BirdNET-Pi on Pi Zero-2W Works Great!

[dalogue1]

I have a fast BirdNET-Pi system but a friend wanted one set up but for much less cost.

I configured it just as recommended along with a homemade AOM 5024P microphone and a generic Sabrent USB Audio adapter. As long as you load the lite version of the 64-bit Pi OS Bookworm for the Pi Zero 2W and with the recommended options it works great! So do not hesitate if the Pi Zero 2W is good enough, because it is.

Note: I originally loaded the full OS and it was lousy because it was out of memory and terribly slow as could be expected.

[dalogue1]

BTW when you are installing the OS to the microSD card remember to preconfigure the SID and password for your WiFi, set your time zone, and very important enable ssh so you can login from your Mac/Linux using ssh or from iPad using Shelly, or Windows using PowerShell. The BirdNET-Pi interface also connects you to a file manager and database maintenance utility as well.

Of course, a faster Pi has many advantages but for many people like my friend they will not see any difference. If you configure one for a friend, it is very handy to use the ‘nmtui’ utility to easily configure multiple WiFi SIDs in advance. (Namely yours and your friend’s). That way you can set up the BirdNET-Pi completely including broadcasting to BirdWeather and they can just plug it in with no configuration on their part at all. They can just plug it in to the power plug.

[Emmo213]

Nice, thanks for letting people know!

[MichaelPWalter]

Im having trouble setting up my RPi0W2. I increased the swap size as recommended but the entire rpi grinds to a halt after a couple of seconds. I can usually manage to connect to the birdnetpi.local. Is there a way to disable all but the core services ? I just need to be able to run Putty. And read out the gathered data at the end of the day. Ill slowly start to strip down all the services i dont need like wifi and hdmi.

[MichaelPWalter]

Seems like it could be caused by a subpar SD card. Ill try to find something faster and give it another try.

[MichaelPWalter]

Noticed swap size was still set to 200Mb on System Info panel. Reinstalled the OS and adjusted swap size manually now it works fine.

[dalogue1]

The installation instructions for the Pi-Zero 2W should have adjusted the Swap file size to 2048. Check that the changes are all present.

[dalogue1]

Absolutely. I have the “performance” microSD from MicroCenter. You should not have to disable anything at all. Make sure you have loaded the 64 bit Lite version of the Pi OS The system was horrible when I originally loaded the full version. Follow the installation instructions for the Pi-Zero 2W and it will work fine. https://github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi/wiki/RPi0W2-Installation-Guide

[MichaelPWalter]

I will give it a try. Do you think a 32-bit version works with BirdNET-Pi ?

[MichaelPWalter]

It doesnt

[dalogue1]

Nope

[dalogue1]

You may need to hunt a little for the Lite 64-bit version for the Pi-Zero

[dalogue1]

Actually it is just the "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)" under the (other) choice.