Bat detector

You can test a new compiled Hex (devA). I think its solved. I have also updated the code.

cheers
Cor
PS. I have updated the code/hex to prevent the title overscrolling to the next line at startup
 
Last edited:
Thanks to you. I dont like holes in my code ;) Another one plugged !

PS. yes I know the startup now shows a 9 on the separate line ;) UPDATED: devA is now having a normal title again:)
 
Dear developers :eek:
As first thanks a lot for providing us this beautiful detector.
I've build two of them a year ago and regularely peeking here to follow the progression and see the detector becoming better and better. Compliments for that.

Been playing with the latest firmware (firmware_20210409_v1_1devA) the last few hours and am very impressed again.

But now I have a question, maybe it's a bug or just not intended to use it in this way.
I like to keep the spectrum alive and thus be able to hear soft sounds on the background.
Therefore I set "TE low_peak" to a value of 100~150 and that works flawless in all modes.

Only when entering the TE (or TE-HT) mode the sound mutes in the first second and not comming back easely, while the spectrum or waterfall keeps showing noise.
Sometimes the sound comes back after a few minutes or by pressing or turning a knob.
But when the sound returns it plays well for longer time in that mode, so I think it could be playing all the time.

Hopefully it's a easy fix or something that can be changed with a setting somewhere in the menu.

Thanks.

Now going to read some pages back to see if it was already mentioned.
 
Dear developers :eek:
As first thanks a lot for providing us this beautiful detector.
I've build two of them a year ago and regularely peeking here to follow the progression and see the detector becoming better and better. Compliments for that.

Been playing with the latest firmware (firmware_20210409_v1_1devA) the last few hours and am very impressed again.

But now I have a question, maybe it's a bug or just not intended to use it in this way.
I like to keep the spectrum alive and thus be able to hear soft sounds on the background.
Therefore I set "TE low_peak" to a value of 100~150 and that works flawless in all modes.

Only when entering the TE (or TE-HT) mode the sound mutes in the first second and not comming back easely, while the spectrum or waterfall keeps showing noise.
Sometimes the sound comes back after a few minutes or by pressing or turning a knob.
But when the sound returns it plays well for longer time in that mode, so I think it could be playing all the time.

Hopefully it's a easy fix or something that can be changed with a setting somewhere in the menu.

Thanks.

Now going to read some pages back to see if it was already mentioned.

Hello Peter444,

Thanks for sharing,

Can you try this with your detector but with the devA DEBUG version ? And share the output of the serial from startup until you get loss of sound ?
I have not seen/heard this before but ... its a flexible machine with many options.

One thing comes to mind (thanks Edwin), is your screen scrolling continous ? In TE mode that means you have set TE_lowpeak TOO low. Continous triggers mean that you will start to miss
signals as older signals are being "noise" at play.


regards
Cor
 
Last edited:
devA updated

Hi,

The issue (locked in DIRECT playmode in samplerate play SETTINGS menu) that lead me to create "devA" wasnt completely cleared I think. So I have updated this once more, its
nothing major and its easy to overcome the issue (from previous versions) by simply changing the active play samplerate the moment you start playing files (right Encoder).

cheers
Cor
 
Hi Cor,

I am having trouble compiling the latest version in the Arduino IDE (update20210409_v1.1dev).

Line 295 of main.cpp
Code:
granular1.setTESpeed(TE_speed); // set TE speed
gives the following error during compile:
Code:
'class AudioEffectGranular' has no member named 'setTESpeed'

I guess i have missed something somewhere since update20200925 compiles OK.

If it's not too much trouble, can you help?

Many thanks,

Adrian
 
Hi Adrian,

I will check what causes this. Could be that I have been changing a bit in the audioeffectgranular library after all. Will take a few minutes .

Cor
 
Man, it becomes hard to keep up here...

When work was done by Cor on the 1.1dev version I decided to work the manual.
It seems a bad idea to work on it because changes are coming very quickly these days, so some pictures are not exactly as you will find the om your detector.

I decided to share them anyway, manly because of a question by Peter.
The TE low-peak setting is something new this could give some unwanted effects.
TE low-peak sets the threshold for when the detector starts the waterfall and TE. If you are listening TE, usually a bat sound is played in the gaps between the sounds.
As this picture explains.

expanded.jpg

As you can see we need most or the "silence" between te calls to play them. If our display was scrolling continuously the chance TE is trying to expand a lot of silence. Since we can only hear 10% of the detected signal we are probably missing calls.

Set TE low-peak and gain so that the display only picks up interesting sounds.

In this next picture you can see only one call gets expanded and the other can not be heard. Imagine what happens if you start expanding well before the call, you will miss all of them.

expandedl.jpg

If you really like the continuously scrolling display, try HT or FD as playback modus.

Here are the manuals I am working on.

Manual

Handleiding
 
Man, it becomes hard to keep up here...

Yeah, a few new firmwares versions a day now :D
I'm happy with the reboot.exe instead of opening and closing the enclosure daily.

Thanks for clarification about TE mode, will try this evening with real bats.

If I change the circuit to the new software dimmable backlight (removing R9, connecting 17 to LED), the backlight won't work with older firmware versions (like v098 or v100) anymore i presume? Or is it possible to place a diode somewhere to keep both ways of dimming?
And the temperature IC will show the values in display or only in recordings?

The weather looks great, we can expect some bats tonight for sure.
 
I don't expect a lot of activity but it looks like t could be a dry evening. It is quite chilly though.

You could use two small signal diodes in parallel, one from the old circuit and one from the pwm circuit.
Depending on the way that you are switching, it will not turn off the display completely.

