Ocean Instruments SoundTrap ST600 Series User Manual Download Page 24

enough to cover odontocete clicks. The number of samples saved per snippet is determined by the 

sum of the pre- and post-trigger times. With the maximum settings, 1728 samples will be saved per 

snippet. 

 

4.1.4

 

Output File formats 

The ST click detector produces two additional output files per recording with suffixes 'bcl' and 'dwv'. 

These are in addition to the .wav and .xml files generated normally. The Pamguard interface 

automatically interprets these files when displaying detection and continuous recording results. For 

users interested in accessing the data using other interfaces, the details of the file formats are given 

below: 

 

xml

 

This is the metadata file produced by SoundTrap to document each recording. The 

ST detector adds metadata about the detector and the user settings to this file.  

 

wav

 

This is a Microsoft WAV format file containing the decimated continuous sound 

recording produced in parallel with the detector. The sampling rate is selected by the user 

but would typically be 48kHz or 96kHz to maximize recording time. By default, sound data is 

compressed in the SoundTrap using the lossless X3 compressor but this is transparent to the 

user: the .wav file contains the reconstituted uncompressed data. 

 

dwv

 

This is a Microsoft WAV format file containing the wideband sound snippets for each 

detection. The sampling rate is 576 kHz and the snippets are arranged contiguously with a 

constant number of samples per snippet. The size of each snippet is set the by the pre- and 

post-trigger user parameters. The snippet size in samples will be close to 

round((pre+post)*576e3) but the precise sample count can be found in the .xml file (see the 

Matlab tools for an example of how to extract this information automatically). By default, 

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. This 

puts an upper limit on the memory usage rate making it easier to calculate for how long the 

SoundTrap will be able to record. 

 

bcl

 

This is a comma-separated-variable (CSV) text file containing information about 

detections. Each line has 7 columns with the following format:

 

Seconds (in Unix seconds), Microseconds, Report type, Info1,Info2,Info3,Info4,

 

Summary of Contents for SoundTrap ST600 Series

Page 1: ...SoundTrap ST600 User Guide August 2021...

Page 2: ...p Status 11 2 7 Configure the deployment 11 2 8 Begin recording using the IR Remote Control 13 2 9 Data Offload 14 3 More details 15 3 1 Data Files 15 3 2 Calculation of deployment endurance 16 3 3 De...

Page 3: ...4 1 3 User parameters 23 4 1 4 Output File formats 24 4 1 5 Click Detector Caveats and Cautions 25...

Page 4: ...tallation and basic deployment instructions This is followed by several sections containing more detailed information around operation deployment maintenance and troubleshooting It is highly recommend...

Page 5: ...se the lock screw by turning clockwise unit the screw bottoms out figure 1 Hold recorder with the hydrophone facing downward to ensure any remaining water won t run down into the housing Open the top...

Page 6: ...cking screw by means of a couple of turns of insulation tape figure 2 Replacement O Rings should be type 48x3 N70 Nitrile The O ring checks are critically important to avoid damage Any detritus or dam...

Page 7: ...r brands is unknown Untested brands may leak acid potentially causing damage to the electronics Source the batteries from reputable suppliers to avoid inferior counterfeits Be careful to ensure correc...

Page 8: ...card Any full or missing cards will be skipped 3 It is critical that each card is formatted prior to each deployment This can only be done in the SoundTrap recorder using the Delete All Files option...

Page 9: ...ted the SoundTrap host software installation o The installation will be smoother if you re logged into windows as an administrator Visit www OceanInstruments co nz downloads to download the software D...

Page 10: ...Figure 3 The Device List...

Page 11: ...gure 4 Deploy Control 2 7 Configure the deployment Select the Deploy tab as shown in figure 4 Configure the deployment parameters as follows o The Recording Starts section determines when recording wi...

Page 12: ...re 1 uPa The Low setting should be used for very noisy environments such as in the vicinity of pile driving The low setting increases the maximum SPL to around 187 dB but comes at the cost of lower s...

Page 13: ...ART to start recording Press STOP to stop recording If you have set a recording to start recording at a later time the recorder will blink red to indicate it is armed and waiting The armed state is ca...

Page 14: ...date recorded approximate size and whether it has yet been downloaded to your computer s hard drive Download individual files by right clicking the file and selecting download By default all files wil...

Page 15: ...t can be opened by any media player matlab raven etc o xml files which contain metadata such as date recorded gain setting etc o csv files containing ancillary sensor data e g temperature All file typ...

Page 16: ...y has a minimum file size of 4 MB When using periodic recording if the programmed record for a period of period is very short the resultant file may be smaller than the minimum file size This will res...

Page 17: ...of the housings below the locking screw Avoid using the hydrophone cage as an attachment point This is too close to the hydrophone and will likely introduce unwanted noise into the recordings Be mindf...

Page 18: ...tware as well as the device firmware The updating of the device firmware is an automatic process that occurs when pressing the deploy button 3 6 MSP firmware updates From time to time a software relea...

Page 19: ...will proceed and complete within a few seconds If presented with the error message MSP Erase failed it is likely that the pressing of the reset button was interrupted please try again...

Page 20: ...tivity in voltage terms Because SoundTraps integrate the recorder and hydrophone in a single package there is a fixed relationship between sound pressure and the resultant wav file data thereby simpli...

Page 21: ...kHz tone should be equal to the calibration tone level stated on the calibration sheet If the calibration tones are an annoyance they can be disabled on the deploy tab However we recommend keeping th...

Page 22: ...Impulse Response FIR filter approximate 3 dB bandwidth 115 160 kHz followed by a moving average power estimator The duration of the moving average window is a user parameter see below In parallel the...

Page 23: ...g time of 150 300 s would be appropriate If you are interested in detecting any toothed whale click you can either go with a long averaging time which will reduce the SNR of short transients and so gi...

Page 24: ...but this is transparent to the user the wav file contains the reconstituted uncompressed data dwv This is a Microsoft WAV format file containing the wideband sound snippets for each detection The samp...

Page 25: ...ibels i e 100 log10 p where p is the noise power referenced to the recorder calibration The absolute threshold used for each detection is then p 10 RDT 10 If no detections were made throughout a recor...

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