2040 Newsletter

Manufacturing partner for The Cacophony Project

Kia ora and welcome to our June newsletter. The year is half over!

Last month in my haste I posted the wrong link to the smart gate story. My apologies for that. Here is the correct link.

This month's innovation example comes from NZ Autotraps new rat trap: the AT110. They've been using a DOC AI Cam to help with their testing. They found it useful to:

1. optimise where to place the trap for testing: in the trees where the rats were running around, rather than on the ground, and
2. for seeing the rats interact with the trap.

Check out this video of their new rat trap the AT110.

This month I attended Fieldays and then went across the Waikato to share the Cacophony Project story with Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust (PFHCCT) in Whitianga and Thames. Last week I did the same with the Upper Hutt Branch of Forest and Bird. It is stimulating meeting these people and finding out a little bit about the mahi they're doing on their local whenua. Please let me know if you'd like me to visit your group.

A shout out to the bird sanctuaries around New Zealand who are dealing with repeated weather events. Including Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, Bushy Park and Zealandia who had to deal with a weasel incursion. On the positive side, Ellen at Zealandia did identify weasel footage captured by the DOC AI Cam. This was a first. "They're weaselly identified" quipped Cam from PFHCCT.

Sometimes the challenges are non-weather related, like a recent car vs gate incident at Shakespear Park (see picture below).

Read on for more updates on the DOC AI Cam and the High Interaction Rate Trap.

Kā mihi nui,
Shaun Ryan
2040 Limited, manufacturing partner for The Cacophony Project.

The NZ Autotraps self resetting rat trap

First thermal video of a weasel, in Zealandia

A damaged gate at Shakespear Park

DOC AI Cam

Software updates

This month we released some updates to the camera software to try to improve the reliability of the modem and ensure the camera behaves nicely when the memory card fills up.

We have also released a new version of Sidekick, with improved modem communications, integration with an AI chat bot, better support for small screens and various other improvements and bug fixes.

Upcoming software releases

At the moment we're working on integrating the DOC AI Cam with the Celium network, adding support for reporting the capacity for more battery types, and allowing easier set up for running the AI on the camera.

We’re still working on improving our bird recognition and hope to have a new release in July.

Manufacturing update

We have delivered our first cameras made with the new moulded cases. We briefly had cameras in stock, but again have a small backlog. We are planning on having cameras in stock soon so we can send them out the day orders come in.

Our solar solution

We have the electrical design mostly complete for our low light solar solution. We're waiting for the next iteration of the PCB to be delivered and working on the physical design.

At this stage we’re still not sure when this will be ready to sell.

A 3D render of the battery pack and circuit board to be used with a solar panel

High Interaction Rate Trap

We are still doing lifecycle testing and tweaking the design to improve reliability and make it easier to manufacture.

The video below shows a cycle of the latest trap design. It has a single enclosure that contains the electronics, sensors and the mechanism for opening and closing the trap. Here you can see the blinds being open and shut. This is done thousands of times to test the durability of the design.