Lotek Detections Via Funcubes on CTT Sensor Station

[Heather Gaya]

Hi All,

We recently added 2  166 mHz antenna to our CTT sensor station using Funcubes and deployed some tags nearby but don't see any detections on motus.org. We're currently trying to troubleshoot and could use some additional information on Funcubes.

When we plug the sensor station into the computer, we can see some live pulses but no known live tags. This is likely because we haven't uploaded a tag detection database to the funcubes but my understanding is that this shouldn't affect detections showing up on Motus. I've attached a screenshot of the web interface and it looks like everything is as expected (I think). 

When we check the CTT website, we see that the dongles are producing some information. The SQL file produces something that looks like this:

p6,1675337799.7748,3.836,-50.12,-73.96
p6,1675337799.8211,3.829,-50.35,-73.27
p6,1675337799.9041,3.832,-50.22,-73.41
p6,1675337799.9578,3.839,-50.15,-73.81
p6,1675337838.6709,3.835,-49.96,-72.85
p6,1675337838.7174,3.839,-50.15,-73.48
p6,1675337838.8004,3.844,-50.23,-73.75
p6,1675337838.8541,3.835,-50.19,-73.79

However, motus shows no detections or even false detections on the SQL database when accessed through R. Maybe this is just noise, but files from before we put out tags have basically no data, whereas files post tag-deployment show lots of lines of data. We have already deployed all the tags on motus.org. 

What is the next step for setting this up? Are we doing something wrong with the Funcubes? Any suggestions would be super helpful. 

Best,

Heather Gaya

 

[Adam Smith]

Hi Heather. Is the SensorStation offloading data automatically (cellular, WiFi)? If so, the data goes through CTT servers first and there can be a delay (sometimes several days or longer) before the 166MHz data makes it to Motus for processing and display. Everything looks fine on your screen shot.

Adam

[Heather Gaya]

Update: 
We reset the Funcubes (following directions on the sensorgnome google group) and the hardware frame rate is now correct, as is the plug frame rate. We had to actually run the reset of the Funcubes multiple times and update our sensor station, but we suspect it is working now.

We still aren't seeing any recent detections of our birds, but I suspect this may be an antenna or topography issue. 

-Heather 

[Todd Alleger]

Heather,

Agreed with Adam.  Data from CTT sensorstations appearing on Motus.org seems to be a few days delayed at the moment.  

For your purposes, if you know the burst rate of your tag, you can watch the Live Pulses window for regular detections at that interval and be fairly confident that your tag is being detected.

[Julie Hagelin]

Hi Heather, 

We are experiencing similar issues.  Did you get things to work OK?  How do you update hardware frame rate and plug frame rate?  We updated funcubes to correct mHz, but aren't sure about the other two things. Thanks for your help!

Julie

[Heather Gaya]

Hi Julie,

We used the steps laid out in this thread here: https://groups.google.com/g/sensorgnomads/c/2WWBmenX3hs/m/H72vwJCZAgAJ

I recommend following the steps to reset the funcube in Dmitry's answer (.docx, which I also attached to this email) and using the firmware in Todd's answer (attached below).  I don't know why that worked when the firmware on the funcube site didn't, but hopefully you find the same success. 

-Heather

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The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus) is an international collaborative research network that uses coordinated automated radio telemetry to facilitate research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Motus is a program of Birds Canada in partnership with collaborating researchers and organizations. Learn more at https://motus.org
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[Rich Schramm]

Julie

We discovered we had the funcube wrong frequency/frame rate issue at Ankeny Wildlife Refuge last April.   The dongle flashing procedure is described here: https://docs.motus.org/sensorgnome/appendix/fcdfirmware

According to WIlliam Blake at ABC Birds  "Funcube Dongles (including the + and Pro+ versions) need a firmware fix that works with the Motus technology. If you purchased your funcubes from Rhonda at RFScientific, Rhonda does this for you."

We purchased our dongles directly from:  FUNCUBE DONGLE SHOP c/o Hanlincrest Ltd 3 Sun House 6 Chelsea Embankment London SW3 4LF United Kingdom. and they needed to be reflashed.

I would recommend regardless of where you obtained your dongles that you check them all before you deploy just to be safe... it's pretty a straight forward to check if you have network connectivity to your sensor station.

If you look at that procedure and still have questions please feel free to ask back.  I'm happy to help you through it..
Cheers - Rich Schramm

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The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus) is an international collaborative research network that uses coordinated automated radio telemetry to facilitate research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Motus is a program of Birds Canada in partnership with collaborating researchers and organizations. Learn more at https://motus.org
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[Shinskie, Jamie]

Not sure if this is the correct answer, but even with no detections, your SD should show some space usage. Do you have the information loaded to the SD card?

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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From: motu...@googlegroups.com <motu...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Heather Gaya <heather...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2023 7:37:28 AM
To: motu...@googlegroups.com <motu...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] Re: [motus-wts] Re: Lotek Detections Via Funcubes on CTT Sensor Station

 

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