Summary of Contents for Sigma Eight ARES v3.0.11
- Page 1 ARES MANUAL For Ares firmware v3.0.11 9 September 2021 Version 1.0 © 9-9-21 Sigma Eight Inc.
-
Page 2: Table Of Contents
Table of Contents 1 Introduction..............................3 2 Front Panel...............................3 3 Receiver Display............................4 1 Top Panel..............................5 2 Bottom Panel............................6 3 Settings..............................7 3.1 VFO – VFO mode..........................7 1.1 Interval and pulse width diagnostic screen (Viewed by pressing number 8).........7 1.2 Advanced diagnostic screen (Viewed by pressing number 9)............8 3.2 SCAN –... - Page 3 1.2 2000.............................19 1.3 2003.............................19 1.4 Powermatch..........................19 1.5 Show Noise..........................19 3.7 TIME – Date and Time Settings......................19 3.8 SD – SD card settings........................19 3.8.1 Init/Erase...........................20 3.8.2 Enable............................20 3.8.3 Disable............................20 3.9 CFG - Configuration..........................20 3.10 ADV – Advanced Settings.......................20 4 Example: Decoding a Tag........................20 4.1 Beeper Tags.............................20 5 Updating Firmware..........................21 6 FAQ.................................26...
-
Page 4: Introduction
NTRODUCTION The Ares receiver is a narrow band, VHF, wildlife telemetry receiver with 5kHz wide channels used to detect and track animals outfitted with telemetry transmitters. It is capable of receiving, decoding and logging both pulsed (beeper) and coded transmitters. Data is logged to a removable SD card and can also be sent out an RS232 compatible serial port. -
Page 5: Receiver Display
ECEIVER ISPLAY When turned on, the receiver displays a title page along with a scrolling bar that indicates the receiver is booting up. When the bootup is completed, the receiver then goes into the last mode used (VFO or SCAN). VFO mode provides direct control over the Variable Frequency Oscillator. -
Page 6: Top Panel
ANEL The receiver top panel has two connections, an SMA antenna connector and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Since BNC connectors are commonly used with wildlife telemetry equipment, an SMA to BNC adaptor is also provided with the receiver so it can be connected easily to existing antenna systems. -
Page 7: Bottom Panel
The Audio jack is a 3.5 mm, 3 conductor socket for common stereo headphone and earphone plugs. It is not compatible with 4 conductor plugs that commonly come with stereo/mic headsets. If a microphone equipped headset is used, the audio level will be very low. OTTOM ANEL The bottom panel has two connectors, a USB connector and an accessory connector, and an SD card... -
Page 8: Settings
The accessory connector can be used to charge the receiver, supply external power or communicate with the receiver through an RS232 interface. An optional accessory Adaptor is available for this purpose. The SD card slot can be used to log data collected by the receiver for future analysis. An 8GB ETTINGS The receiver has 10 setting categories that can be accessed by pressing the Fn key. -
Page 9: Advanced Diagnostic Screen (Viewed By Pressing Number 9)
ITEM DESCRIPTION CODE The code of the last detected contact PULSE INTERVAL 1 The interval between the first and second pulse in milliseconds (will show zero if not applicable) PULSE INTERVAL 2 The interval between the second and third pulse in milliseconds (will show zero if not applicable) PULSE INTERVAL 3 The interval between the third and fourth pulse in milliseconds (will... - Page 10 ITEM DESCRIPTION NOISE LEVEL (NL) The average background noise level in the environment OVERFLOW (OF) Overflow, should almost always be 0. If the value is 1, the receiver is trying to process too much information due to high background noise FRAME INTERVAL (FI) Frame Interval, this value is the chunk of time the receiver is currently trying to process in tenths of a millisecond.
-
Page 11: Scan - Scan Mode
3.2 SCAN – SCAN MODE In scan mode, the receiver will step through the frequencies entered in the Channel Settings and the antennas entered in Num Ant in the General Settings at a rate defined by the Scan Sec in the General Settings. -
Page 12: Freq Mhz
3.4.1 Freq Mhz This is the frequency used in VFO mode. Enter the frequency in Mhz. It can be any value from 148.000 to 175.000. 3.4.2 Volume This is the audio volume level. It can be any value from 1 to 20. 3.4.3 Squelch (or Noise Floor) This is the signal strength value below which all signals will be ignored. -
Page 13: Rf Gain
Figure 2: How a receiver sees the incoming signal after taking into account the noise floor, or squelch level Above, Figure 2 shows how the receiver ignores everything below the squelch level. This level can either be set manually, or automatically determined. If the manual squelch level is set close to the average background noise level, then the receiver will automatically determine the squelch. -
Page 14: Num Ant
3.4.5 Num Ant This setting is the number of antennas you wish to scan when using the optional Hermes Solo Coordinator. The Hermes unit has a 4 way antenna switch which will allow the user to scan up to 4 antennas. -
Page 15: Code - Code Settings
3.6 CODE – C ETTINGS The CODE sub menu is used to select the decoder type and adjust parameters related to decoding. The currently active decoder is shown beside the menu title at the top. The items in this menu are as follows. - Page 16 Figure 3: Detection windows for a pulse Above, a transmitter has started emitting a strong signal at -80dBm when the time is 10ms. It goes until about 18ms, and turns off, for a total duration of 8ms. In order for the receiver to decode a transmitter, you must give it windows to determine if the signal is valid.
