π•pistrelle FIRMWARE : flashing and features
Firmware is typically called pipistrelle.uf2 or a variant thereof.
First, TAKE AT LEAST ONE BATTERY OUT OF YOUR π•pistrelle - I don't know if permanent damage to your computer or to the π•pistrelle might result if the battteries and USB are simultaneously trying to power the device, so don't try it.
Hold the BOOTSEL button on your π•pistrelle, connect it via USB to your computer, and when the USB drive called RPI-RP2 appears in your Finder (or the Microsoft / Linux equivalent of the Finder), just drag pipistrelle.uf2 onto the drive. This will copy the firmware, and once the copy is finished, the Pico may or may not reboot (this seems to depend on whether you have a USB hub between the computer and the Pico). If it doesn't reboot, just pull out the USB cable and plug it back in.
Firmware : the standard firmware absolutely SPEWS out trace information over the USB serial. On a Mac inside Terminal use screen /dev/cu.usbmodem* to see what's going on. If you are not on a Mac I can't help, but I'm sure the official Raspberry Pi Pico documentation will be helpful.
Detailed instructions to follow, but for right now, if you build one, flash it as described above. If the LEDs flash on power-up, followed by a 'bouncing ball' on the LEDs that fades away if you make a sound near it, you are in business. Check that the device is responding to environmental audio by rubbing dry fingers near the microphone port, which is the hole under the bat's belly on the Bat Signal module. The LEDs are not a VU meter measuring just signal volume, they are a spectrum display. The top LED corresponds to about 100kHz, the bottom one about 15kHz, but the bands are big so it's somewhat imprecise at best. But in the field, a pipistrelle echolocating will light up the 3rd, 4th or 5th LED from the bottom, a Noctule or Serotine will light up the lowest, but since all UK bat calls contain a swept FM component, any bat will typically light up more than one adjacent LED. To give you more precision on the selected or detected frequency, Jarvis gives you frequency information with 1/2kHz precision. In a very calming voice.
Current feature set :
Future feature set :
Disclaimers :
Expect a flurry of updates over May / June 2022.
Firmware is typically called pipistrelle.uf2 or a variant thereof.
First, TAKE AT LEAST ONE BATTERY OUT OF YOUR π•pistrelle - I don't know if permanent damage to your computer or to the π•pistrelle might result if the battteries and USB are simultaneously trying to power the device, so don't try it.
Hold the BOOTSEL button on your π•pistrelle, connect it via USB to your computer, and when the USB drive called RPI-RP2 appears in your Finder (or the Microsoft / Linux equivalent of the Finder), just drag pipistrelle.uf2 onto the drive. This will copy the firmware, and once the copy is finished, the Pico may or may not reboot (this seems to depend on whether you have a USB hub between the computer and the Pico). If it doesn't reboot, just pull out the USB cable and plug it back in.
Firmware : the standard firmware absolutely SPEWS out trace information over the USB serial. On a Mac inside Terminal use screen /dev/cu.usbmodem* to see what's going on. If you are not on a Mac I can't help, but I'm sure the official Raspberry Pi Pico documentation will be helpful.
Detailed instructions to follow, but for right now, if you build one, flash it as described above. If the LEDs flash on power-up, followed by a 'bouncing ball' on the LEDs that fades away if you make a sound near it, you are in business. Check that the device is responding to environmental audio by rubbing dry fingers near the microphone port, which is the hole under the bat's belly on the Bat Signal module. The LEDs are not a VU meter measuring just signal volume, they are a spectrum display. The top LED corresponds to about 100kHz, the bottom one about 15kHz, but the bands are big so it's somewhat imprecise at best. But in the field, a pipistrelle echolocating will light up the 3rd, 4th or 5th LED from the bottom, a Noctule or Serotine will light up the lowest, but since all UK bat calls contain a swept FM component, any bat will typically light up more than one adjacent LED. To give you more precision on the selected or detected frequency, Jarvis gives you frequency information with 1/2kHz precision. In a very calming voice.
Current feature set :
- 100% duty cycle FFTs (128-point, 16-bit integer) - when detecting, every single sample is FFTd at 384kHz, and peak energy is tracked and recorded to form 'bat call' fingerprints to aid in species ID, and to allow auto-tracking of ultrasonic signals.
- 'Jarvis' speech synthesis feedback
- AudioMoth app support to set Pico Real-Time Clock. This allows for timestamped SD recording of bat activity. To record, the Real-Time Clock must be set, so if you intend making an overnight field recording bring a smartphone with you with the AudioMoth app installed.
- Automatic heterodyne frequency tracking (single click, left button)
- Confirm currently tracked frequency (double click, left button)
- Manual override of heterodyne frequency (manipulate rotary knob to apply manual override)
- Overnight recording mode
- Triple-click on right hand button, 3 sets of 'up' flash then 'down' flash indicate the overnight mode was entered
- In overnight mode the device goes as dark as possible to conserve battery power between 7.30 am and 6.00 pm
- When active, LEDs remain dark and audio output ports remain silent, but the SD card library will flash the on-Pico LED whenever data is being written to SD card
- Toggle between heterodyning and real-time time expansion - long click on right button
- Information / diagnostic LED flashes of LED array and Pico LED :
- LED ARRAY
- Power-up - 6 flashes of LED array
- When detecting : LED array acts as spectrum display, showing current ultrasonic energy in the environment
- AudioMoth acknowledgement / Real-Time Clock turn on : 10 'up' flashes of LED array
- Manual frequency selection using rotary - single LED in array flashes to indicate frequency band.
- After manual frequency selection - all LEDs flash in 'from the middle outwards' pattern to indicate that a new tracking frequency has been selected
- Left button click to select auto frequency tracking - single flashing LED in array turns off, all LEDs flash in 'from the middle outwards' to acknowledge selection auto-tracking
- PICO LED
- Normal detection operation :
- Before Real-Time Clock is running : regular on / off pulses on Pico LED at about 1Hz
- Real-Time Clock running but no SD card detected : 3 rapid flashes, one long flash
- Real-Time Clock running, SD card detected : 'heartbeat' flash - flash-flash-pause
- Overnight Mode :
- Device sleeping (daylight hours) : 4 rapid flashes, 2 slow flashes
- Device listening for bats, not recording : medium flash - medium flash - slow flash
- Device listening for bats, recording : Pico LED solidly one for 5s duration of recording
- Normal detection operation :
- Single write to SD card - single press of right-hand button
- LED ARRAY
Future feature set :
- Bat ID of the easier species
- Ideally, bat ID of the harder species :)
- Mac tool (with published source code) to patch binary
- e.g 'Enter overnight mode on AudioMoth' which allows recorder units to be assembled without rotary, without buttons and without LED array
Disclaimers :
- No automated bat ID yet, that's a work in progress, but the infrastructure is in place to prepare for call analysis
- The SD card interface code works on 3 SD cards I have tried of 4, 8, and 64GB capacity, but it remains the least tested piece of the hardware puzzle. Do let me know how you get on with various manufacturers' SD cards.
Expect a flurry of updates over May / June 2022.
| pipistrelle.uf2 |
