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Devices have never worked properly

Hello Open Acoustic Developers. I had recommended the purchase of 2 second generation Audiomoths with cases for our not for profit wildlife research group here in Ontario, Canada. WE have as of yet been able to capture any usable audio after a year now. Either the recording contain repetitive mechanical sounding click (that also show up/display in Audio software (Audacity/Sonic Visualizer ) or files having seemingly random file sizes with no discernible audio or files having 0 kb . The most recent contents of the cards are as follows

Both units have had been flashed with latest software. I fear they are mechanically defective which is having a serious impact on our research. Can I send them back/shipping is now so incredibly expensive but I dont know what else to do.

I truly do NOT believe this is user error and now my fellow researchers are exasperated at this point as the research site is 3 hr drive each way. How can we verify if the hardware is functional/functioning properly... Yes we have tried setting back to defaults but any audio captured is so low in volume/poor quality it is unusable. Would this have anything to do with the cases we purchased with?

PLEASE ASSIST AS WE ARE IN REAL NEED OF GETTING THESE RE-DEPOLYED IN A MONTH OR SO. THANK YOU!!!

FIRST CARD

2 folders

one called ".fsevents"

and the other called ".Spotlight-V100

no log file on this card generated

Multiple supported cards tried with similar results

THE SECOND CARD has following config results

Device ID : 247AA501608F8DC4

Firmware : AudioMoth-Firmware-Basic (1.8.0)

Time zone : UTC

Sample rate (Hz) : 32000

Gain : Low

Sleep duration (s) : 5

Recording duration (s) : 3595

Active recording periods : 2

Recording period 1 : 00:00 - 07:00 (UTC)

Recording period 2 : 19:00 - 24:00 (UTC)

Earliest recording time : ---------- --:--:--

Latest recording time : ---------- --:--:--

Filter : -

Trigger type : -

Threshold setting : -

Minimum trigger duration (s) : -

Enable LED : Yes

Enable low-voltage cut-off : Yes

Enable battery level indication : Yes

Always require acoustic chime : No

Use daily folder for WAV files : Yes

Disable 48Hz DC blocking filter : Yes

Enable energy saver mode : No

Enable low gain range : Yes

Enable magnetic switch : No

Enable GPS time setting : No

7 comments

7 Comments

davidandrec

Apr 09

Hello Alex, The units have been retrieved and here are the test results so far. There seems to be issues with consistent high levels of white noise.

Audio Moth Testing – White Noise challenge

Units

AM 1 using a 128 GB U3 ONN card

AM2 using a 128 GB U3 San Disc card

R: Recording

F: Filtering

A: Advance

Common to both units throughout testing

R: Sleep 5 seconds; Recording Duration 3595 seconds

A: Daily folder enabled

Play back of recordings on a HP Pavilion laptop with B&O speakers at 100% (Max Volume), otherwise as from factory, the settings.

Facing the same direction, side by each

Test 1

Both units flashed with 1.8.1 update

Both sd cards reformatted to FAT 32X

Schedule: 0000-2400 hrs

Factory default: R: Sample Rate – 48

R: Gain – Medium

AM1: A: 48 Hz DC blocking filter – Disabled

F: Trigger Type None; Filter Type – None

AM2: F: Trigger Type – Amplitude; Filter Type – None; Min Trigger duration 0.001

A: 48 Hz DC – Enabled

RESULTS: White noise present both units

AM1: White Noise less intense

Suspect that the trigger type has no influence on the occurrence of white noise.

Test 2

AM1: R: Sample Rate - 8; Gain – Low

F: Trigger Type – None

A: 48 Hz DC – Disabled

AM2: R: Sample Rate – 8; Gain – High

F: Trigger Type – None

A: 48 Hz DC – Disabled

RESULTS: White noise present

AM2: White noise slightly more intense

Test 3

AM1: R: Sample Rate – 48; Gain – Low

AM2: R: Sample Rate – 384; Gain – Low

RESULTS: White noise present

Test 4

AM1 & AM2: R: Sample Rate –8; Gain – Low

A: 48 Hz DC – Enabled

RESULTS: White noise present, intensity very low, doesn’t seem to pick up sound unless really close to the units, for example the impact of rain.

