Some scrap wood and cut up metal coat hangers to hold the 12V waterproof LED Array in place.  There is just a hint of a shadow coming from the shed window.  I box around the array will fix that.

late afternoon paper sun reflector and sample beetle.  Obviously there is still a shadow present on the 2mm grid graph paper.

In late Nov. 2011, a friend of mine started collecting beetles at night.  This is being done to see if we can track which beetle the local Orchid propagating wasps use to lay their larvae in.  I picked up my first samples from him on the 24th of Nov. 2011.  I volunteered to photograph, identify the beetles and mount them.  By Feb. 2012, I had quite a few tubes of beetles stored in the kitchen freezer, much to the consternation of my ever loving and patient wife:

Ok, D-Day. Time to dig up my Press-n-Peel PCB transfer film and Ferric Chloride.

In the mean time I added a jumper to the circuit design so I can disable the buzzer if it became too annoying.

In Part One of this project I developed a test circuit that proved that it would all work. In Part II, I actually redesign the bread boarded prototype into the final product.

After the near mishap with the last GPS bush walk, I have pondered how I was going to monitor the battery power usage. This blog is my first go at it.

The next day I set out to map some of the roads and tracks around a patch of Bush that I have been frequenting for a few years - recording native Orchid growth etc.

Here is the voltage recordings of the battery:

11:30 13.25V (No load)

11:32 12.63V (PC On)

14:45 strong electrical burning smell noted!

14:50 9.8V (No Load)

Ok, time to go for a walk and a drive...

I checked out my last lot of GPS code from the SWASC subversion repository and uploaded it to the MARK I mini-ITX PC. I then went for a walk around the park at the back of the house. The PC and GPS where running from a common 12V 7A Sealed Lead Acid (SLA), battery. The first walk lasted 1 hour 40 minutes. I noted the voltage drop over this period:

13:40 12.28V (on load)

14:00 12.14V

14:40 11.96V

15:00 11.88V

15:05 12.00V (no load)

Layout of the PCB board. Main connection to the Compass board is via J1 a RJ-45 socket.

schematic diagram of the Power Distribution board