Pitch

One paragraph

meshtrap is an open-source LoRa network for monitoring predator traps in New Zealand backcountry. Trap nodes run for years on a small solar panel and report status back through a router-tier mesh to a local hub. Hubs report onward to Trap.NZ and, optionally, to a central service that multiple operators can share or self-host. The system is designed for DOC, community trapping groups, and individual contributors to use the same infrastructure without sharing administrative control, and for a non-technical ranger to deploy a node in five minutes with a phone.

One page

Problem

NZ has ~25,000 km of trap lines and a national goal of predator-free status by 2050. Today most traps are checked by walking the line on foot. A single trapper services dozens to hundreds of sets; many catches go undetected for weeks until the next visit. Existing remote-monitoring products solve this for organisations that can afford NZD 300+ per node (Econode, WheroNet) or proprietary networks (Encounter Solutions / Celium), but community groups and individuals are largely priced out.

Approach

A federated LoRa network with three tiers:

• Trap nodes — tiny, solar-powered, multi-year battery life, USD 30-ish BOM. Wake only to report status (default 4 times per day) or on trigger.
• Routers — RX-always-on relays mounted on ridges or trail junctions, with bigger panels and batteries. Self-organising router-tier mesh.
• Hubs — local authority at a ranger station or community group’s premises. Runs a web UI, stores history on an SD card, optionally relays telemetry to Trap.NZ and / or a central aggregation service.

Multi-tenancy is built in. DOC, community groups, and individuals can each run their own networks; data flows up to a central service they choose (the default, or a self-hosted one), and onward to Trap.NZ for community-wide visibility.

Differentiation

meshtrap is not the fastest, longest-range, or most polished commercial product. It is:

• Open — hardware and firmware are auditable, modifiable, reproducible.
• Cheap — sub-NZD 50 BOM per node at volume is plausible.
• Federated — networks are sovereign; no organisation gates the others.
• Trap.NZ-native — designed to plug into the platform NZ trapping groups already use, not compete with it.
• Mesh-tier routing — fills coverage gaps that single-gateway LoRaWAN deployments can’t reach in gully terrain.

It does not claim to outperform Celium’s narrowband VHF in dense bush, nor to replace Goodnature’s self-resetting traps. It’s the plumbing between traps and the people who care about them.

Who it’s for

• DOC and Predator Free 2050 Ltd: a low-cost extension layer alongside existing investments, with a clear path to self-hosting and data sovereignty.
• Community trapping groups: an affordable way to get remote monitoring on existing trap lines, with native Trap.NZ integration.
• Individual contributors: someone wanting to monitor traps on their own property, or contribute a node to a nearby network.

Status

Specification and planning phase. First firmware bring-up imminent. Target field pilot: TBD; aim for late 2026.