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Device not recording

I received the audiomoth at the end of May. As I had someone from the bat conservation trust arriving I thought it would be a good time to set up. The instructions for set up are clear and although the device was placed three times in a known bat locality I did not get any files recorded. The green light flashes but the red light will flash briefly presumably to indicate a begining of a recording duration. I have also followed the instructions on the British Bat Survey webpage and played the tone but getting nothing. The batteries are fine. The SD card is he one supplied with the device and it is correctly formatted. It is probably something daft I am not doing. Any idea?

6 comments

6 Comments

Alex Rogers

Jun 26, 2019

Hi, Did the LED go green, and then stay green, when the you played the chime tone to the device? If so, then it has the correct firmware installed, and is correctly configured.

If you then move the switch to CUSTOM you should see the green flashing LED whilst the AudioMoth waits until the scheduled recording time. If the green LED is flashing then the batteries are good and the AudioMoth can write to the SD card are okay.

The AudioMoth will start making recordings at 20:00 BST and will stop at 06:30 BST. Whilst it is recording the red LED will be on almost continuously but will be flickering a little. If you are already inside this period when you move the switch to CUSTOM the AudioMoth will wait until the scheduled start time (i.e. the next time that the minutes divisible by 5, such as 20:05 BST or 20:10 BST). The recordings will be 297 seconds long with 3 second gaps regardless of whether there are any bats detecting - there is no triggering mechanism - the AudioMoth makes recordings whether or not there is anything there.

Alex Rogers

Jul 01, 2019

Replying to

Did this AudioMoth come from the Bat Conservation Trust specifically in order to take part in this year's British Bat Survey? If not it won't have the correct firmware and won't respond to the chime. It sounds like it has the correct firmware, but the best way to check is to download the Time App from the website (https://www.openacousticdevices.info/config). The firmware is displayed when the device is plugged into a USB socket and the switch is in USB position. The correct firmware is AudioMoth-BritishBatSurvey 1.0.1.

Assuming it has the correct firmware, and it sounds like it does if the green LED flashes every two seconds when you put it in DEFAULT mode, then the problem is that it can't hear the chime tone correctly when you play it from the website. Can you hear the sound? It should be medium volume and the AudioMoth needs to be reasonably close to the speaker. Try experimenting at different distances? Are you using a laptop or mobile phone to play the sound? Either should work fine. Large desktop speakers may not reproduce the 20kHz data signal very well.

i.n.ricketts

Jul 01, 2019

Replying to

The audiomoth was bought in round 6 and I received it in late May. I have downloaded what is described on the website as the latest configuration app from your website three times now, the latest this evening from the link you provided. I have played the chime on a laptop and on an ipad. The sound is clear on both devices and I have followed the directions about moving the audiomoth different distances. At no time has the green light stayed on during playing the chime. This is a screenshot from the latest attempt after downloading the app from your link

Alex Rogers

Jul 01, 2019

Replying to

If you bought the device through GroupGets and didn't receive it directly through the Bat Conservation Trust then you do not have the correct firmware for the British Bat Survey.

The Bat Conservation Trust project for the British Bat Survey uses a customised version of firmware, not the standard release that we describe on our website. The standard firmware will not respond to the chime tone.

The screen shot shows the device connecting properly to the standard configuration app so you definitely do not have the correct firmware installed to use the British Bat Survey chime site.

You can download the correct firmware for the British bat Survey from the link here -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4plcun6n1173x08/BritishBatSurvey_AudioMoth_1_0_1.bin?dl=0

- and then follow the instruction here - https://www.openacousticdevices.info/flashing - to install it, and then the instructions on the British Bat Survey to set up the devices.

Or you can use the device as per the instructions on the Open Acoustic Devices website to configure and use the device as a generic acoustic recorder.

The two applications use the same hardware, but different firmware on the actual device, so you can't use the standard device for the British Bat Survey, and vice versa.