Atlas PT Technical Manual
27
6.3
Battery Life and Power Savings Options
The ATLAS PT
uses a smart-battery pack with a built-in microprocessor. The battery
has the ability to turn the radio and GPS circuits completely off for a preset amount of
time, thus saving battery power.
Below are details of the power saving features that may be enabled. These options can
be used to extend battery life dramatically, but care must be taken if data or commands
will be received by the
Atlas SM
.
Deep Sleep
Whenever the TXRATE is greater than 60 seconds, the battery in the SM may be set to
turn off the radio to conserve power. This condition is referred to as the SLEEP state.
During this Sleep state, the unit draws a total of about 1mA, giving a battery life of
2000+ hours.
At the TXRATE interval, the battery will turn the radio back on, allow it to get GPS lock,
send its position/status, and then put the radio back into the Sleep state. This feature is
enabled by setting the TXRATE to a number larger than 60 seconds. It can be
completely disabled using the
ATSM
command.
When the unit is in the SLEEP mode, it cannot be put into the Command mode. Turn
the unit off and back on before sending the
+++.
Listen-slot Mode
The ATLAS PT
contains an innovative Listen-slot mode. It can be enabled with the
ATSM 5 command and configured using the SMLISTEN command. In Listen-slot mode,
the receivers can be turned off and on to coincide with TDMA slots that will contain
pertinent data. This is very useful if long battery life is required while maintaining two-
way communication.
The Listen Slots are configured with the
SMLISTEN [offset] [modulus] [qty]
command. For example, if there are 20 slots and the command SMLISTEN 3 5 2 is
executed, then the radio will receive data on the slots indicated in green in the table
below:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
nn greenicated in the table below:(internal and external taken together).Charge
percentage of the battery capacity of ty- t be c
In Listen-slot mode, the radio will remain in a medium-power standby state unless:
it is one slot away from transmitting data,
it is transmitting data
it is one slot away from listening for data
it is listening for data
