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Flashing red and green

Hi, I have 3 audio moths which are not recording. 2 were recording before however do not record now. They are all flashing green and red at the same time. I've checked that the SD cards are working and battieries are full. Any help would be appreciated?

11 comments

11 Comments

Veit

Jan 14

Hello everyone,

just got my hands on 3 audiomoths (1.2.0). Two of them seem to work as they should. One of them is causing me some trouble. Every time i set up a recording time etc. and put this thing on CUSTOM, the green light starts flashing as it should until the moment where it should start recording. My other two devices would start flashing red while recording at this point, but this one device starts flashing red and green simultaneosly and no recording is being made. Same results when putting the device in DEFAULT setting. It instantly starts flashing red and green simultaneously. At this point i tried everything to fix this. I changed the sd-card with the ones that were working in the other two devices, changed the batteries several times etc.. I dont know what to do anymore. The sd-card that i thought would be the problem works in the other two devices. Maybe i´m just incompetent. Can someone help me?

Another thing: Is it normal, that the audio quality is dramatically decreased when putting the audiomoth in one of these plastic cases?

Greetings,

Veit

Alex Rogers

Jan 16

Replying to

Hi Veit, Where did the AudioMoth come from? The green and red flash is an SD card write error, but assuming that you've swapped out the SD card with one that works on another device it sounds as though this device has a hardware problem. Is the SD card empty, or does it manage to write the CONFIG.TXT file when you switch to CUSTOM? The case will reduce low-frequency response and increase SD card write noises. This is very obvious when you first close the case as it is over-pressurised for a little while and then equalises through the vent. Alex

Veit

Jan 16

Replying to

Hi Alex, thanks for the quick reply.

I got the devices from the supervisor of my bachelor thesis. They must have been lying around unused for a while, but were still in their original packaging. The sd card was always empty and a CONFIG.TXT file was never written.

Due to the obvious disadvantages of the cases provided for the devices, I am considering using a simple plastic bag. Is this recommended or is there a better alternative?

Best regards,

Veit

Alex Rogers

Jan 17

Replying to

I'd allow the cases to equalise over a few hours before deciding whether to use them. It depends on the application and how loud the sounds that you are recording are. Many people use plastic bags for short deployments. There's a good discussion here - https://github.com/rhine3/audiomoth-guide/blob/master/guide.md

Alejandra Delgado

Sep 22, 2023

Hello.

The same thing happens to me and I tried what they suggest but even the equipment does not record and before if it did.

What else can I do?

Alex Rogers

Sep 22, 2023

Replying to

Hi Alejandra,

Can you describe the problem that you are having, share the CONFIG.TXT file, and describe what batteries and SD card you are using.

Alex

Alejandra Delgado

Jan 16

Replying to

Hello Alex, I discovered that the micro SD memories of the brand I was using generated the error and caused the Audiomoth not to record. I changed the memories and it worked correctly.

Thank you so much

Alex Rogers

Jul 29, 2023

Flashing red and green typically means a SD card write error. Check that the SD cards are formatted as exFAT or FAT32, and then switch to DEFAULT. It should then make a recording. Can you confirm which firmware is installed on the AudioMoth.

ekermally

Jul 29, 2023

Replying to

Thank you so much, that worked! Firmware is 1.8.1. I had recordings on the SD card and transferred them to my external hard drive and then put them back into the audio moth. I guess this means they need reformatted to exFAT if I've had files but not if they are new SD cards. Working on a mac if that makes any difference.

Alex Rogers

Jul 29, 2023

Replying to

Great. We generally reformat to exFAT before deployment as deleting files doesn't free up the file allocation table on some operating systems (it just hides the files). The other reason for a red and green flash is that the device is configured but has no recording period specified. This means that it can't make a recording in CUSTOM mode (and so will flash red and green) while it can happily make continous recordings in DEFAULT mode.

ekermally

Jul 29, 2023

Replying to

Thank you so much! That is very invaluable to know. Away to go and reformat them now.