Bat Listener Kit

£20⁰⁰

Welcome to fascinating world of bats! This updated Bat Listener can hear the ultrasonic sounds created by bats and convert them to a lower frequency so that you can hear them communicate, navigate and seek them!

Bats use ultra-sonic pulses to navigate and to detect prey. These pulses are very high pitch, in the region of 40-120kHz, around 5 times the maximum frequency humans can hear. The Bat Listener is an electronic circuit that converts the high pitched sounds produced by bats to a human-audible level. For extra fun use the Bat Listener to investigate other gadgets which make a high frequency noise .

You can hear compact fluorescent lights screaming away, the squeaks from sticky tape as it is unwrapped and the high frequency power supplies which power the back-lights in phones and laptops.

This kit has also been used to check if ultrasonic pet scarers are still working, check for gasses leaking from pipes and listen to the noises made by rats!

PCB and components in the kit (enclosure parts not shown).

The kit of components includes:

Bat Listener Printed Circuit Board
16x Capacitors
13x Resistors
3x Integrated Circuits (ICs)
3x IC Socket Connectors
4x Diodes
Transistor
Ultrasonic Receiver
Speaker
Switch
Potentiometer
Instruction Booklet

Please note: While not difficult to make, this kit does require quite a lot of soldering. It is recommended for people who have already done a bit of soldering and will take in the region of 1-3 hours to solder.

There are THREE options available here:

PCB + Components (NO Enclosure) - This is for people who want to fit it into their own enclosure (RRP £20)
Full Kit (WITH Enclosure) - All the parts to make your detector in a case, either white or coloured (RRP £28)
Enclosure ONLY - Just the plastic enclosure, for people who have built the electronics already (RRP £12)

This kit has been re-designed from feedback from our previous kit. It is easier to build, requiring less fiddly wires and additional functionality, such as the LED output and an output for a micro-controller. We have kept the kit at the same low price.

New! This kit also comes with a headphone output for a 3.5mm jack socket. So now you can detect without disturbing others.

The fully built kit and enclosure.

Instructions for both the circuit and the enclosure are downloadable here.

All the files are available via our github repository. This includes the PCB schematic and design (done using KiCAD), the instructions and the enclosure designs (as .dxf designs).

Please find the "Soldering is Easy" guide available here.

Our customers have also helped design a 3D printed case for this - you can just buy the kit of parts and 3D print an enclosure for yourself. The 3D print files are in the Github repository. Note that this design is not supported by us directly - we supply the laser cut case seen in the images.

Funciona sin problema

El producto llego a tiempo y en perfecto estado, he tenido alguna dificultad a la hora de soldar el altavoz (de hecho no funciona) pero la verdad que con los auriculares funciona estupendamente y no molesto a nadie mientras detecto a los murciélagos. El montaje me ha resultado muy entretenido sin tener grandes nociones previas sobre soldadura, ojala haya muchos más proyectos interesantes como este para seguir monitorizando y conociendo nuestro entorno ambiental.

Great project

Loved making this, it was my first project, the instructions were easy to follow, I only have a very basic electronics knowledge that has been extended by building this kit. It worked first time, not heard a bat yet but having great fun checking high frequency sound from tape, bubble wrap, rodent scarers etc.

Worked on switch on!

I wanted a simple to use bat detector and this is really excellent. It's a frequency divider type detector and so unlike hetrodyne bat detectors needs no tuning. It's great value for money, I don't think I could have sourced all the components for the price of the kit. You will need a soldering iron with a small tip and small diameter solder, and so I wouldn't recommend it for someone without construction experience.

Super little project

This is a great project in terms of both how it’s put together and how well it works. The PCB is well made, ingeniously laid out and easy to solder. The instructions are pretty good. The case is a bit fiddly. After a couple of hours’ work I had a device that can detect bats – both visible and invisible – at a range of maybe 8–10 metres. I have no idea whether the stream of clicks gives any information on the species of bat, but as a way to find bat “hotspots” it’s excellent.

Bat listener - fantastic

Easy build and working better than I expected. I can hear the bats coming so know exactly when to look up! Next move is to connect it to an Arduino so I can tell what species they are. Thoroughly recommend the kit to any bat watchers.