Peter and James have built a large number of the new water-proof battery packs. Effective battery management has been one of the most challenging technical problems facing the practical deployment of RISERnet, a problem shared by all major wireless sensor network deployments. Over the winter, we have developed a modification that allows the mounting of new rechargeable battery packs outside of the motes (below). In addition, the external battery packs are capable of being charged separately from the mote. This change significantly reduces the time and labor required to swap batteries.