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software

Mk10-AF Transmitting Fast-GPS Tag

The Mk10-AF adds the Wildlife Computers Cricket Argos transmitter and the Fastloc™ technology to the standard Mk10 archival tag. The Mk10-AF is a versatile tag that performs sub-second GPS acquistions and transmits Fastloc™ and other data through the Argos satellite system. It has the standard Mk10 sensors to measure depth, temperature, light-level and to differentiate wet or dry conditions, and has archival capabilities which include at least 64 MBytes of memory.

Direct U.S. prices start at $5000. Please contact us for pricing on specific configurations.

For more information on Fastloc™ technology, see Wildtrack Telemetry Systems.

Controller features The Mk10 has a low-power design that is optimized for long battery life. The controller contains a real-time clock, up to eight 12-bit analog-to-digital converters, 512 KBytes of low-power static RAM, support for FLASH data memory, and 128 KBytes of program FLASH memory. The operating code of the Mk10 resides in this code memory and can be upgraded. This means you can always have the most up-to-date version of on-board software, regardless of when the tag was purchased.

Sensors The Mk10 is configured with multiple sensors. One or two bytes of memory are required to store each sensor reading depending on how the data compress.

Depth. A 12-bit analog-to-digital converter is used, which provides highly-accurate measurements from −40 to +1000m, with 0.5m resolution and an accuracy of ±1% of the reading. In addition, measurements from 1000 to 1500m are made with a lesser degree of accuracy.

Internal Temperature. A 12-bit analog-to-digital converter is used, providing an actual measured range of −40 to +60°C, with 0.05°C resolution and an accuracy of ±0.1°C.

Light level. Light level is measured as irradiance at a wavelength of 550nm with a logarithmic range from 5 x 10⁻¹² W.cm⁻² to 5 x 10⁻² W.cm⁻². Bright sunshine is approximately 2 x 10⁻³ W.cm⁻². Tests have shown the sensor to be able to identify dawn/dusk events down to 300m in clear waters.

Wet/Dry. The wet/dry sensor allows the tag to recognize when it is dry to control sampling and transmissions.

External Temperature. A 12-bit analog-to-digital converter is used, providing an actual measured range of −40 to +60°C, with 0.05°C resolution and an accuracy of ±0.1°C. Response time is less than 1 second.

User-programmable sampling protocols Sampling is controlled by a user-specified sampling protocol. The user programs the rate at which each sensor is sampled, and whether or not sampling is suspended when the wet/dry sensor reads dry. Different channels can be sampled at different rates, so that slowly-changing sensor readings can be sampled less frequently than fast-changing sensor readings.

Memory and data retention Collected data are stored in non-volatile FLASH memory. Data are maintained for at least 25 years, even if the battery is exhausted. The amount of memory available for data storage is at least 64 MBytes, which allows the Mk10 to store about 50 million samples (sensor readings). Each sample occupies one or two bytes of memory, depending on how the data compress. The memory will allow 5 years of data to be stored when sampling depth, temperature and light-level every 10 seconds.

Transmitter The Mk10 incorporates the Cricket, a specialized Argos transmitter developed by Wildlife Computers. It generates 0.5W of radiated power output. The high-efficiency and frequency stability of this transmitter maximize the quantity and quality of messages.

Transmitted data You can program the Mk10 to selectively transmit time-at-depth, time-at-temperature, maximum depth and dive duration histograms, depth-temperature profiles, timelines, behavior and light-level curves. For the histograms you can configure the histogram collection period (1 to 24 hours) and bin ranges. Many other parameters are user-programmable and provide the flexibility to customize data collection to best achieve different experimental objectives.

The MK10-AF also transmits data collected from the Fastloc™ module. Each Fastloc™ location fits into a single Argos message.

Location accuracy Service Argos provides the locations with an accuracy as good as ±350m. Additionally the data from the Fastloc™ module can be post-processed (with supplied software) to generate locations with GPS precision.

Communication Wildlife Computers provides an interface to the Mk10 that runs on a PC. This interface allows the user to set up the tag for deployment, and download the data after recovery.

Analysis software Windows-based software is provided to decode the Argos data into an easy-to-use format.