Project Overview
I originated and led the core technical design of the Fevertags animal health monitoring system, initially architected pre-acquisition at Haxiot and later productized and scaled following its acquisition by Digi International.
Fevertags is a LoRaWAN-based livestock health monitoring platform that enables continuous, low-power body-temperature sensing with edge intelligence to detect early signs of illness in cattle. The system is designed for large-scale agricultural deployments where battery longevity, RF reliability, and zero-touch provisioning are critical.
The platform is engineered for ultra-low-power operation, achieving over 12 years of battery life under normal operating conditions on a single 550 mAh LTC CR3032 coin cell. This is accomplished through aggressive power optimization, duty-cycled sensing and communication, and edge-based processing that minimizes unnecessary uplinks.
My scope spanned end-to-end system ownership, including embedded firmware, edge intelligence algorithms, RF and power optimization, cloud integration, and production readiness. The system leverages the Digi XBee-LR LoRaWAN module to deliver long-range Sub-GHz connectivity across ranch-scale environments while maintaining multi-year battery life.
Impact & Outcomes
Enabled early disease detection in livestock through continuous temperature monitoring and edge-based anomaly detection
Achieved over 12 years of battery life on a single 550 mAh LTC CR3032 coin cell under normal operating conditions
Delivered a field-deployable, ultra-low-power LoRaWAN sensor suitable for large herds and remote agricultural environments
Reduced operational overhead through automated provisioning and cloud-connected fleet management
Successfully transitioned a startup-originated system into a commercially supported Digi solution
Demonstrated real-world ROI for precision agriculture and animal health monitoring at scale
Technical Scope & Ownership
Embedded Firmware: Sensor firmware architecture, ultra-low-power operation, sleep-state orchestration, and OTA update paths
Edge Intelligence: On-device algorithms for temperature analysis, event detection, and uplink suppression
Power Optimization: Coin-cell power architecture enabling multi-decade-class battery life through duty-cycling and aggressive energy budgeting
RF & Connectivity: Sub-GHz LoRaWAN optimization for long-range reliability in ranch-scale deployments
Platform Integration: Digi XBee-LR module integration and Digi X-ON IoT platform connectivity
Cloud Integration: Secure ingestion, device lifecycle management, and data visualization pipelines
System Productization: Transition from pre-acquisition prototype to production-grade, certified commercial deployment
References
Official Fevertags Website
https://fevertags.com/
Digi Video: Digitizing Animal Health Using LoRaWAN
https://www.digi.com/resources/videos/digitizing-animal-health-using-lorawan
Digi Press Release: Digi Launches Digi X-ON
https://www.digi.com/company/press-releases/2025/digi-launches-digi-x-on
Send2Press Coverage
https://www.send2press.com/wire/digitizing-animal-health-using-lorawan-with-fevertags/