Recorder Menu

By choosing certain parameters the recorder may be operated in two different acquisition and recording modes

• scheduled acquisition and recording . Data acquisition and recording follows a predefined schedule. This allows the recorder to be switched-on during daily hours of interest. For the time being two recording periods during the day are possible, where the second recording period may extend over midnight.

• event triggered acquisition and recording . If the acquisition is running (i.e. time scheduling permitting) data are recorded only if acoustic events occur. The initially implemented event detector is a Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) detector, that follows a simple 6dB/octave high-pass filter.

By proper choosing the parameters a combination of scheduled and event triggered acquisition and recording may be implemented.

The menu option can be used to set the time schedule and trigger parameters without having to reload the software every time you would like to alter one of the parameters. There are two different ways to enter the parameters into the Teensy:

1.) Serial monitor

• connect pin 3 of the Teensy to GND

• power up the Teensy by connecting to USB on PC

• open Serial monitor in Teensyduino

• now you can access a menu system to alter all the parameters

• to display all parameter values, enter 'a'

• to display one parameter, enter '?p', where p is the shortcut of the parameter (see table)

• to change a parameter, enter '!pVal', where p is the shortcut of the parameter and Val is the desired value

• example to change the second acquisition window to 18-23h: enter '!318' and then '!423'

• when you are ready with your changes, enter 'xVal' to exit, where Val is the delay in minutes and 'x-1' will exit and start immediately

• pin3 can be left connected to GND (but remember next time you connect the Teensy to power, it will go into MENU mode!)

• this is a table with detailed explanations of all the parameters and their shortcuts for the menu

IMPORTANT:

• if using event triggered recording (thresh > 0), set the following variables to defaults: on = 120, ad = 60, ar = 100

PARAMETER	DEFAULT VALUE	DESCRIPTION	MENU SHORTCUT
time	--	time of the Teensy RTC (real time clock)	t
date	--	date of the Teensy RTC	d
name	WMXZ	prefix for the filename. MUST be 4 characters. Use as identifier for recording, shortcut of a location etc.	n
---	---	---	---
T1, T2	0, 12	first aquisition window (from T1 to T2) in Hours of day	1, 2
T3,T4	12, 24	second aquisition window (from T1 to T2) in Hours of day	3, 4
on	120	acquisition time in seconds	o
ad	60	acquisition file size in seconds	a
ar	100	acquisition rate, i.e. every ar seconds. If (ar < on) then continuous acquisition	r
---	---	---	---
thresh	1<<5	power SNR (signal-noise ratio) for detection = trigger, thresh = -1 indicates that event triggering is disabled	h
extr	3750	minimal extraction window = minimum recording time after trigger (measured in no. of audio blocks, 3750 is equivalent to 10secs of audio @48ksps)	m
inhib	375	after a file has been closed, inhibit follow-on secondary detections for a certain no. of audio blocks	i
win0	1000	noise estimation window size for estimation of the SNR (in no of audio blocks)	w
win1	10000	detection watchdog window, typically 10x win0 (in no of audio blocks)	s
nrep	0	interval between single noise-only blocks to be saved (nrep =0 indicates no noise-only archiving) (in no of audio blocks)	k
ndel	0	pre-trigger buffer size (128/fs each; 128/48 = 2.7ms each). The value can vary between 0 and MDEL (see below)	p
---	---	---	---
MQUEU	550	number of buffers in acquisition queue --> recommended to leave untouched for T3.6! This is a compile time definition	--
MDEL	10	Maximal pre-trigger buffer size (128/fs each; 128/48 = 2.7ms each). Minimal value is 0 audio buffer. A value of -1 disables the bypasses the delay audio trigger combo. This is a compile time definition	--

2.) microSoundRecorderControl GUI

Download the microSoundRecorderControl GUI (exe-file) from this page HERE

• connect Teensy pin3 (or the menu pin that was defined in your sketch) to GND
• make sure an SD card is in the Teensys SD card slot
• power up Teensy (if you have cut Vusb trace, you need to connect external power/batteries)
• connect Teensy to PC by USB cable
• Start the GUI by double clicking on the exe-file
• press LOAD --> the default parameters for the time schedule or trigger will appear in their boxes
• press SYNC to synchronize the Teensy RTC with your computers´ time
• change the parameters according to your needs. Refer to the table above for an explanation what the different parameters mean and do
• press STORE to save the parameters to the Teensy
• disconnect Teensy menu pin (do not forget to disconnect any free floating unconnected cables, because that could severely degrade noise performance)
• press START for the Teensy to leave menu mode and start recording OR (if you are outside of the acquisition time windows) go to sleep mode in order to wake up at the preset time
• press CANCEL to close the GUI