Cacophonometer - July Update
July update - now that's sounding like I might do regular updates...
What have I been doing?
Have received a few phones from Spark and so now have lots to test on their network - along with the data SIMS to allow uploading of recordings far from wifi.
Testing another solar panel.
Fixing bugs in Cacophonometer code - seems different phones / operating systems show up different errors. For example on a Samsung GT-S5360T running Android 2.3.6 (10) would not write to the 'normal' file location that works on all the other phones - fixed.
Reported back to my local environment society about the device installed in 'their' gully/park.
Testing the use of a microphone that is part of a ear bud headphone - cheap one that came with a phone.
Some lessons:
I hadn't noticed this before, but when sunshine hits the solar panel, the phone screen turns on automatically and only turns off after the set time (in system settings). This is a pain as far as wasting power is concerned. I'm trialing the app Snoozy that although can't stop the screen turning on, does turn it off again almost immediately - but will Snoozy actually use more power.... Note: the Snoozy app on Google Play is the wrong one - use the link I've just given.
Old phones - one phone kept dying just when I was about to install it in the wilderness - not sure if it was the phone or something I was doing (including rooting the phone). Kept doing a factory reset and eventually after about 5 or six resets it just completely died :-(
Power saving - Set volume on phone to silent/off - not vibrate.
Next version:
I'm not confident that the latest version is ready for release, but will add it here when it is for now use the version attached to previous blog.
Teaching:
Have had the first class with a great group of students - they are choosing which part of The Cacophony project to work on (hopefully some will choose testing) - great fun.
Regards
Tim
