discussion / Biologging  / 17 June 2022

On the lookout for CAD/Microcontroller work!

Hey all!

I'm well into my journey into the field of conservation now, after volunteering and freelancing for a couple of different organisations over the past two years, and am looking to establish more connections and acquire more work.  I'm currently working with the RSPB and the Arribada Initiative, on projects ranging from camera traps for birds to sensor enclosures for manta rays.

I am able to offer CAD/3D Design services, as well as software programming services for microcontrollers and limited machine learning model building via Edge Impulse.  If there's anyone looking for help with their conservation project out there and want to discuss if we might be able to work together, please don't hesitate to message me/reply on here, Twitter or Linked in.  Below are development images of some of the projects I've worked on.  If you'd like to know more about the projects just let me know!

You can find me on Twitter and Linked in here:  

https://www.twitter.com/TechDevTom

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trsouth89

 

The first set of images is for an enclosure designed to attach to a manta ray via a vacuum cup, the project is still in development.  This device contains a Horizon GPS board developed by the Arribada Initiative, as well as an accelerometer sensor and a battery.  It's designed to have removable "wings" that allow the client to attach different sensors to the main body.  All components in the centre case are encapsulated in resin, which is why a separate box is included in the design.

Different views of the Manta Ray enclosure.

 

The next set of images shows an enclosure that contains a Horizon GPS tracking module that attaches on to the back of a Gharial, between its tail scutes, so that they can be tracked throughout their habitat.  The components are again encapsulated in resin, and two scaffolds have been created to hold the components in place whilst the resin sets.

Different views of the Gharial enclosure.

 

This final set of imagery shows the use of an off the shelf Evatron enclosure used to create a machine learning based camera trap for the RSPB.  There was a specific requirement for a high IP rating for the enclosure, so something that was already manufactured to a high standard was necessary.  There was CAD work involved in creating a custom mounting point for the internal hardware, as well as Raspberry Pi and Edge Impulse ML work in setting up a web interface and the image capture and object detection.