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Want to talk about sensors that don't quite fit into any of our tech-specific groups? This is the place to post! From temperature and humidity to airflow and pressure sensors, there are many environmental sensing tools that can add valuable data to core conservation monitoring technologies. With the increasing availability of low-cost, open-source options, we've seen growing interest in integrating these kinds of low bandwidth sensors into existing tools. What kinds of sensors are you working with?

discussion

Nutrient sensors - affordable, user-friendly, effective - do they exist?

Samantha Deane

26 April 2022 12:49pm

Hi all, at the Kelp Forest Foundation we are researching the ecosystem services of cultivated giant kelp in and around Kelp Blue's offshore farm in Namibia. We are creating...

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Alasdair Davies

6 May 2022 7:08pm

Hi Samantha,

This looks like a really interesting and beneficial project. Wishing you all the best with it.

Are you scouting for sensors that are archival and deployed / recovered over set period of time, or do you need telemetry / daily / hourly data to monitor change from tethered buoys etc? We are working on a similar solution with another partner, although not with microfuid-based sensors, but there are similar barriers regarding cost reduction and data collection.

Kind regards,

Alasdair

Harold Tay

12 May 2022 3:43pm

It sounds like you're looking for multiparameter probes to deploy in the water to log in situ readings as part of the baseline you want to establish, and you might be deploying BRUVs, doing video transects, or taking soundscapes in addition, if I'm not too far off the mark.

The multiparameter probes will run you around USD10k each, kitted for let's say pH, conductivity, DO, turbidity, nitrate, and temperature.  If you can rent these probes and the manpower to run them, that may be the best option if local expertise is lacking, as there are subtle gotchas.   You might want to look into an automatic winched system which raises and lowers the probe, so you get readings throughout the whole water column.  This may not be much more expensive than having 3 probes (at surface, bottom, and mid-depth).  Other advantages include reduced biofouling (since the probe parks in air) and potentially reduced maintenance load due to this.  But the disadvantages include fishers tying up to the system and boats colliding with it, and birds pooping on it, all of which have happened to me.

Carly Batist

4 June 2022 7:55pm

What exact nutrients or parameters are you trying to measure? 

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event

Join the Black Mammalogists Week Hackathon!

WILDLABS Team

19 April 2022 12:00am

On May 3rd, join the Black Mammalogists Week Team for their virtual Hackathon highlighting three conservation tech areas of interest. All skills and levels of expertise are welcome! Want to get involved? Fill out this...

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discussion

Spotting primates w/ thermal scope

Ollie Wearn

7 April 2021 1:33am

Hi thermal experts! We're thinking here in FFI of getting a thermal scope to help us more accurately count gibbon group size (a key vulnerability in our population...

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Carly Batist

14 April 2021 8:42pm

Yeah, it did seem fairly general, but figured I'd throw it in. 

I just actually came across this on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ElieDoesEcology/status/1380708784050331651?s=20. Perhaps worth shooting the authors of this paper an email on what tech they used/any advice?

Kai

4 April 2022 3:02pm

Iray PH35.  like a DV . thermal camera. 640*328,35mm. could make videos.  2400 USD, china product, easy ship to Vietnam. 

1km is the range to check monkeys,  It is better to connect with your laptop or iPad when you are looking for wildlife,  big screen for a good view. 

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careers

Opportunity: Graphic Designer

Conservify

8 March 2022 12:00am

The FieldKit team is now seeking a freelance Graphic Designer with a passion for conservation technology! If you'd like to use your skills to connect with a conservation technology community, please send a cover letter...

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discussion

Scale with data logger

etanner22

7 January 2022 4:25pm

Hello all,   I am curious if anyone is aware of a scale with high precision that is capable of data logging as well. Though we have found some that may work in a lab...

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Harold Tay

18 January 2022 1:23pm

Hi,

Can you clarify what you mean by "does not work"?

If I were to guess, I'd say the firmware temperature compensation tables for the load cell tops out at 40 deg C (104 deg F).  Everything else should still function to 70 deg C, which is the most common and most lax rating for electronic components.

If this is the case, then the scale probably still retains precision (output is repeatable) even if it is inaccurate (output is wrong-ish), so it's possible to calibrate it.  This could be as simple as tabulating the measured weights of standard weight samples at different temperatures, to adjust the output of your scale in post processing.  Unfortunately this means you also need to log the temperature, and you'd want to store the scale at close to ambient temperature so it quickly equilibrates (a good idea regardless) when you need to use it.

