Inspiration
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Cat Trax
Inspiration
We're car people. With a $20 Bluetooth adapter and an app like BimmerLink, you can watch your BMW's boost pressure live on your phone. With CarFax, you can pull up a car's entire service history in seconds.
A Cat excavator costs far more than a car and earns its owner's living, yet the person running it can't easily do either of those things. Fault codes show up as strings like MID 039 · CID 1407 · FMI 18, the Cat app refreshes about once a day on base plans, and repair history is scattered across dealers, paperwork and people's memories.
Caterpillar asked how to give every machine a digital memory. To us, the gap was both obvious and strange: the data already exists, it just never comes together. CATTrax brings car-enthusiast-level knowledge to heavy equipment. Our one-liner: know your Cat the way you know your car.
What it does
CATTrax is one web app with four parts, each inspired by something car owners already have:
| Part | Inspired by | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| CATLive | BimmerLink | Live sensor readings in real units, fault codes in plain English next to the original code, and the raw data frames the machine sends |
| CATFax | CarFax | A permanent record of every service, repair, fault, fluid sample and technician note, from delivery to today |
| Ask CATTrax | New | An assistant that reads CATLive and CATFax together and cites the exact records behind every answer. Each citation opens the real record. |
| Cat Reman suggestions | Core charges on rebuilt car parts | When a part starts wearing, shows the Cat Reman option, the core credit at stake and the nearest licensed Cat dealer |
The key moment: a hydraulic pump starts losing pressure. A warning takes over the screen and shows the live reading next to the machine's own history. The last time this pattern appeared, in 2024, the warning was ignored and the pump failed 24 days later. That's live data plus memory in one view.
From there, the operator asks CATTrax why, gets an answer backed by clickable records, sees Reman options and the nearest dealer, and books the repair. The technician logs the fix, and it goes straight into CATFax. The home screen adapts to three roles: owner-operator, technician and fleet manager.
Try it: Live demo · Pitch deck
How we built it
1. Found the real problem. The prompt was wide open: five pillars and no data provided. We focused on one question: what would make a machine's history actually useful to the people who depend on it?
2. Borrowed from the car world. We mapped car tools to their Cat equivalents:
| Car world | Cat world |
|---|---|
| OBD-II port | Cat 9-pin diagnostic connector |
| OBD-II protocol | SAE J1939 |
| P-codes | MID / CID / FMI codes |
| Dealer software | Cat ET |
| Connected-car apps | Product Link and VisionLink |
3. Researched what exists today. We found that the Cat App refreshes about once a day on base plans and shows only about the 130 most critical codes. Live data still means a technician's laptop. That gap became our opening.
4. Talked to Caterpillar. We pitched the concept to the Cat team at the event. They liked the mix of live data and memory, wanted the real codes and records visible rather than hidden behind a chatbot, and stressed keeping customers connected to Cat. One of them suggested integrating Cat Reman, Caterpillar's remanufacturing program.
5. Researched Cat Reman. Customers pay a refundable core deposit, return the worn part, and get credit based on its condition. Reman parts typically cost 45 to 85% of new, with a same-as-new warranty. Catching a part while it's wearing, rather than after it fails, keeps it eligible for credit.
6. Set the theme and cut scope. Our theme became strengthening the connection between person and machine. Live data plus memory became the headline, Reman became a supporting feature, and we cut fleet-wide learning to keep the story tight.
7. Designed the demo first, then built to it. One machine (a Cat 336 excavator), one failure story, about 30 to 45 seconds of clicks.
8. Built the app. CATTrax is a single self-contained web page that runs in any browser with no install or server. It includes the role-based dashboard, the CATLive chart with raw J1939 frames, the CATFax timeline and record viewer, the warning takeover, the assistant with clickable citations, and the Reman flow with a dealer finder and core-return tracker.
The raw data feed uses real J1939 encodings, decoded on screen. For example:
$$ T_{\text{coolant}} = \text{raw} - 40 \ ^\circ\text{C} \qquad \text{RPM} = \text{raw} \times 0.125 $$
9. Built the pitch. A 4-slide deck in the same visual style, ending with a button that opens the live demo.
Tools: HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with no frameworks or external data. Machine data is simulated. We used Claude (Cowork) for research, design and code. Research drew on Cat App documentation, Caterpillar's Reman and core-return pages, Cat's ISO 15143-3 API documentation, and public references on MID/CID/FMI codes and Product Link.
Challenges we ran into
- An open-ended prompt. Five pillars, no data and no judging rubric up front. We had to pick one story and say no to a lot.
- No real machine data. We built realistic synthetic data: sensor channels with noise, a year of service records, and a planted failure pattern for the system to "discover." All of it is labeled as demo data.
- Live data isn't really live today. Learning that Cat's cloud data refreshes about daily changed our design. We added two modes: cloud for anywhere, and Bluetooth at the machine for true real time when signal is bad.
- Keeping the chatbot from taking over. It's tempting to make an AI chat the whole product. We put a calm dashboard in front and made the chat a side tool whose answers point back to real records.
- Making the warning feel earned. A warning that just pops up looks fake. A hidden demo key starts the cause (pump pressure sliding on the live chart), and the warning fires only when the data crosses the threshold.
- Being honest about time. Real pump wear takes weeks. In the demo it happens in seconds, and we say so on screen.
- Naming and branding. "Cat Link" is already a Caterpillar brand, so we renamed our live feature CATLive. We used the Cat name and yellow but designed our own wordmark and drew our own excavator instead of copying Caterpillar's logo.
- Placing Reman correctly. Our first demo made Reman the climax. Feedback pushed it back to a supporting role, so the live-data-plus-memory message stays in front.
- Fitting into a short presentation. We cut the deck from 8 slides to 4 and left the detail for the demo.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- A working end-to-end demo, not a mockup. It goes from a healthy machine, to a live warning, to an explanation with sources, to a booked Reman repair, to the fix logged in CATFax.
- Real protocol detail. The raw data feed uses real J1939 message types and encodings, decoded into plain English on screen.
- Live data and memory on one screen. The warning shows today's pressure drop beside the 2024 failure it matches.
- Answers you can check. Every claim from the assistant links to the record behind it.
- Validated with the customer. We changed the product based on what the Caterpillar team told us, including adding Cat Reman at their suggestion.
- Designed for real people. Plain-English codes, a "safe to finish your shift" message on warnings, different home screens per role, and a layout that works on a phone.
What we learned
- How heavy equipment reports data: J1939, Cat's MID/CID/FMI fault codes, Product Link, VisionLink and the ISO 15143-3 (AEMP 2.0) telematics API.
- How Cat Reman and core returns work, and why the timing of a repair changes its cost.
- The tradeoff between cloud data (available anywhere, but delayed) and local data (real time, but only at the machine).
- That talking to the customer early changed our priorities more than any amount of brainstorming.
- That a good demo is a story: one person, one machine, one problem, and a clear payoff.
What's next for Cat Trax
- Real data: Connect to VisionLink through Cat's ISO 15143-3 API, and prototype a Bluetooth J1939 adapter for live data at the machine.
- A real assistant: A language model that retrieves from CATLive and CATFax and cites its sources, the way the demo does today with scripted answers.
- Dealer integration: Let licensed Cat technicians write to CATFax at every visit, the way dealers report to CarFax.
- Fleet learning: Anonymized patterns across every machine of the same model ("most 336s with this code were fixed by…").
- Owner-controlled sharing: Full history for the owner and dealer, plus a shareable summary for resale.
- Offline mode: Keep recent data on the device for jobsites with poor signal.
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