The Astro Acoustics recorder

In June 2022 I began a project with Definium Technologies to design and build a pre-production circuit board assembly for a 8 microphone recorder. This involves designing, building, programming and testing the recorder hardware, firmware and low-level software. Definium has had significant previous experience in designing and building data loggers for research and industrial applications. It is the only company in Tasmania with a complete end-to end electronics production system. This shortens the time scale of development, provides local employment, and connects research needs with instrumentation manufacture and commercialisation

The recorder will have the capability of simultaneously recording signals from an array of 8 microphones at sample rates of up to 384 kHz. It will contain sensors for temperature, humidity, pressure and orientation, as well as GPS for location and time. It will be capable of wireless communications for configuration, control and data transfer. There will be sufficient on-board storage to support up to 2 weeks of recording at 10 hours per day. The main means of power supply is expected to be from internal rechargeable batteries but it will also be possible to attach external power including solar. The hardware will be enclosed in a weather-proof housing.

The first production run is now complete and testing has commenced.

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