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article

The race to save California's rarest butterflies

BBC

29 November 2021 12:00am

In pursuit of saving the Monarch butterflies, Carlo Mondavi- pioneer of the Monarch challenge- was inspired to develop the world's first fully electric smart tractor tractor with co-founder and Chief Executive, Praveen...

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discussion

ECG/heart rate & body temperature sensor

gdillen

13 October 2021 4:43pm

Hello, For a sheep/goat monitoring project I'm looking for qualitative but budget-friendly sensors for monitoring ECG/heart rate and body temperature. By preference sensors...

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Harold Tay

15 October 2021 9:51am

Hi Guy,

Sparkfun carry an ECG module, but I don't know if this will work with sheep/goats.  They've got lots of temperature sensors too, but I would look into something like MAX30205 if you need accuracy.

Carly Batist

5 November 2021 6:28pm

Do you mean the sensor itself (that you're going make a tag out of) or a datalogger that records heart rate (sensor incoporated into a tag already)? Vectronic make some good terrestrial animal physiological sensors. 

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discussion

Proximity detection in koalas

Julian Beaman

12 August 2021 8:20am

Hi Sensors People,  I am new to WILDLABS and excited to be here! I am researching the behavioural ecology of koalas in South Australia. I am trying to figure out if it...

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Rob Appleby

24 October 2021 4:45pm

A great proximity system you've developed @LuciKirkpatrick ! Amazing! I am curious how you deal with having tags in receive mode long enough to ensure a contact is logged? What's the chances of a contact being missed because a transmission doesn't overlap with a receiver being on? It seems like not very often given the comparison with camera trap data! 

Thanks so much for sharing and looking forward to reading more about the build.

Cheers,

Rob

 

 

Luci Kirkpatrick

4 November 2021 9:15am

Hi @Rob+Appleby , thanks for your kind words about our system! We ge around this by ensuring that the tag is in receive mode at least as long as the pause between two proximity transmissions. There is still the odd chance that some interference occurs or two or more transmissions collide, but generally it is pretty reliable.

 

Rob Appleby

4 November 2021 12:26pm

Hi @LuciKirkpatrick 

Aha! A great strategy. I thought it might have been a 'wake on radio' solution, but the overlapping wait time is a really nice solution. Again, a great solution and looking forward to more build details etc., as they arrive.

All the best,

Rob

 

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funding

Opportunity: μMoth v1.1 Group buy

Open Acoustic Devices

4 November 2021 12:00am

GroupGets has a Group buy campaign for a μMoth v1.1(Round 2), that runs till  Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:55:00 PDT. The μMoth v1.1 goes for a Single-unit price of  $99.99 + shipping.To join this buy, kindly visit this page

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article

Technical Difficulties: Expect the Unexpected

Eric Becker and 1 more

27 October 2021 12:00am

In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...

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article

Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff

Eric Becker and 1 more

20 October 2021 12:00am

In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...

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article

Technical Difficulties: The Path to Success

Gautam Shah

14 October 2021 12:00am

In his contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Internet of Elephants founder Gautam Shah shares the lessons learned from challenges throughout his unique career path as an entrepreneur working and...

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discussion

Feedback welcome

Adam Pierce

17 August 2021 1:44am

Hi All, I'm looking for some feedback from people in the fields of bioacoustics, if you happen to know anyone with an open mind that would be up for a discussion.  My...

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Adam Pierce

25 August 2021 9:11am

Hi All, sorry for the delayed response.

"In studies that often require deploying a half-dozen sensors or more, a sheer quantity of batteries becomes a major logistical hurdle. This is a similar problem we see with some solar systems: once deployed, they can be great (solar panel + charge controller + battery pack), but the deployment logistics can be extremely tricky from a bulk and weight perspective."

I agree, I don't believe that it should be necessary to be utilising such giant batteries & solar systems to support audio recording devices with the current developments of batteries and very low power devices, it annoys me that lead-acid batteries actually still exist.

I am assuming that the decision on batteries and photovoltaic systems would be based on availability and cost, or are they specific to acoustic devices?

Thanks All,

Adam.

Frontier Labs Australia

22 September 2021 7:19am

Hi guys. Frontier Labs designed the Solar BAR for the Australian Acoustic Observatory (you mihgt have seen the WildLab video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohQURr74OvE&list=PLWcz3iwCnCqRL193GvknRWQd1_kG7Rs4g&index=1).

vIn answer to your question, we are currently putting together some short videos showing the design decisions we made during developme and why we made them. The weight vs battery power is something we take incredibly seriously, and is the reason for a lot of cool features you might not notice otherwise. Please let me know if you have any specific questions you would like covered and I'll do my best to get them answered by our engineers :) Nic

Frontier Labs Australia

22 September 2021 7:25am

Hi Adam,

My name is Nicole, I work at Frontier Labs - we also make bioacoustic recorders (BARs) and are based in Brisbane, Australia. Yay for Australian tech!

