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About OpenCollar

OpenCollar is a conservation collaboration initiated by Smart Parks to design, support and deploy open-source tracking hardware and software for wildlife and environmental monitoring. Publishing the hardware, firmware and tools lets researchers, students and conservation organisations build and adapt trackers for their own species and use cases, and lowers the cost of collaring more animals.

Who builds it

  • Smart Parks (Utrecht, the Netherlands) leads the project, assembles and sells the devices and runs deployments.
  • IRNAS (Slovenia) co-develops the electronics and firmware.
  • Hack the Planet co-developed ScannerEdge.
  • Partners and supporters over the years include African Parks, WWF, Peace Parks Foundation, Conservation Without Borders, Hackster.io (the 2020 ElephantEdge challenge), Lacuna Space, Arribada, WildLabs and EarthRanger.

History in brief

  • 2019 to 2020: first-generation OpenCollar trackers (STM32) and the ElephantEdge challenge on Hackster.io.
  • 2020 to 2021: the OpenCollar Edge platform on the nRF52840 and Semtech LR1110; RhinoEdge horn implants and RangerEdge.
  • 2022 to 2023: shared firmware 2.x to 4.x for RangerEdge, RhinoEdge and RhinoPuck; ElephantEdge and WisentEdge on the RangerEdge board; FenceEdge.
  • 2024 to 2025: CollarEdge boards and collars, CollarEdge Free with Iridium, CollarEdge Pico and Nano; firmware 6.x with contact tracing and cardiac monitoring.
  • 2026: firmware 7.x and 8.0 (LP0, new settings structure), the public firmware repository and this site.

Where else to look

Contact

info@smartparks.org