-
Page 17: Pw Max
Although the tag still turned for ~8ms, it is much weaker at about -115dBm. Here it is still relatively distinct, as it looks like the signal rose above the noise floor at about 10ms. But what if we drop the signal level further: Figure 5: A very low power transmitter signal Now, it is very difficult to see exactly where the transmitter starts and ends, so the receiver will not likely... -
Page 18: Pi Max
*************************************************************************** A Note On Pulse Intervals Pulse Interval is determined from the leading edge to leading edge of two successive valid signals. Figure 6: How pulse interval is calculated Here, a transmitter is emitting rapidly at ~100ms between transmissions, with an 8ms width. A signal is captured at 10ms on the time scale, and also at 110ms. -
Page 19: Dropouts
Here is an example of a transmitter emitting every 100ms, with a 20ms pulse width (I widened the pulse width so it was more visible). Figure 7: Beeper transmitter emitting a 20ms pulse every 100ms starting at 10ms 3.6.1.6 Dropouts In the figure above, this could be a signal that is somewhat like real life as the transmitter tumbles, it will vary in signal strength. -
Page 20: Powermatch
width, interval and count criteria. A ‘contact’ will now be recorded and output to the screen just as before. We will still get a contact for position 4, but the pulse missed at position 5 is allowed. This means that the counter does not reset, and when pulse 6 is detected, another contact will be recorded and output to the screen. -
Page 21: Init/Erase
1. Init/Erase 2. Enable 3. Disable 3.8.1 Init/Erase This selection is used to initialize and erase the card that is in the SD slot at the bottom of the radio. It must be performed on any new card that has not been used in the receiver to prepare it to receive data. -
Page 22: Updating Firmware
Fn -> 6)CODE -> 1)BEEPER You will see a menu like this: Figure 8: Ares Beeper menu options Press the up and down arrow keys to get more options. The following is what each item means: Menu Item Description Suggest Initial Value 1)PW min Pulse width in ms (has a max of 10 Transmitter width –... - Page 23 4. A charged Ares receiver to receive the update You will need to get a copy of the binary files from Sigma Eight. There are two types of files: 1. AresPPS-x.x.x.bin – this is the firmware to be loaded into the CODEC for audio processing.
- Page 24 STEP 5: Repeat running Balena and select the Ares-x.x.x-hr-1.x.bin file to create a second micro SD. Make sure the firmware is for your hardware, hr-1.0 for hardware version 1.0 and hr-1.2 for hardware version 1.2. This can be observed when you start the receiver or by pressing in sequence Fn 0 2. STEP 6: At this point you should have 2 micro SD cards, one for the CODEC code (AresPPS) and one for the DSP code (Ares).
- Page 25 STEP 9: Press in sequence Fn 0 to get to the advanced menu. STEP 10: Press 1 to update the firmware and confirm by pressing the check or ENT symbol. The receiver will start loading the firmware and show the progress. It finally ends by instructing you to restart the receiver.
- Page 26 STEP 11: After you turn off and then on the receiver, you will see a screen instructing you to insert the firmware and press 1. At this point, remove the AresPPS SD, insert the Ares-x.x.x-hr-1.x SD card and press 1.
-
Page 27: Faq
STEP 12: The receiver will again show the progress and end by saying “Done receiver init”. At this point, turn off the receiver, remove the SD card, then on the receiver and it will be running the latest firmware as shown during startup. 6 FAQ 6.1 M Y RECEIVER IS NOT RESPONDING TO THE KEYPAD... -
Page 28: My Receiver Is Not Communicating With Rs232
6.2 M RS232 Y RECEIVER IS NOT COMMUNICATING WITH Make sure you do not have the menu open, as the receiver will stop communicating and decoding while any menu is displayed. 6.3 I ’ T DECODE MY TAG Make sure that your settings under the beeper configuration are correct, and that the SMA connector is on tight. -
Page 29: Known Firmware Issues
NOWN IRMWARE SSUES The following are known issues with 3.0.8. Check with us for future updates. 1. Occasionally the receiver does not respond to the keypad. Reboot the receiver re-gain access. 2. Hardware version 1.0 receivers need a hardware modification to be able to respond properly to the charge state.
Need help?
Do you have a question about the ARES v3.0.11 and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers