Ultrasonic BAT Detector Using Software Defined Radio

Here we take a look at how we can use a Software Defined Radio to detect bats emitting their ultrasonic echolocation sounds.
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[@Kevin_KC0SHO]

Your previous video about meteorite detection and this video especially, are out of the box thinking. I love projects that use SDRs to detect and measure objects that natively don’t emit RF. Please keep these videos coming.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks Kevin!

[@bartonstano9327]

FYI; this can be used to listen to the ultrasonic chirps from pet rats. A software project DEEP SQUEEK is working on trying to decode rats "language".

[@Mr0rris0]

That's how you get King Charles and the teenage mutant ninja turtles after you at the same time. They don't make hallmark cards for that.

[@bumbozambumbazebulon6738]

​@@Mr0rris0hahhahahah ❤❤❤😂

[@geoffcarr5157]

There's always a bloody pileup on 20khz. Ive been listening to them for years. Put up a few bat houses with cameras inside them and built a number of detectors and even a few bat scanners. I posted a few pics on QRZ. Lookup K4CTX. Echolocation and mating calls are on different frequencies too. You'll almost understand what they're up to once you listen for a bit. Fun project for the kids too. Enjoy!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Haha.. Yeh, I was getting addicted to waiting for the echos to appear. I'll be a BAT whisperer in no time! :-) Cheers

[@srviejo2298]

Ultrasonic receivers are often used to track down unwanted emissions from power lines. I'd be interested to see how this works for that application.

[@tom23rd]

That was really unexpected and definitely cool AF. Need to give it a whirl here in Florida, US! Super interesting out-of-the-box material.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Go for it! Thank you

[@RB9522]

I have tried and successfully received bats that fly by my house. I used a modified 40 kHz entered ultrasonic radar module. I built an amplifier and could barely detect the "Fruit Bats" that fly around my house. Your results are much better. I will be purchasing the type of microphone you suggest and trying again. Thanks for the very interesting video and information. I'd like to see some pictures of your setup.

[@victororo462]

How did your project work out? Very interested in this!!

[@oldestnerd]

I started on a similar project years ago. I have an SDR-IQ receiver and the same SDR-Console software and even bought a few MEMs microphones. That was before I retired and got distracted by other projects. I hope your video gets me working on it again. Thank you for the inspiration. I'm in the Eastern US so I suspect out bats will be other frequencies. One similar project I started was to monitor the signals the local power company used over it's lines to communicate with water heaters that consumers had agreed to allow the company to shut off to reduce peak energy consumption. It used frequencies in this same range.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks for the info, projects like this always spark interest and it’s quite thought provoking. I’m always on the hunt for projects like this. Thanks 🙏

[@mikemines2931]

Fifty years ago I lived in the Chilterns and at dusk there were bats aplenty. We had at the time a new Ferguson TV with one of the first remotes which worked at ultra sonic to change the channel. This thing was a bat jammer if the french windows were open, we didn't do this too often as it seemed to cause a mass panic amongst the bats with airborne collisions and we were worried about injuring them.

[@RicSpivey]

very very different! but I love it! It's really cool seeing these other uses for an SDR that you're showing.

[@urinater4]

Recently made one of these based on this video and have had some fantastic results! Thanks for sharing.

[@johnwalton5576]

AMAZING! What a cool little project!

[@vincei4252]

Wait, British bats have an British ultrasonic accent ? Who knew!!! Do Texan bats have a Texan drawl ?

[@rafaelcambon1]

Thank you for what you do. Your channel got me hooked on amateur radio just over a year ago. This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on the internet. Again many thanks.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Wow, thank you!

[@XBKLYN]

Great project...the only thing that would have given me pause is the level of the microphone output relative to an ordinary antenna....glad to see the front end of the RSP2 survived.

[@lx2smlx2ooo98]

I have an SDRplay RSP2pro at home, SDRuno on the laptop and 3 SPU0410LR5... in stock. But I never had this brilliant idea to listen to bats with this system. Great idea. Tnx.

[@Ardren]

That's pretty cool. I live next to a large colony of bats, but google tells me that Flying Foxes don't actually use echo location. Thankfully there is plenty of light pollution and seeing them in flight every night is pretty easy 🙂

[@Antenna101]

WOW!!! How did I not see this?! This is so cool!!

[@gibbywankenobi66]

That is pretty cool! Keep up the good work!

[@andygee873]

That’s fantastic. Thank you.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You’re welcome :)

[@paaao]

If you want to hear plants scream, point your mic towards them and pluck their leaves/fruit. They screech at high frequency allegedly. I read a scientific article on it once, but never thought to buy a high frequency mic, and down convert to confirm.