Test 5

AM1: R: Sample Rate – 8; Gain – Low

A: 48 Hz DC – Disabled; Enable Low Gain – Enabled

AM2: R: Sample Rate – 8; Gain – Low

A: 48 Hz DC – Enabled; Enable Low Gain – Enabled

RESULTS: White noise eliminated. Recording of birds chirping really faint. AM 1 play back of chirping more distinct and likely due to microphone orientation being more inline to source.

Test 6: Attempt to improve recording clarity and volume of sound

AM1: R: Sample Rate – 8; Gain – High

A: 48 Hz DC – Disabled; Enable Low Gain – Enabled

AM2: R: Sample Rate – 8; Gain – Low

A: 48 Hz DC – Disabled; Enable Low Gain – Enabled

RESULTS: TBD

Alex Rogers

Apr 09

Replying to

In lots of these settings you seem to have selected the "Enable low gain range' option. This is intended for underwater recording in high volume environments. It reduces the gain of the microphone amplifier and will result in recordings of background self-noise in quiet environments. Similarly, you have selected the 'Disable 48Hz DC blocking filter' option which is really only intended for recording very low frequency sounds such as elephant infrasound. This probably won't effect the noise in the recordings, but shouldn't be used in most applications. In general, the default settings with medium gain will always work best. Can you try reseting a device to the default settings which the Config App opens with, configure the device with these default settings, then switch it to DEFAULT with an SD card fitted. The AudioMoth will make an immediate recording and you will see the red LED flashing. Can you then record someone counting from one to ten at a normal speaking volume about 0.5m away from the AudioMoth. If you can send us that WAV file, and the CONFIG.TXT file, then we can check that the device is working as intended.

davidandrec

Apr 11

Replying to

Thanks again...I have passed this on and hope to have results back in a few days

davidandrec

Feb 20

Alex, the units will have to be retrieved so it may be a number of days before we can get you the required info but we will assuredly! Thanks so much

Alex Rogers

Feb 20

Hi, With the most up-to-date firmware installed - version 1.8.1 - can you switch the device to DEFAULT with an SD card installed, the AudioMoth will immediately start recording with the default settings (you don't need to set the time or anything - just put batteries in and move the switch to DEFAULT and you will see the red LED start to flash), make a ten-second recording of you counting to 10 about 0.5 meters away from the device (outside the case) and then post the resulting WAV file, and the CONFIG.TXT file, somewhere that we could access it - or email it to alex@openacousticdevices.info. Did these devices make clear recordings on your desk before deployment? Make sure that the SD cards are newly formatted as exFAT or FAT32 cards. The two files you are seeing are generated by a Mac which has read the SD card, rather than by AudioMoth. Can you confirm the exact make, model and size of the SD card that you are using, and also the same for the batteries that you are using? If you can send up some examples of the files which are the wrong size, that would be useful. The header information in the WAV file will always provide an explanation as to why the file is shorter than requested. Most commonly this is due to the battery voltage being too low, or sometimes due to the card being full (or the file allocation table being full as the card has not been reformatted between writing and deleting lots of files). Files which are 0kB in size result from an SD card write error during recording (since the file is opened but not closed correctly), again commonly caused by the battery voltage being low, or the SD card filling up. You have 'Enable low gain range' and 'Disable 48Hz DC blocking filter' set in the configuration file. The former, along with the 'Low' gain setting selected, will result in very low-volume recordings. Is this intentional? Finally, can you confirm where and when you purchased the AudioMoth? Thanks, Alex

davidandrec

Feb 20

Replying to

Thanks very much Alex for the detailed reply. I will confer with them and get you/submit the requested information just as soon as able. We appreciate your trying to assist with this as its important we get these operational.

davidandrec

Feb 28

Replying to

Hi Alex, just awaiting results from retrieval /the reset test results. I have all the other info so will submit in a few days.