Hello all,
I bought one of the Official Audiomoth IPX7 cases, the black color to be specific, and deployed it for five days to test the audio quality against my current case design. During those five days the weather was fair, ~80F high, ~65F low, and no rain. I was really satisfied with the quality of the audio files with the Official case however on retrieving the case I noticed that the membrane was now perforated. It is a small pin hole (see pics) but I did notice that it was enough for moisture to get in during a second 2-day deployment (~85F high, 70F low, light rain first night) to test just for that issue.
I just wanted to share and see if any others had a similar issue. I saw on the forum that several had issues with the clasps breaking, which I fortunately have not had. I also wanted to ask who I should reach out to about potentially getting another membrane that I could apply to the case? I had thought of trying to just use some tape or piece of a ziploc bag but just wanted to see if it would be possible to get another membrane for the case.
Thanks all!
John
This looks exactly like the holes we got in our membranes from ants biting in in French Guiana. The AMs were mounted on trees in primary rainforest, and out of ~45 about 15 received such holes - however, no damage occurred to the AMs inside although we noticed the holes only at the end of the season. We found single & few ants and entire ant nests inside the affected AMs, and we could see/hear the ants munching their way into the AMs on the recordings afterwards.
The next season we deployed the AMs with small metal grids - 1/2'' water diffuser with a ruber seal - that fit exactly the funnel of the AM.
The rubber rings with the grid somehow hold by themselves in the funnel, and can be firmly attached with a piece of tape at the top, or a drop of glue. The grid is so narrow, that water from rain will stick to the grid from surface tension and eventually might even fill up the entire funnel. What sounds to be bad at first glance, actually gave a very interesting, rather favourable effect. As this is standing water between the grid and the membrane only, no water entered the case through the membrane. More interesting, the AMs became much more acoustically sensible, probably through the physical amplification effect of the incoming sound at the large water membrane/surface at the grid/the funnel opening getting concentrated to the narrow acoustic opening of the membrane.