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This group is a place to share low-cost, open-source devices for conservation; describe how they are being used, including what needs they are addressing and how they fit in to the wider conservation tech market; identify the obstacles in advancing the capacity of these technologies; and to discuss the future of these solutions - particularly their sustainability and how best to collaborate moving forward.

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Software Engineer

Anne Dangerfield

16 January 2023 12:26pm

Join the Arribada Initiative! We have a unique opportunity for a software developer to create mobile / desktop applications and intuitive user interfaces that assist researchers and fieldworkers to conserve wildlife.

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New paper - Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network: A case-study in Gabon, Central Africa

Carly Batist

13 January 2023 12:12am

Sending real-time alerts from ecological sensors such as camera traps in areas with poor data connectivity is complex and involves integrating a large number of potentially complex hardware and software components. Our results demonstrate that these components can be successfully integrated to achieve reliable, near real-time alerts from camera traps under challenging field conditions.

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discussion

Otter video help!

Britnee Cheney

5 September 2022 6:57pm

Hello everyone!I have an otter (I'm pretty sure) on a couple videos from two of my trail cameras, is there ANY way I can clear these videos up at all?  I have tried but I...

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Junior Electrical Engineer (Hardware)

Lindsay Starke

9 December 2022 5:04pm

As the FieldKit hardware ecosystem grows, Conservify is seeking a Junior Electrical Engineer to assist with testing, troubleshooting, prototype development, and developing production test fixtures for our growing...

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Senior Software Engineer

Lindsay Starke

9 December 2022 5:01pm

Conservify is seeking a hands-on Senior Software Engineer with front end and back end experience developing rich web and mobile applications, and a strong desire to build a best-in-class product that stands out in both...

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discussion

Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives

Tom August

3 November 2022 10:27am

So, there is a global shortage of Raspberry Pis, the open source micro-computer that has been popular amongst open hardware designers and hobbyists alike. Like...

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Rob Appleby

18 November 2022 7:27pm

Hi @tom_august this is a very important topic given the global shortages we are seeing. I tend to use really low power micros rather than Pis for my stuff if I can, but I'd be very interested to hear about alternatives. I take it you are doing some reasonably heavy processing given the need for 4Bs? I have a few old 3s you are welcome to. A great list from @PshemekZ there. I don't know much about these: 

But didn't see them in the list. 

 @Freaklabs will likey have some ideas too. Looking forward to hearing more.

Cheers,

Rob

Akiba

21 November 2022 12:11am

Unfortunately not much to add. I think there was an assumption that Raspberry Pi's would always be available and it's turning out that it's unfortunately not the case. I'm guilty of this for standard chips. I didn't think there'd be such a huge shortage that spread across so many chip families which left us scrambling.  I'm sure the supply crunch will ease up soon so the RasPi shortage should ease. It should be considered thought that should something happen to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, there's a possibility that the production could end. Since Raspberry Pi's are not open source, this would be devastating to many projects that rely on them. 

As for porting to another platform, I guess the question would be which platform to bet on for the Raspberry Pi alternate and possibly eventual successor. It would probably need to be open source, widely available, and have enough community around it to support itself. Nothing immediately comes to mind (Jetson possibly but not open source and subject to whims of nVidia).

And perhaps this could turn into a community project to come up with an open platform that conservation communities can standardize on where availability could also be guaranteed. There's a lot of exciting things happening with the RISC-V architecture, which could be a good candiate.

Tom August

24 November 2022 9:46am

As an update from us, we are playing around with two alternatives:

  • Banana PI BPI-M5 M5 4GB 4 x 2GHz 
  • Radxa Rock 4 SE 

I'll update once we have results!

 

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discussion

Picking up signal of GPS tag

Sol Milne

10 November 2022 11:29am

Hi all! Has anyone been able to collect any ID information from a GPS tag, by circling above with a drone? Thinking about FAD detection at sea.Thanks!

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Sol Milne

16 November 2022 10:54am

Thanks Carly! I've been in awe of what Wildlife Drones is doing, but as you say my work at the moment is focussed on existing GPS units rather than telemetry for tracking. I'll still reach out & ask though. Thanks for your help! :)

Sol Milne

16 November 2022 10:55am

Hi Kim! Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting! I'll check out the website & see what I can find out about the mechanics of the device. Thanks again!

