Either the PippyG or the PiPistrelle you have will need to be flashed with the USB microphone firmware. PippyG's should arrive out of the box like this. You will need to have a USB micro cable such as: https://thepihut.com/products/usb-to-micro-usb-cable-0-5m?. Older devices with a “Lightning” connector such as iPhone SE 2nd / 3rd generation and older model iPads will require a “Lightning to USB Camera Connector” These are available for under £10 on Amazon, or for those with deeper pockets the official Apple connector is around £48.

Battery life is entirely dependant on how much data is written to the SD card, as writing to SD is the most power-hungry operation. The best case battery life you will see from 2450mAh rechargeable AA batteries is just under 7 days, but more typically you will get 4 days / 3 overnights.

Not at present, but if you have specific hardware needs, contact us.

These devices are priced keenly, and their performance reflects that. A good comparison is, if you really need a Mercedes, you need to pay Mercedes prices. But if you want a car that will do most of what a Mercedes can, buy a Ford Fiesta (or 3). The Raspberry Pi Pico has an ADC with 12 bit resolution, so even though we record wav files as 16-bit audio, the low-order bits result from the filtering software in the device, there are only 12 bits coming out of the ADC. But even with 12-bit resolution, the Pico only has 8.7 ENOB (Effective Number of Bits) - much less than 12, and this limits its signal-to-noise ratio to 54.1dB. Over and above that, the SD card interface consumes sufficient current that it generates electrical 'clicks' on recordings, and some brands of SD card generate more noise than others. We find SanDisk Extreme and Ultimate to be the lowest-noise SD cards we have tested. Taking everything into account, the best SNR you are likely to see is around 54dB. Take a look at some recordings we have made with pipistrelle and Pippyg so you can make an informed buying decision

MEMs microphones do not like moisture. If rain gets into the hole, the microphone is likely to fail and need replacing. If that happens, check our return and repair policy and get in touch.

Check our return and repair policy and get in touch. If you want to continue using your pipistrelle just as a detector rather than a recorder you can do that. If your Pippyg's SD interface no longer works you can still use it as a 384 kHz USB microphone

For the PippyG and Pi-Pistrelle the current price is £3 for Royal Mail 48hrs.

Yes we do! But please email admin@smithrobotics.co.uk for more information