14th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

From left-right, Luigi Marino and Peter Batchelor.

Luigi and I went to the forest again on Friday. I needed to exchange the spent battery with a recharged and upload updated the software. The new software improves the character and behaviour of the sound materials in response to the environmental data, and I’m satisfied that these now better reflect the forest’s activities.

Upon arrival, I discovered that the timer switch kept flicking on and off due to a feeble residual charge in the old battery. I was initially concerned this might be harming the Raspberry Pis, so was pleased to find that upon connecting the new battery and restarting, everything powered up and ran smoothly, demonstrating that the setup has so far survived both the persistent damp (and sometimes torrential rain) and cold temperatures of December and January. Overall, I’ve been impressed with the technical performance and durability of the consumer electronics.

It seems that the current battery setup, supplemented by limited solar charging, lasts about two and a half weeks during winter. Luigi has suggested upgrading to 120Ah batteries (compared to my 92Ah ones) to extend the duration between charges, which I’ll consider.

I have listened to the stream of the installation and it seems to be functioning as it should; I also heard a few comments from passers by who had noticing the installation and commented on what they experienced.