Using SM2BAT to monitor Bats
Copyright © 2009-2011
Song Meter SM2BAT
6
When the Song Meter is sleeping between scheduled recording events, the
SM2BAT is also powered down and total current consumption is typically less
than one milliamp.
Using SM2BAT to monitor Bats
Simple One-Channel Configuration
The configuration described below is available as an example configuration
in the Song Meter Configuration Utility distribution, “SM2BAT-192-
MONO.SET” for the 192kHz stereo model or “SM2BAT-384-
MONO.SET” for the 384kHz model. For the SM2BAT to be able to
determine your location's sunrise and sunset times, it is necessary to input
your latitude, longitude and timezone. These are found under location
settings. You may also want to set a device-specific prefix.
The SM2 Terrestrial Ultrasonic Packages come with one SMX-US
ultrasonic microphone. The easiest set-up is to connect the microphone
directly to the left microphone connector on the SM2 enclosure and mount
the SM2 on a tree or post at the field site. You can also extend the
microphone on a cable up to 100 meters away from the enclosure.
With one channel using compression and triggering, you can get about 95
hours of record time at 192kHz or 75 hours at 384kHz out of the internal
four “D” alkaline batteries, over one week of night time monitoring. In a
typical night with bat activity (and no rain or gusty wind), you will need
about 0.5GB per night for a stereo recording. But even with gusty wind
causing false triggers, you will probably only need about 2GB per night.
Therefore, a single 32GB card should easily last for 2-8 weeks.
For longer deployments, you can use a larger external power source. With
4x32GB flash cards, you should have enough storage to last 50-250 nights
depending on conditions.
Jumper Settings
You should configure the preamplifier jumpers with the analog high-
pass filter set to 1kHz and the gain set for +48dB or +36dB. Refer to
the
Song Meter SM2 User Manual
for details. The dynamic range can
be increased by using +36dB gain to avoid clipping stronger signals
without significant impact to quieter signals. +48dB gain will deliver
a stronger signal with a slight improvement to high-frequency signal-
