Heater Settings

The SMART MIC-1 has a built-in heating element for removing condensation, which can reduce the sensitivity of its microphone elements.

When enabled, the heater can raise the temperature of the front face of the SMART MIC-1 to approximately 20°C above ambient temperature.

For a given Setting Profile, the heater can follow one of three basic behaviors:
  • Alternating between active and inactive during each schedule period
  • Active at the start of each schedule period
  • Always inactive

You can configure the heater to run simultaneously with triggered recording or set recording to pause while the heater is on using Triggered Recording with Bat Call Analysis > Pause Triggering When Heater Is On.

Choosing Heater Settings

Appropriate heater settings will depend greatly on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the following:

Microphone Position
A microphone that is sheltered overhead may experience less moisture collection and need less frequent heating.
Microphone Orientation
A microphone that is angled below horizontal will collect less moisture than one angled above horizontal.
Environmental Factors
Temperature, humidity, and precipitation patterns at the deployment site will affect how often moisture or frost collects on the microphone and how quickly it will evaporate.
In room temperature, low-humidity conditions, with the microphone angled horizontally, it can take up to thirty minutes for the heater to remove enough moisture that a microphone returns to normal sensitivity when tested with an external speaker.