[@paaao]

@bentcrazy1324 some believe consciousness is actually the opposite of matter, and is immaterial. If so, and there is a conjugate bridge between the two, then conscious experience would not be dependent upon brains, nervous systems, etc... It could function similar to a radio where the signal is received via a resonant antenna and processed. Some have proposed that h2o is such an antenna. In fact, it makes a lot of sense since no conscious experience ever had by any person, has ever been able to be created or duplicated by external scientific methods such as stimulating parts of the brain, or sending electrical pulses etc... Most evidence points towards memory and consciousness being non local. Ie, not derived from the brain, but rather, processed or filtered by it. Bullet in the brain is no different than drilling a hole through your radio and then trying to stay tuned in to your favorite station. The broadcast signal is not affected, it is just no longer received and modulated. Anyways, I'm getting off track here... There is an amazing radio lab pod cast on plants being conscious. They ran an experiment where they tried to determine how plants' root systems find water. What they found was, if they ran two pipes beneath them and one had flowing water, and one did not, the plants' roots would always grow more towards the pipe with the flowing water. So they got clever, and played an mp3 down the pipe that was just a recording of water flowing. They removed the actual water. The plants still grew towards the pipe. If you look at the hairs inside your ears, and the hairs on a living plant's roots, can vibrations and information be transferred just the same? Meaning, if something is alive, processing h2o, and has physical features that could theoretically be akin to the 5 senses we know for certain, and if consciousness is one big pie in the sky that can be received and then becomes filtered and fragmented via physical structure of the matter interpreting it. Then, I'd have to think that everything living from plants, to fish, to lions, and humans has some level of conscious awareness, feelings, hopes, wonders, etc...

[@KY4K-10]

Another great video. Always looking forward to your next video.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thank you :-)

[@0.G.]

Fantastic off regular radio topic, but a great use of SDR Matt. Was wondering if with ELF microphone pick up and the right amplifier you could detect subsonic frequencies in the Hz range? There has been experiments in the past for early tornado warning detection. Definitely gets one thinking of what’s out there from DC to daylight! Thanks for your excellent channel and content.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

That's really interesting! A lot of tech out there that can be explored and experimented with. This is just the tip of the ice burg! Cheers

[@BalticLab]

Now that is a pretty cool idea! I guess I have something to try out with my new SDRplay RSPdx since it allegedly goes down to 1 kHz. Should be fun!

[@electronics.unmessed]

Hi, that is a great idea! Many thanks for the video, I like this kind of ideas. Another application for my RSPdx 😎

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MikeNHOC]

That is pretty cool! Thank you for sharing.. I might give this a go!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You're welcome :-)

[@WECB640]

BRILLIANT!

[@geekyfreq]

That was awesome. Thanks!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You're welcome!

[@garycroftsmicroscopy]

Brilliant i have a bat detector but this adds an extra dimension for a project i wanted to build out…

[@Kw1161]

Well Tech Minds you will literally have me going Batty....:)! Thanks a nice project to try. Have a nice day:

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You’re welcome 🦇

[@TrakaBat]

Really nice

[@YouMustBeConfused]

Brilliant!

[@dso2805]

Very cool indeed. Tanks!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Glad you liked it!

[@Capitaine.Albator]

Awesome! Thanks for the share 👍🏻✌🏻🇨🇦

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@dennisbauer3315]

Fantastic, thank you.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You're welcome. :-)

[@scanner_956]

This is getting interesting

[@letmelooktv]

our whole radio club was out last month wondering around in the dark with bat detectors lol.deffo going to try this. what would be cool is to make it work with a mobile phone or tablet.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Android tablet running SDR++ would work :)

[@zeno2712]

Fascinating!

[@MilanKarakas]

Great stuff! I may try this since I have RSPduo receiver and SDRuno software (1 kHz - 2 GHz). I think that ordinary electret microphone on preamplifier may work, since rating 20 Hz to 20 kHz is just for flat response. Above 20 kHz it is no more flat response, but I bet it can go very high. Too bad, I did not see many bats recently in my area (Croatia). Yet, I may try at some point after finishing messing with 1420 MHz neutral Hydrogen radio astronomy.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Absolutely! give it a try and let us know how you get on with that electret mic.

[@victorcharlie7491]

That really interesting, tnx bro.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You're welcome :-)

[@krzysztofsoja5301]

Wow. Interesting idea. Congratulation on results. Would You mind showing us what does parking sensors of a car sounds like?

[@carriegrant165]

Amazing!

[@JLucB]

Excellent !!!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Thanks :-)

[@petewright2283]

That’s pretty cool as we’re about move and have bat boxes installed as a requirement

[@seanchallenge]

Awesome 👍

[@Dixy3]

Thank you for sharing your video, I was wondering how to listen to our friendly bats that we see on our CCTV cameras a few nights a week on dry days; they help reduce the numbers of spiders on our cameras. Best regards, Chris,

[@XBKLYN]

What about using an underwater microphone to listen to sea life, ship propellers and sonar?

