Hardware and Software

You can use hardware and software to supplement Wildnote in the field. This includes survival equipment and mapping technology.

This document is a summary of the hardware and software that can supplement the Wildnote app and help improve the customer experience.

Resources: Hardware

Cedar CP3 Rugged Smartphone: “the most capable rugged smartphone on the market for data collection and communication, in a sleek design with poignant lines and a slim profile.”

Shady Rays Sunglasses: Ultra durable and come with an unbeatable replacement policy if lost or broken. The company also does good for the world by providing 11 meals through Feeding America with every order placed.

Zerolemon Power Supply: Portable power supplies to keep you up and running in the field.

Portable Solar Chargers: Many of these can easily charge phones and computers, and they use the energy of the sun to do so.

Wildtek SOURCE 21W Waterproof Portable Solar Charger Panel: “The Most Durable, Rugged, and Weatherproof Panel in the World.”

BioLite: “Discover Stoves, Lights, and Solar Panels, To Power Adventure Outside.” Lots of amazing products to assist you in your outdoor adventures

Song Meter SM4 Acoustic Recorder: “Compact, lightweight, dual-channel weatherproof acoustic recorder.”

Animex Bridge Trail Camera: Camera that can capture footage of tree-based animals.

MoKo Waterproof Floating Cell Phone Bag: “MoKo waterproof, snow-proof, dirt-proof case is an ideal solution to keep your phone safe and dry.”

Pogotec Glasses Camera: “Capture photos and HD videos with your glasses.”

GearTrade: Online marketplace where “outdoor lovers can reconcile the desire for new gear with a desire to conserve resources and lessen the impact on the planet”

MobileShield™ Nano-Coating: Waterproof your phone on the circuit level with nano-coating. 

Heavy.com Survival Gear: Top 10 list of top survival gear items that just might save your life.

Poison Oak Soap: This is the soap used by fire fighters, CalFire, and countless adventuring people worldwide! 

Rugged Messenger iPad Case: Durable keyboard and case for iPad.

Anatum Rental Equipment: Rent equipment through Anatum Field Solutions Mobile GIS

SPOT tracker: “SPOT uses 100% satellite technology to keep you connected to the people and things that matter most, all while using the world’s most modern satellite network.”

Resources: Software

International Archaeologist Packing List: A rather amusing and very practical article with a comprehensive packing list for archaeology expeditions.

Solocator: Watermark photos with this photo-taking app (compatible with both Android and iOS)

Archeology Podcast Network: Lots of resources for apps relating to archeology (webpage is searchable).

Resources: Mapping

Commonly used software’s for mapping: GPS Tracks, Motion-X GPS, Avenza PDF Maps, Gaia GPS, Collector

Process for connecting to Wildnote: 

Drop a Lat/Long pin in Wildnote, manually copy the coordinates into the mapping service you use. Works well when you have more than one point you need to track (i.e. Lines, Polygons)

Currently the two ways to use the mapping data generated by Wildnote is with the KML export and the Excel/pivot report export.

Wildnote's KML export can be used in Google Earth. This is a common enough file format that most GIS platforms can convert it. Here is the documentation on the ESRI ArcGIS tool to import KML files.

You can also include a location field in a survey and then use Wildnote's Excel/pivot report export. The location (lat/long) column can then be used as the basis for mapping points. ESRI ArcGIS needs the latitude and longitude values to be in separate columns, which can be done easily using Excel's "text to columns" function (see documentation below on how to do this). You can go through a fairly straightforward import process to convert the table into ESRI's point feature format. To do this convert, use this tool.

It is good to remember that depending on what GIS platform and version is being used, the details might be slightly different for using these techniques.