Hi all,

The recording and notes are now available here. Enjoy!

Talia

Hi Steph,

Thanks for starting this thread. I'll be at ICCB too. I am presenting on social and organisational aspects of implementing technologies for protected area management and security on Tuesday 23rd at the session starting 11:45. Would love to join the meetups as well!

Yay!  Will you also be at the pre-conference short course?

@jankees,  

Hi I am working on a system to reduce Human Elephant Conflict and am interested in acoustics of Elephants and the identification of elephants through their acoustic signature to assist with this project, did you get anywhere with the serval sensor for detecting Elephants? 

We are a non profit called the Forgotten Parks Foundation and currently managing the Upemba and Kundelungu National Parks in the DR.Congo and have an immediate requirement to reduce HEC so we would like to assist with the development of such a system. 

Given that the rechargable batteries are starting out with lower voltage, I would suggest trying to run a test wherein you use standard alkaline or high powered Lithium as a test to see if that resolves your issue.   If it does, and you want to make sure you can still use rechargeable batteries, maybe consider something like:

https://www.amazon.com/AA-Batteries-Rechargeable-ECO-Friendly-Recyclable/dp/B079JFK22D/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3UY7WGNZXC31Q&keywords=lithium+rechargeable+aa+batteries&qid=1561989505&s=gateway&sprefix=lithium+rec%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-3

as those will maintain a full 1.5 v level until they totally run out of power.  Both NiCD and NiMH batteries exhibit a voltage drop as power depletes, which could be what is causing decreased detections.

There was a talk recently at ZSL where a similar thing was found using camera traps studying wild pigs in the Osa Penisula. Tracking and other audio evidence showed that the pigs populations were circumnavigating camera traps which appeared to be giving a reduced level of detection.  

 @ollie.wearn made an interesting point as he has found in his research that wild pigs are extremely sensitive to human or unfamiliar smells and will avoid anthing that holds the scent. Once the pigs know the cameras are there they are likely to avoid them. 

Something to think about as I would doubt it would be anything to do with those cameras. 

Ollie I have all of my camera traps in Pelican Boxes but I buy camping foam and line the inside, then I buy 50mm foam and layer the cameras so they dont rest on each other and then foam on top, it sems to work well and my cameras get driven thousands of km over bad roads.

Paul

For transport of equipment on flights I suggest Pelican's line of cases called "Pelican Air".  They have slightly lighter shells so you don't run in to weight overage issues as much...

Eric

A cheaper alternative to Pelis is MAX cases. They are just as strong:

https://www.trifibre.co.uk/product-category/products-by-type/waterproof-cases/max-cases/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=Search_MAX-Cases_Exact&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYBSp1XbwS_KSQC-Y9brRjwKhJmjZjK6_vxT37LHrtLlr-uEavWuD0gaAgehEALw_wcB

Hi Toby, hi all,

I've been keeping very quiet about Instant Detect 2.0 on WildLabs as we wanted to ensure we didn't generate any hype or make any promises that we cannot fulfil....but I think we will have something that fits this brief almost exactly relatively soon and it would be a shame for the same work to be replicated. 

I have just returned from Kenya where I was testing our Instant Detect 2.0 prototypes and I am very pleased to report that the system is now working. We still have some optimisation work to do and we plan to run a number of longer trial deployments over a number of months later in the year to completely identify, and correct the sort of issues that only crop up over time and in the field. We plan to record and publish all the results from these trials.

Once we believe that the system is ready we hope to be able to supply it to the conservation community at a very low rate at the start of next year. Importantly it will be fully certified and legal to use, it is not 'hacky'. 

I am in the process of writing a blog about the testing but if you would like to know more perhaps we could have a chat sometime.

Best wishes,

Sam Seccombe

Hello Malou

I hazard the guess that what you are looking for is already available for livestock monitoring, so I would look in that direction unless you want to re-invent that wheel. I admit I am not 100% sure what is out there as I am working on something unrelated. Homemade tags may be cheaper but don't underestimate the effort and experience required to make something reliable and robust.

Reliably monitoring body temperature and heart rate may also be more difficult than you expect. I looked into this some time ago for birds such as golden eagles and discovered that the most reliable option required attaching a sensor onto the skin. I then decided that I would have to do without this and moved on. I am in no way an expert on this and others may know much better so don't give up quite yet. Again, there may be ready-made solutions in the livestock tracking market that do these types of measurements already.

Anyway, I can offer you a few details on GPS components I have come across that may be of interest. Please note that although these components are on my tracker prototype, this is still under development and I cannot yet say how well they perform. But their technical details looked good enough to give them a try for my project.

GPS MODULE: uBlox EVA-M8M
- certainly not the cheapest, GBP 10 bought in single units, cheaper in bulk;
- stores GPS satellites' almanac and ephemeris data onboard and can interpolate future trajectories. This means that the module has to be switched on only once in 48 h to get all the satellite data (typically takes 45 s) and then fire up only for a few seconds to get a position fix. The key benefit of this is energy conservation, which on most tags is important.
Data sheet: https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/EVA-M8-FW3_DataSheet_(UBX-16014189).pdf
Source: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/u-blox-america-inc/EVA-M8M-1/672-1112-1-ND/9818030

GPS ANTENNA: ProAnt PRO-OB-430, GBP1.00
A very small and lightweight GPS antenna, much more so than the usual ceramic patch antennas. If weight and size are an issue then this may come in handy.
data sheet: http://www.proant.se/files/user/Application%20note%20-%20OnBoard%20SMD%20GNSS%20rev%202.0.pdf
Source: https://www.digikey.co.uk/products/en?keywords=1532-1000-1-ND

A hint for more inspiration and sources of useful information on lightweight and energy-efficient electronics: websites on remote controlled model aircraft and amateur weather balloons.

It would be useful if you could post here a summary of your results on the GPS module search, once complete, for the benefit of those looking for the same details in the future.

Good luck !

J

https://github.com/LoRaTracker/GPSTutorial/tree/master/GPS%20performance%20comparisons

I'm a bit late to this conversation, but in case anyone else is searching "gps" that link above is one of the best "gsp shoot outs" I've come across.

HTH

Hi Jenny,

Trust you're well. Were you successful in getting something for your team?

Hi Jenny,

Interesting problem.

I don't have direct experience, but it looks like there are some experts you can probably reach out to and ask... if you haven't already:

http://www.groundcontrol.com/Caribbean_Satellite_Internet.htm

http://www.globaltt.com/en/internet_satellite/Caribbean.html

Also I found an interesting discussion on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/72wrio/satellite_internet_in_the_caribbean/

Best of luck!

Ivan

Hey, 

Am a developer, I would be happy to give some feedback and lend you a hand. 

The first major suggestion is related to the Typography. The font size are too large on some browsers. Also the embedded fonts doesn't always work on all browser/operating systems, for instance on chromium. 

See the attached screenshots below:

Large typeface:

https://pasteboard.co/I7WJtCO.png

Large titles:

https://pasteboard.co/I7WJPZy.png

Some type/icons fail to load 

https://pasteboard.co/I7WKsxZH.png

HTH

arky

Hi Steph and WildLabs team, this is a great idea and I'm liking these added options. I just noticed that when accessing conversations from the Dashboard > My Groups, there's no option on there to 'subscribe to this conversation' or to click onto the original conversation URL to do so.

Thanks for continually innovating!