[@2321brendan]

Cool. Now build a transmitter for those frequencies, and watch the bats crash! Im thinking of building a parabolic audio mic and mounting to top of mast with small rotator . See what the neighbours really think !?

[@daveevans9809]

WAB - worked all bats? Do they QSL?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Only the rabid ones!

[@user-kf5zw8uq7r]

Which ultrasonic mic do you recommend?

[@JorksX]

link for the sensor? cannot find board with those direct connections.

[@GLITCH_-.-]

Question: I immediately thought about piezzo speakers. Could you not use one of them instead? More amplis behind, of course.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Absolutely!

[@snaily1972]

Do they transmit ADS-B, ACARS or VDL2? Asking for a friend 😂 On a serious note it certainly shows a different and interesting aspect to SDR.

[@mikecdyer]

Rookie here. So you are attching the antenna shield to ground correct?

[@joecarty8579]

Stupid question time but what was the tone at 63khz.

[@Trent28888]

What about receiving submarine sonar,apparently they are 30KHz to 500KHz,it wouldn't take much to make it into a hydrophone

[@pcfreak1992]

Good evening, bat man. I got you at a solid 59, 59. QSL?

[@NatureMike]

it would be great to have the buy links for this project

[@TechMindsOfficial]

The Pcb with the mems came from a limited supply on eBay uk. So that’s why I shared the part number in the video.

[@GLITCH_-.-]

Question: Why not use the soundcard and virtual audio cable and use audio device input in the SDR software? My microphone input (Common Realtek HDA chip on mainboard) can go up to 192kHz. That should be enough, so that you can just use the microphone you bought as a microphone. If that works - and why wouldn't it - then everyone who doesn't have a SDR Radio can try it too - maybe it even works better because SDR Radios that go this deep are expensive. I don't have such a Radio, ie. But using the microphone as what is is directly ... sure. Actually, I just tried it with my smartphone, its internal mic and SDRangel (which has a android app) and I can demodulate stuff from above 20kHz with it no problem. (still testing) Maybe just connect that microphone to your smartphones 3.5mm jack, if you have one. I do. Also, even though SDRangel only shows a max freq of 48kHz on my smartphone, other audio spectrum apps can show me 192kHz, just like my PC. Maybe with this microphone it will actually detect sound from that high as well. (my mic stops at 44 or 48kHz)

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

*_"I'm BATMAN."_* 😊

[@ivanbiasutti4567]

where did u find that mic mounted on PCB? tnx

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I got it from Ebay (UK) but they probably sold out by now. But you can get the mic separately from many places. Just google the part number.

[@MrShaneSunshine]

Wow

[@kb3svj]

That is so cool. I wonder if each Bat has it's own distinct voice (maybe not the right way of describing it) as do each of us .

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Bat whisperer? Doctor Doolittle? :)

[@kb3svj]

@@TechMindsOfficial I think the one bad said " Let's go,the guy has a tennis racket."

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Hahaha… That made me chuckle. But they sounded drunk to me 🍺

[@brospartacus5069]

1:19 *Beware these cheap breadboard power supplies that contain the cheap AMS1117 style voltage regulators.* *If you momentarily short the output and then remove the short, the full input supply voltage will then appear on the output of the device. I've blown two such PSUs and the semiconductor chips in circuit.*

[@vincei4252]

G'day bat man.

[@x_CrossHair_x]

British Bats (Yup) I can hear the accent.

[@paulforester6996]

It would be interesting to have a app that tells what type of bat or other life that's around us in real time. AI could hopefully tell us what all the chatter is about. Probably us. Lol

[@dennis8196]

Just because you can see a bat or groups of bats doesn't mean you will hear them - many don't use echolocation because they are herbivores, and therefore don't need to hunt for their prey.

[@rogue_spirit]

Bats ultrasonic echolocation isn't only used for hunting but, as it's name suggests, for flying and navigating through obstacles! Carnivore or herbivore it should be the same!

[@Ghost_Swe]

Cant you power it from Bias through cable?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Absolutely! I did start designing a board to mount the mems on, and added a bias tee to extract the V. Didn't get round to finishing it yet though.

[@Ghost_Swe]

@@TechMindsOfficial would br great if RspDX could power it directly

[@Richardincancale]

Are you sure bats use USB? Did you try FM?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

They don’t use any form of RF modulation. It was just easier to hear the audio while in USB

[@Alex2OC]

Was ist das für ein Peak? Der muss ja schrecklich für die Fledermäuse sein

[@btoven66]

so, can you hear whales? ...👉