In 1994 I needed to come up with a project title for our HND class at very
short notice. I had seen an article on bats and so the bat detector project
was born. The students did a good job and produced a rather large and not
very effective bat detector - but it worked! For the first time I realized that there were bats which flew around our house at night.
I soon recognized that the detector could be greatly improved. The piezo-electric detector that it used had a very narrow bandwidth, and the circuit was neither very stable nor (in their circuit) very sensitive. Further problems also became apparent. Since the detector is directional it can help you to locate the bat; but the bat flies about very rapidly, and it's easy to lose track of it in the dark. Also you can see the frequency setting in the daylight, but not when its dark!
Since then I have had several projects examining ways of improving the bat detector. We are looking for new approaches, a wider bandwidth, greater sensitivity, and a system that would give an indication of the direction of the bat relative to the detector. The subject is proving very interesting, and also providing engineering challenges for the students at several different levels. My interest in bats has also increased and I am now webmaster for the Durham bat group.
As students complete their projects I will link summaries into this page, so watch this space!!
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