Maybe it is better to cut some tracks to the switch and use that to power the backlight control pin via resistor from V+ or use the PWM circuit. Than you lose the old dim switch function but can select one or the other way.
 
Kudos to the inventors who developed this great device.
Is there an advantage if you remove the 6 resistors again, possibly lower power consumption or interference.
Is it possible to select and load different saved settings again?
I also record bird calls via the Line In using an external microphone, and completely different settings are necessary.
 
Kudos to the inventors who developed this great device.
Is there an advantage if you remove the 6 resistors again, possibly lower power consumption or interference.
Is it possible to select and load different saved settings again?
I also record bird calls via the Line In using an external microphone, and completely different settings are necessary.

Hi Helge,

In the current setup you can only store one set of personal "defaults", so you cannot use a set of different "profiles". If many people see this as a good development we might think of adding this option. As most of the controls can be easily set after startup you can always change the ones needed when switching to for instance LINE_IN.

regards
Cor
 
These resistors are not in the way and do not consume any significant current These conet to the data lines of the micro SD card socket on the audio board. I simply put a resistor in every data line connecting to the audioboard but we do not use that card socket. You can save some resistors but it is fine if these are still in place.
 
Have a new device built up and equal resistors 150 ohms as the others for GPS and temperature sensor installed. It works wonderfully. If you like this, it could be included in the circuit diagram.
 
Helge, nice to read about the added GPS and temperature sensor.
I have not seen anyone else using the GPS. It is a big current consumer but it can help you to know where the recording was taken.

The temperature sensor tends to pick up heat from the Teensybat or from the operator. I'm not entirely pleased with the temperature readings.

Maybe it needs to be mounted way outside the enclosure.
 
For the temperature sensor, I installed a copper sheet with the sensor drilled through on the outside. This is also how it measures the outside temperature. The GPS needs 27 mA for me. I had problems with the GPS, the audio card or the Teensy interfered with the L2 frequency of the GPS. I solved the problem with a copper plate over the whole side where the audio card is. I don't use the ceramic antenna but a short wire that goes out of the housing.
 
I have an infrared video camera. This records 1 second before a noise is detected. I connected this to the audio output of the detector. In "mode TE" it works wonderfully. If I then switch to "AutoREC" and there is no sound, nothing comes out of the audio output. As soon as a noise comes, it no longer switches to mute. The camera then records all the time, although there are no bats around.
 
That probably is because the detector switches HT or AHT mode in autorecord.

HT or AHT has no mute and is always running.

TE is muting until something is heard and than playing back and falling back to mute again.

The noise on the headphones on HT AHT is small, maybe the camera is to sensitive?
Try lowering the volume or solder a 33ohm resistor accross the headpone output to simulate heaphone in the hope it gives some load on the output. The camera could have a high input impedance.
 
Hi Everyone,

As promised, although a little late, here is my 3D printed enclosure for the device.
TeensyBat.jpg

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4854865

Two backs are available:
1 is a simple cover if you do not plan to have a battery inside the enclosure.
2 is thicker in order to accommodate a 4000mAh battery, its charger circuit and a power switch.

STL and parametric solidworks models included.
Please be aware that, depending on assembly of the circuits, some adjustments might be necessary for the positioning of SD card slot, audio jack and USB ports.

Feel free to use, redistribute, modify, etc.
Any comments or requests welcome.
Thierry
 
Hi Everyone,

As promised, although a little late, here is my 3D printed enclosure for the device.
View attachment 24761

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4854865

Two backs are available:
1 is a simple cover if you do not plan to have a battery inside the enclosure.
2 is thicker in order to accommodate a 4000mAh battery, its charger circuit and a power switch.

STL and parametric solidworks models included.
Please be aware that, depending on assembly of the circuits, some adjustments might be necessary for the positioning of SD card slot, audio jack and USB ports.

Feel free to use, redistribute, modify, etc.
Any comments or requests welcome.
Thierry


Nice.. But a little pity you still have those screws on the front. It could've been a more sleek design without them.

w8PaKXr.jpg


I solved that by adding some acrylic plate to the corners of the pcb and clamp it between the enclosure.

LZtsVSK.jpg
 
It looks like the hight of screw bushings inside the enclosures have just about the right hight for using a rectangular PCB without the cut-outs.
It is a bit more tricky to mount, but if you do do not like the looks of a pair of shiny screws this is a nice solution.

Maybe a next version PCB will not use these m3 screws anymore.

I also buit a 3.2" display in one of my detectors, if you do so, there is no more space for these m3 screws left and richt next to the display.

This is what it looks like with 3.2" display. Yes it consumes more current, the display PCB needs to be reworked because it does not fit near the enclosure-mounting screws and microphone and the extra 0.4 diagonal has no real advantages but looks nice because of the smaller borders around the display.

3.2inch.jpg

It is nice to see how people find other ways to build things, please keep sharing.

If you have any suggestions for a new version PCB just let me know. I don't promise anything soon but maybe it is nice to incorporate other ideas.

Sofar I think I want to include this:
Backlight control modification.
Space for GPS module and PCB tracks to the module.
Solder-points/tracks for metal shielding.
Mounting point for the Dallas temperature sensor (not quite sure if this is te sensor I like)
PCB mounted slide switch (slightly larger than the dim-switch now) for power on/off and an extra switch for GPS on off.
3.5mm socket for external microphone. (internal switches off when external is placed).


I am not going to promise new pcb's or any ideas by anyone to be incorporated in the design.
 
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