I need to playback bat recordings
 

My son chose a really cool project for his 6th grade science project. We are observing and recording bats feeding at our pond, then he's going to make some sort of brilliant scientific deductions and I can retire early. Or at least he's going to put do one of those poster thingies for open house.

Anyway, he wants to put a push-button sound playback device on the poster. "Press the red button to hear a bat's call." He'll have to explain how the bat detector converts the ultrasonic emissions to audible sounds, but that's not my problem.

Anyone know of a push-button sound playback thingy? Red button preferred.

At least I don't have to help him build a mission again (4th grade project in CA schools. I will pay my 3rd grader to write a paper instead).

yes, but they are quite expensive

a bat's ultrasonic emissions are.... ah... ultrasonic

to do it right, you need something that will go up to 50 kHz -- a good stereo goes to 20k Hz if you are lucky

You can reprogram those Staples easy button things.

Hack The Staples EASY Button! Make It Say What YOU Want! - Video

Can't help you along the lines of your playback sound idea, however, I do have a suggestion as an alternative.

Years back my wife and kids (young at the time) took a day trip to Chattanooga TN. There was a museum with a scientific exhibit on bats that we just happened to drive by and looked interesting so we decided to stop.

One of the neatest parts of the exhibit was a platform you stepped on/into and placed your head at the correct level to match the openings in some scaled up bat ear mock-ups (made of fiberglass or maybe paper mache'.) IIRC, they were almost 2 fight high. They allowed a human to experience how well bat's can "hear" - because of their exaggerated size. You could rotate the platform to point the ears across the room and pick up conversations from far away.

That's why we have a bat detector. It converts the ultrasonic emissions to audible chirps. It has a loudspeaker and audio jack, which I have hooked up to a digital voice recorder. Now instead of hanging the voice recorder on the poster, we want to install the sound file on some sort of push button playback device.

Incidentally, thanks for all of the good posts in the 911 tech forum. I'm learning a lot.

Sure thing (can you send me your Cayman?)

I think I misunderstood your question -- you don't want the bats to hear something you broadcast, you just want a recording to play that humans can hear, and want to incorporate that into a display at his poster session... (?)

the latter should be easy you just need the cheapest device that will play back a digital sound file (or an analog one) -- a laptop with a security cable could be used - or maybe a smart phone with a speaker; give the user a button the display to push with mouse or finger

or you could use a tape recorder and have it cycle (if the adjacent poster people don't object)

That's the first thing that popped into my head

Yeah, I saw the video. I need to save my remaining brain cells for getting my 911 turn signals to work. Electronics and I are not friends.

There's this innerwebs thingie called Google that has what appears to be the solution to your problem. http://bertrik.sikken.nl/bat/sounds.htm:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1300489097.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1300489157.jpg

I already have the recorded bat sounds - need a simple and cheap push button playback device.

Thanks for your help anyway.

I first thought of hacking one of those audio greeting cards and went on the net to search this out. After a little time I came across what may just be your simple and cheap solution.

Voice Sticker -- Send a Personalized Voice Message!

Aren't there greetings cards where you can record your own greeting in the card?