Day 25 Tuesday 7-16

We went back out to Isle du Bois to check on the system since it has been raining the past 3 days and to retrieved our DVR system.

The rain on the panels.

 

Our solar panels fried a cockroach! 

We got our truck stuck in the mud when we pulled off the road. :( but thanks girl power we were able to push it out!

We brought it back to the lab to review the data.All the red spots are when motion was detected and it recorded video. As you can see there is a lot of motion that trips the cameras, but most of it set off by the shadows.

SUCCESS!! WE HAD TWO MICE IN OUR BURROW!

 


 We also found out why our cables were not transmitting video feed back to the DVR. Whenever we were running the cables through the brush and trees and over the rocky road it damaged the cables. But only one side, the power side was unaffected, this explains why when we tested for power it was running from end to end but not transmitting video back to the DVR.

Day 24 Monday 7-15

Time to wrap things up and scratch more things off our list of things to do!  

We were able to get two things scratched off our list.  So far we only need one picture for our poster.  Our paper is awaiting one more set of data that we will retrieve from Isle du Bois on tomorrow.  Our video is in the process of being edited.  We will make our demo video out in the field and we will be on our way to ending this experience.  Wow..... can't believe it is the last week!!!!!!

Day 23 Friday 7-12

Another early day for the Wild Watch Team. We are headed back out to Isle Du Bois to check our DVR and see if we recorded any data.

WE SAW WILDLIFE! Our first sighting of a big mammal in our area?! 

The momma deer had a baby! 

We tried to follow them but they jumped and ran away :( 

The view from our camera down a tunnel. It recorded the movement of shadows from the trees outside, no bugs this time. 

This is a video of our recordings, you can see how only three cameras were recording. They are in the top left, top right and bottom left corners. The 4th camera cable had damage to it and was not able to send the data back to the dvr. In this you can see how each corner comes on for a bit of time then back off. This is due to motion being sensed, when it is noticed the camera clicks on and starts recording until the motion is stopped. 

 Checking out the light intensity in the camera and surrounding areas. 

We added a screen to the back side of our structure to help shade the pelican box. 

Ignoring the junk pile behind it, its beautiful! We could not be more proud!

Then LUUUUNCH break and back to the lab to continue working on our paper and presentation. A short pow wow was held to discuss our game plan for next week. Only 5 more days left and so much to do. We need to create a detailed list in order to get everything accomplished. We are all doing the happy dance knowing that in one more week we can sleep in!

Day 22 Thursday 7-11

A full day dedicated to being in the lab. The day was spent working on the paper and presentation for the last day of the internship, as well as preparing our going out to the field bag of supplies.


The light intensity sensor was worked on and completed.

Day 21 Wednesday 7-10

Get ready for deployment.....  

Not that type.....

This type........

We were able to move on to our next phase of deploying our off grid system.  To catch anyone up who are just now following........ To develop an off grid video system using solar power for collecting visual data of

the burrowing owl roosting behavior in the West Texas Region.

First, we moved our on grid system to our desired location so that our solar panels are facing north.

Once the frame was in place we anchored it down with a "T" post.

It was time for our batteries to connect parallel . 

 There are three steps to connecting the charge controller for the solar panels. Step 1: connect the batteries; Step 2: Connect the solar panels; Step 3: connect the load.  To the right here, we are connecting the load that will connect to the DVR.

 In the meantime, the wires to the cameras were in the process of being switched so that they are closer to the new location of the DVR.

We had some hiccups, our last panel wasn't lining up with the
holes that are in the angle iron. 

Adding the solar panels 

Panels connected..yay!!!!!

 Now we are able to connect all our wiring together into our charge controller.

Oh what a relief!!!!

Uh oh!!! Not a relief yet....sniff sniff..... something is burning!!!!

Think we burned the dvr  :(

 

Yep, the board is fried.  Luckily we have a back up.  Good thinking "2 is always better than 1"!

Hold on, one more sniff.......

Success!!!! Everything is connected.  

Let's double check our recorded videos to see if everything is working properly

You mean to tell me, only one camera has been recording this whole time!!!!!

Now what do we do??????????? Guess we will have check each camera all over again. Back to the drawing board.......

But, we can't see the screen..... hold on..... I have an idea..... Dawn to the rescue!!!!!!!

 Alright, wheeww.... hope motion is set for now. Let's seal and go it is HOOOOTTTTT!!!!

HOLD ON ONE MORE PIC

Hey don't leave me!!!!!!

Thank you UNT for your transportation, couldn't have done it without you!!!!!