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Table of Contents
Summary of Contents for Ocean Instruments SoundTrap ST500
- Page 1 SoundTrap ST500 User Guide May 2019...
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Page 2: Table Of Contents
About this guide ..........................4 Quick start guide ..........................5 Opening and closing the housing ..................5 Batteries ........................... 5 Installing the hydrophone ....................6 Install the SoundTrap host on your PC ................6 Connect SoundTrap to your PC ..................7 Check SoundTrap Status .................... - Page 3 4.1.1 Click detector ......................20 4.1.2 Snippet extractor ....................21 4.1.3 User parameters ..................... 21 4.1.4 Output File formats ....................22 4.1.5 Click Detector Caveats and Cautions ..............24...
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Page 4: About This Guide
1 About this guide This guide begins with a ‘Quick start’ section to help you get going with your new SoundTrap, including software installation and basic deployment instructions. This is followed by several sections containing more detailed information around operation, deployment, maintenance and troubleshooting. It is highly recommended you read the entire guide to ensure you have a good understanding of the instrument and how to get the most from its capabilities. -
Page 5: Quick Start Guide
2 Quick start guide 2.1 Opening and closing the housing Before opening the housing always check for flooding by shaking the recorder and listening for water sloshing around inside. If flooding is suspected, then be aware that the housing may be pressurised and therefore potentially dangerous. -
Page 6: Installing The Hydrophone
The SoundTrap ST500 is powered by up to 9 ‘D’ cell alkaline batteries. These are loaded in sets of 3, meaning the recorder can be deployed with 3, 6 or 9 batteries depending on desired length of deployment. We strongly recommend only using Energizer batteries. These are commonly available and all testing and advertised battery endurances have been based on this brand. -
Page 7: Connect Soundtrap To Your Pc
For correct operation of your ST500 it is critical to use SoundTrap Host version 3.3.1 or later. • Pre-installation Notes: o The SoundTrap host software supports Windows 7,8 & 10 (32 or 64 bit versions). o Do not connect the SoundTrap to your computer until you have completed the SoundTrap host software installation. -
Page 8: Check Soundtrap Status
2.6 Check SoundTrap Status Note the ‘Status’ panel on the right (Figure 3). Verify that the memory is not full. Figure 2 – Deploy Control 2.7 Configure the deployment • Select the ‘Deploy’ tab as shown in figure 2. • Configure the deployment parameters as follows: o The ‘Recording Starts’... - Page 9 o Options available in the ‘Audio Options’ will vary according to your device’s capabilities. Options include the following: ▪ Channel Selection selects which channels to record on. ▪ Sample Rate should be set based on the frequency band of interest and data rate considerations.
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Page 10: Begin Recording Using The Ir Remote Control
2.8 Begin recording using the IR Remote Control You may use the remote control to start recording. The recorder housing must be open to receive the signal from the remote. • Press ‘START’ to start recording. • Press ‘STOP’ to stop recording. •... -
Page 11: Data Offload
2.9 Data Offload Once you’re done recording, reconnect your SoundTrap to your PC and select the Retrieve Tab, as shown in figure 4. Figure 3 – Retrieve Tab • You will see a list of files in the SoundTrap’s memory, including the file name (made from the device serial number plus local date and time), date recorded, approximate size and whether it has yet been downloaded to your computer’s hard drive. -
Page 12: More Details
3 More details 3.1 Adding additional memory cards The SoundTrap ST500 series have the capacity to add additional data storage in the form of 3 microSD card slots. Two reasons to consider using these are: 1. To lengthen deployment endurance by adding more memory. When using a high sample rate, the internal memory may get exhausted before the batteries are depleted. -
Page 13: Data Files
4. SoundTrap uses a custom file system to maximise performance and reliability. This means the cards can only be read with the ‘SoundTrap Card Reader’ application supplied with the SoundTrap Host software. When inserting the memory cards into a PC you may receive a message like “Drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?”. -
Page 14: Calculation Of Deployment Endurance
This will result in inefficient usage of memory, and the deployment may be artificially memory limited. For example, a SoundTrap ST500 has 256 GB of memory; dividing this by the minimum file size of 4 MB gives a maximum of 64000 files. -
Page 15: Deployment Hardware
Thankfully SoundTraps are more easily deployed than traditional acoustic recorders due to their small size. A SoundTrap ST500’s weight in water is approximately 1.5 Most often the hydrophone is located near the sea floor, using an anchored line. This involves running a line between a heavy anchor weight and either a surface or sub-surface float. -
Page 16: Software Updates
3.5 Software updates New software releases will be made available via the Ocean Instruments website. You may which to subscribe to our email list in order to receive notification of these updates. The update procedure is generally straightforward – simply install the new software over top of the existing, by running the msi file and following the usual Windows software install prompts. - Page 17 Calibration data is not shipped with the recorder, but instead made available online from the calibration page of the Ocean Instruments website. To find the values for your recorder and hydrophone simply enter their serial numbers into the website here: http://www.oceaninstruments.co.nz/...
- Page 18 PAMGUARD PAMGAURD expects calibration data in terms of gain and ADC range. To work around this, specify a preamplifier gain of the calibration value * -1.0 (eg -176.0) and specify the Peak-Peak voltage range as 2.0 V. PAMGuide PAMGuide provides several convenient calibration schemes. For SoundTrap data select the end-to- end calibration type and enter a system sensitivity of the calibration value * -1.0 (eg -176.0).
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Page 19: Troubleshooting
3.8 Troubleshooting First port of call when experiencing problems is to check that you are using the most up to date software. Oftentimes small issues are most easily resolved by updating the software – please try this first. The latest software can be downloaded from here: www.OceanInstruments.co.nz/downloads/ Problem: SoundTrap doesn’t appear in device list when plugged into computer Solution: This is usually due to the internal lithium battery being dead flat. -
Page 20: Appendices
4 Appendices SoundTrap HF Click Detector (ST500HF Only) The SoundTrap ‘HF Click’ Detector is a general purpose high frequency click detector followed by a snippet extractor. The detector is designed to detect most odontocetes and is intended to be used as a first pass, guiding you to times in your recordings with lots of transients. -
Page 21: Snippet Extractor
detection can be made. This blanking-time is useful to avoid detecting echoes from a click or to prevent detecting a large number of clicks if an animal is buzzing near the recorder. 4.1.2 Snippet extractor For each detection, an entry is added to the detection log and a snippet of wideband sound surrounding the detection time is saved. -
Page 22: Output File Formats
short transients and so give poorer detection of delphinids) or an intermediate value which will tend to reduce sensitivity to both short and long transients but not by much. Blanking time: Time that must then elapse after a detection before another detection can be made. Useful to avoid detecting echoes from a click or to prevent detecting a large number of clicks if an animal is buzzing near the recorder. - Page 23 snippet sound data is compressed using the lossless X3 compressor but this is transparent to the user: the .dwv file contains the reconstituted uncompressed data. Up to 100000 snippets will be saved per recording (i.e., per output file). If more detections are made over this interval, they will be reported in the BCL file (see below) but no snippet will be saved.
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Page 24: Click Detector Caveats And Cautions
displayed by Excel, Libre Office, Open Office etc. See also the Matlab tools for a function to read this file format. 4.1.5 Click Detector Caveats and Cautions While every care has been taken in producing the SoundTrap Click Detector, this is free software offered ‘as is’, in the hope that it will be useful: there is no warranty, implied or otherwise, nor implication of fitness for any particular purpose.