Hej Travis, . Thank you so much for sharing your experience. And your passion which must be shared by many if not all WildLAbs members! . I think you are summarising the current status of affairs in nature conservation, we build and conserve because it must be done, but it’s clearly not enough. Hence my thought: what if people could earn money ( like, a decent income, or even a lot of money), would that work as a motivator for a massive drive of activities towards nature conservation? You seem to be arriving at a similar conclusion for the sake of tech development, ie for technical innovation. I would seek more innovation in social and economic thinking on nature conservation and how it is organised and financed. Profit seeking could be such an innovation. . Cheers . Frank . PS sorry for my late response. Your message arrived in the midst of mi move from Costa Rica to Spain, so I’ve spent little time on WildLabs and the theme I had I had to spend on my share in organising the upcoming webinar on sustainable income streams for open source projects.

Thanks.

Any time you meet someone with internet to invest in the beekeeping industry. Kindly remember my name.

Great dear Travis,

This is a great news and an opportunity to me and my local bee keepers. It really sounds very helpful.

Here is my contacts:

Email: muganyizi@pales.or.tz 

Mobile WhatsApp: +255686 821 070.

Kindly spare a time slot so that we dive into details of this for your support and collaboration.

Hi Carly,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful message—and for introducing me to Freaklabs! BoomBox looks awesome, and it’s exciting to see how closely our goals align. There’s definitely potential for collaboration, and I’d be happy to chat more. Their system is super efficient and I think both of our systems have a place in this space. 

Affordability and reliability were key considerations when I started building Orpheus. I wanted to create something rugged enough to survive in the field year-round while still being accessible for conservationists with limited budgets. The full-featured unit is €1500, and the basic model is €800. That pricing reflects both the hardware and the considerable time I’ve spent writing and refining the system—it’s all about balancing performance, durability, and keeping it sustainable for the long term.

Even the base unit is more than just a playback device. It logs every playback event, duration, and species, with enough onboard storage for two years of data, and it automatically converts the logs to line protocol for easy integration into platforms like InfluxDB.

On top of that, Orpheus actively logs and graphs temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and battery voltage. During deep sleep, it interpolates the environmental data to preserve meaningful trends without wasting energy. You can view any of these on it's 5" touch screen or view it in the cross-platform app that will support both Android and IOS once I'm done programming it.

As for audio specs:

• Recording is supported up to 96kHz,
• Playback is full 24-bit, both MP3 and WAV formats
• The system currently supports recording audio clips, reviewing them, and even adding those clips directly to playlists on the device.

That said, for bat research, I know ultrasonic capability is essential. While the current hardware doesn’t capture over 100kHz, I’ve already done the research and identified alternative audio interfaces that would support that range. If that’s a need researchers are interested in, I’d be open to building out a dedicated version to meet those requirements.

Power-wise, it runs indefinitely on solar, even under partly cloudy conditions. It uses a LiFePO₄ battery, and depending on usage, it can operate for up to two weeks on battery alone. It also supports external power from 12V or 24V systems, and solar input from 12V to 70V, so it’s pretty adaptable to various field setups. it also can operate from -5 to 70C (still testing that), but the hardware should be capable according to specs. Your correct though in places like the rain forest that could be challenging and an alternative would need to be considered. 

The software is written modularly to allow for expansion based on user needs. For instance, I’ve already integrated support for a rain sensor that can pause playback if the user chooses that, and could easily include PIR, microwave, or other sensors for more specialized triggers.

Regarding durability, I’m currently testing mesh cable sheathing to deter rodents and other wildlife from chewing the wires—this was a concern raised by one of the teams using Orpheus, and I’m designing around it.

Also, Orpheus includes a seasonal scheduling engine—you can define your own seasons (like Migration, Breeding, etc.) and assign unique playback playlists to each. The device uses astronomical data (sunrise/sunset) based on your provided lat/lon and time zone, and automatically adjusts timing offsets like “1 hour before sunrise.” The goal is truly fire-and-forget deployment.

I'm open to adding any features or sensors that might be useful within reason.

I’m curious though, what specs would make a recording device for bats an indispensable tool? What features don’t already exist  on the market that should?

 

Warm regards,
Travis

Thanks for your interest and sharing potential candidates, Vance!

Thank you for your interest @Alasdair !