We have been making acoustic recorders for more than 10 years (we made the recorders for the Australian Acoustic Observatory) and are always looking to innovate. These are great questions! We do get asked for the remote verification occassionally, but at the moment localization is a feature we are perfecting above and beyond what is currently available, so no work on this at the moment.

I'd love to find out more about your studies and see if we could help you answer some of these questions based on what we know about market trends.

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you'd like more info. PS I am not one of the engineers, but I have their ear haha

 

 

 

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discussion

Tech Tutors: How do I use animal-borne imaging technology in marine and terrestrial environments?

Ellie Warren

26 August 2021 12:10am

Hi Wildlabbers, We're so excited for tomorrow's episode about National Geographic's Crittercam with Tech Tutor Kyler Abernathy, who'll talk to us about how...

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Lars Holst Hansen

15 September 2021 6:41am

Hi @Rob+Appleby !

The implementation in the Vectronic camera collar is purely store on board - no transmission.

I believe they simply stuck one of the Foxeer action ("Box") cameras inside and wakes it up and triggers it according to the camera schedule uoloaded to the collar (still and video options). 

RunCam is another manufacturer of FPV and action cameras which might be interesting for you.

Cheers,

Lars

 

Rob Appleby

15 September 2021 11:24pm

Hi Lars,

I have a colleague that's successfully used the Mobius cam system (https://www.mobius-actioncam.com/) for camera collars as well. RC cams are popular choice it seems. I have been attempting to tweak cheaper 'cube' cameras (e.g. https://tinyurl.com/w72kh77r) to do a similar job. I am using a bit of Frankestein's monster array of small control boards, including an Adafruit low power timer (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3573) and a SparkFun pro mini (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113). I am using an SMD transistor as a switch to control power, and another could be added to control settings if needed. Hoping to do a tutorial on it at some point in case there's any interest. 

Cheers,

Rob

Lars Holst Hansen

16 September 2021 6:54am

Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that!

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article

GroupGets: μMoth Now Available

Open Acoustic Devices

27 May 2021 12:00am

The new μMoth is now available on GroupGets! These units are going quickly, so join the order quickly to be among the first to try the world's smallest full-spectrum acoustic development board! Join the GroupGets order...

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discussion

(Arctic Fox) trap alarm based on LoRa Adafruit

Lars Holst Hansen

21 April 2021 2:48pm

I managed to get a working protoype of a LoRa based trap alarm system.  I based it on Adafruit Feather M0 RFM96 LoRa Radio (433 MHz) tranceivers based on a little...

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Lars Holst Hansen

26 April 2021 7:03pm

Hi and thanks for your tips, Akiba!

I was actually thinking about the little greenhouse effect today when leaving the box in the afternoon sun. It is a rather cold environment in Greenland were I will deploy these though, so I may be OK. I can always give the tops a bit of white or silver paint. For the base station, I like to be able to see the LEDs directly on the board. This will also not be left out in the sun.

I will try to get some 2mm acrylic sheet for the mounting plate, thanks!

Cheers,

Lars

Lars Holst Hansen

4 May 2021 9:50am

I realised I actually had a piece of FR-4 fiberglass (perfboard) lying around so I used this as mounting plate. I have also tried fixing the magnet (reed) switch to the plate to hold it in place at the bottom of the box. Will do some neater cable managing as I get the remaining parts. I will try to fit a lipo solar charger next to the radiofeather. I realised that it will be hard to attach USB plugs (for reprogramming or diagnostics) but have ordered some cables with angled plugs hoping they will fit. 

I am still considering an additional reed switch as a on-off switch.

Lars Holst Hansen

20 May 2021 2:41pm

Almost done with the trap alarms.

I added an additional buzzer (with internal circuitry) to get more noise. The added benefit is that the slightly different tunes creates interference that makes the sound much more annoying ;)

I added magnetic on-off switches to all units (under the power managiing unit). The trap release reed switch is located on the other side. I raised the base plates a bit to make room for the lipo batteries underneath them. 

Still need to do some more testing on power usage and reliability. I managed a range of 2.5 km, but I believe I could get more when I find a place with better line of sight. I will try to test it over water at a fjiord.

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