Thomas Gray

21 November 2022 5:25pm

Hey Sol, 

The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages are a bit too large for hobbyist-style drones (from what I've seen). 

Depending on the range/distance from shore, you might be able to have a shore-based receiver system?  

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discussion

Software to aid acoustic sound files visualization/labelling + Software to syncronize video/acoustic sonograms

Adrià Lopez

23 September 2022 1:01pm

Hi everybody!I am currently trying to figure out if there is any open-source software that could improve our citizen science project on bat monitoring in Europe (and potentially...

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Colin Cook

8 October 2022 12:44am

I would also recommend Arbimon. It is well set up to handle Audiomoth recordings. Being cloud based, you will need a good internet connection for sound file upload. I'm just starting to investigate its use for Song Scope recordings. Setting up the call recognisers will be a slow process, but they can be made available to all users once done.

Matthew Stanton

8 October 2022 7:33am

You could try using a video editor like DaVinci for looking at your video and audio together. I don't think DaVinci displays sonograms by default (just waveform) but I think it will open your selected audio in an external editor which would allow you to see the sonograms and make measurements with something like Audacity or Kaleidoscope.

Pshemek Zdroik

20 October 2022 11:01am

The open-source program Audacity can show the spectrograms and histograms and has quite a lot of other useful features, e.g. playing ultrasound calls slower, so it can be heard by people. 

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How To Use An Arduino – Beginners Guide

Ellie Warren

1 September 2022 10:02pm

For anyone interested in WILDLABS' Build Your Own Data Logger course, this beginner's guide to Arduino may be a valuable resource! This page also includes links to other relevant resources on Arduino language and getting started with Arduino software for the first time.

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Conservation Technology Research Internship

Meredith Palmer

26 August 2022 4:58pm

Boost cons tech capacity at an international NGO! Fauna & Flora International is offering a paid three-month internship to consolidate and share best practices for the application of emerging hardware and software...

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How can open source tools make conservation tech more sustainable and accessible?

Ellie Warren

30 June 2022 6:56pm

Open source tools help our community think of creative solutions, share resources, and make conservation tech tools more affordable and accessible for everyone. All of that...

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David Savage

1 July 2022 4:14pm

I've been working with a current visiting scholar who's from China and has been interested in getting started with some acoustic monitoring studies when he goes back to China later this year. I've been working with him to try to figure out some options (with some help from folks met through Wildlabs!) but the name-brand stuff from Wildlife Acoustics is more than double what it would be in the states once customs and imports and exchange rates are taken into account. Open-source solutions that can be manufactured on the ground in countries where we're trying to do work can avoid many of those costs, support local economies, and even be good for the environment to the extent that you're avoiding the (minimal but non-zero) emissions of shipping stuff all over the place.

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Self-powered Buoy collecting vital sensor data -- Looking for conservation projects to collaborate with

Aadithya Prakash

18 May 2022 6:28am

Hey all! I work for a company called Sofar Ocean Technologies that is doing really cool work in the ocean conservation world and I'm interested in getting them to collaborate more...

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Jaishanker Nair

3 June 2022 7:19am

Hello Aadithya,

Excited to hear about your marine acoustics outreach. I am interested to explore the possibilities of collaborative work on this line.

One of my doctoral scholars is about to submit his thesis on terrestrial acoustic studies. Please respond to [email protected] (as I may likely miss responses if any, send to this group). 

Regards

Jaishanker

Aadithya Prakash

14 June 2022 11:46am

Hi Jaishanker, I just reached out to over email, apologies for the delay. We are interested in working with underwater hydrophones and this might be of use in your specific case study. Bristlemouth's timeline is still being created, but we're hoping to have devkits ready closer to the end of this year. I'm happy to chat more to learn about the specific research you are doing and how we can best help!

Carly Batist

21 June 2022 10:49pm

If you're looking to identify collaborators - probably lots of organizations listed in the Conservation Tech Directory would be interested (quick prelim search yields orgs like Echospace, European Tracking Network, FACT network, IMOS, IOOS, other tracking networks like that, USA's NEON, eOceans, Oceans+)! Also org's like Blue Ventures, Save our Seas (run acoustic tracking array), MBON (run Biotrack) come to mind. 

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