was quite easy, just one line: await _controller.setFlashMode(FlashMode.off);

Afterward, it dawned on me that most people (including me) will use this app in Landscape mode, not Portrait. I fixed that issue next, but that itself came with a batch of new problems. The layout broke, like, fully. I couldn’t use the app at all, so I had to rewrite the whole layout with flexes and SizedBoxes; it was a pain in the a**. After this issue, instead of showing the SetupScreen every time the app opens, I made it a one-time thing and added a Settings menu and an About page. There were some issues with overflowing, but I fixed that as well. Now the app is fully functional. However, there is an issue I haven’t gotten around to fixing yet: when I exit the SetupScreen and go into MonitorScreen, the Xiaomi Camera API kills itself for whatever reason. I tried fixing it, but to no avail.

It’s currently 12:30 AM, and I am very tired now. Tomorrow, I hope I will fix all remaining issues with the Monitor app and move onto the Server-side logic, zones, database, etc. And while doing that, I will start working on the Client-side app (at least an MVP) so I can start testing the app and server together.

Berci is also looking forward to testing the app! (And don’t ask why he is there he is there because he wants to I have no idea why that’s good for him)

Peace out!

We finally have the server in Docker up and running!

I haven’t had much time to work on the project yesterday and today, but I started working on the Docker and Dockerfile, and well this is still whichcraft for me :p

But, we are developing and we are getting ahead, and I hope that after the MVP for the server is working, I can start working on the client side MVP of the app, and we can start implementing features from there.

I am very tired, and I have a long day tomorrow.
Until then, there is another picture of Berci!
P.S: Tomorrow I hope I can show some of the actual project!

Hey!

Welcome to my project, PetTrack, this is the first Devlog of the project.

I just recently got a rabbit, and while in school, I don’t know what she’s doing. And I assume a lot of animal parents face the same issue, or not an issue but just an uncomfortable feeling, maybe she/he got out, maybe they are doing something wrong, maybe they are not doing well, etc.

This is what PetTrack aims to solve, so this uncomfortable feeling goes away, and you can be sure that your pet is safe and sound, while you are away.

It uses an old phone as a “Monitor”, which will be attached to for example the cage of a pet, and connected to external power.

Originally I wanted to make it so that there is no “central” computing, but after thinking about this for some time, and figuring that most of the people who are going to use this are going to use a close to min requirement phone (assuming low range old phone, and not a new flagship/new anything basically) and the issues with if the monitor dies for some issue, I decided on using a “central server” and using FastAPI with WebSockets to make the usage more seamless. It will be a simple Docker image that you will need to compose and run on a RPI or your server.

The Client will be the “main” app, the one you will use the most, the one you’ll use daily. This is my last priority at the moment, let’s get the data first (Monitor), analyze and make use of the data (Server/backend), and the last is to see the data (Client).

I’m open to any and all feedback on the project, any tips, help with Py/Flutter, would appreciate!
Thanks for reading!

Pic Description: My rabbit, named Berci, and an MVP of the server and Monitor.