Acousonde™ FAQ (Sales and General)

Sales and general questions about the Acousonde™

Updated 4 February 2009 - expanded pronunciation guide

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Price, delivery, included equipment, and options

How available is the Acousonde? Can I get one right now?: Orders will be shipped 16 weeks after receipt of order. We plan to maintain inventory by late in 2009, but at present each unit is made to order.
How much does the Acousonde cost?: Please contact Acoustimetrics. US government and volume discounts are available. Please be aware that the Acousonde is a custom-made, professional research instrument.
Does the Acousonde come with deployment and tracking gear, like a VHF beacon?: The A-series Acousonde (Model B003A) inherits the Bioacoustic Probe's generic cylindrical shape and diameter. Also like the Bioacoustic Probe it comes with no deployment or tracking gear. It is however longer and heavier than the Bioacoustic Probe and is not 100% compatible with attachment or flotation gear made for the earlier instrument. Cetacean Research Technology developed suction-cup deployment systems for using the Bioacoustic Probe with large whales; you may wish to contact them.
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Battery questions

What kind of battery should I order for use in the Acousonde?: The Acousonde is designed for use with the Saft LS17500 size A 3.6V lithium primary cell. This battery is rated at 3.6 Ah with a maximum recommended continuous current of 130 mA and is non-restricted for transportation.
Why can't you use movement- or solar-based power, instead of a battery?: Self-powering systems, such as self-winding watches and solar-powered calculators, run on power levels measured in microwatts. At present the Acousonde typically requires between 20 and 120 milliwatts when sampling, far more than a movement- or solar-based power system could provide.
Why don't you use a rechargeable battery?: A rechargeable battery could be encapsulated in resin, instead of requiring a protective pressure housing to allow field replacement. As a result, the Acousonde would be smaller, more robust, and simpler to operate. Unfortunately, rechargeable batteries sometimes "outgas" during recharging, which could deform or burst the resin encapsulation. Consumer systems such as electric toothbrushes vent these gases harmlessly, but for this sealed underwater instrument a vent would add significant complexity.
Do the lithium primary cells used by the Acousonde outgas? Is it hazardous?: As energy densities increase, batteries contain more energy in a smaller space, which increases their hazard. The Acousonde addresses this issue in three ways. First, only primary cells certified for transport on passenger aircraft are recommended; these cells typically undergo rigorous safety testing. Second, the Acousonde's battery cap is designed so that during removal it will vent before being mechanically free. This prevents any buildup of gas in the battery chamber from affecting removal of the battery cap. Finally, the battery chamber includes redundant o-ring seals to ensure no seawater enters and shorts the battery. Nevertheless, lithium batteries must always be treated with respect. Do not allow them to be shorted by seawater or other conductive materials. Ensure that the battery compartment is clean and dry when inserting a battery. Respect hazardous-material disposal requirements for your area.
There are horror stories about batteries dying too soon.: Battery performance can vary dramatically from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from batch to batch. Manufacturer's specifications are no assurance that a given cell will perform adequately. For this reason it is impossible to guarantee the Acousonde's recording life. Always test batteries from a new batch before heading to the field. Also, dirty or tarnished battery connections substantially reduce battery lifetimes! Be sure to clean the Acousonde's battery contacts regularly, and to clean the contacts on the battery itself before use. A contact enhancer such as Stabilant 22 may help; in August 2005 Stabilant 22 was applied to the battery contacts of six Bioacoustic Probes deployed on northern fur seals in the Bering Sea, and all six filled their storage units despite cold conditions and significant movement. For more information, download the manual and check the troubleshooting section.
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Understanding and using acoustic recording tags

Why can't acoustic recording tags telemeter their data in real time?: The Acousonde samples acoustic data at rates up to 460 kilohertz. To be useful, it must gather hours of recordings, potentially adding up to several gigabytes of data. There is no way to transmit this vast amount of data by satellite or radio, especially from a low-power device that spends most of its time submerged. However, if a tag designer knows up front exactly what sort of signal is of interest, the tag may be designed with special-purpose hardware and/or software to detect, characterize, and count occurrences of that signal. In this case telemetry may be possible since the acoustic data will be heavily preprocessed and compressed on board the tag.
How do I attach acoustic recording tags to my subject?: That's up to you. The A-series Acousonde (Model B003A) is designed to be as broadly useful as possible. You can attach it with suction cups, crossbow, or glue; however, as the expert with your species, you must develop the most suitable attachment approach. Model B003A comes with no attachment gear. Note: serious ethical, legal and personal-safety issues accompany any attempt to attach tags to wild or protected animals. This short discussion of attachment alternatives is not intended to downplay the responsibilities and risks associated with this activity. You are responsible for obtaining the necessary permits and conducting your research with the utmost concern for your safety and the safety of your associates and subjects.
How do I recover acoustic recording tags?: For some species, such as blue whales, recovery presents a major obstacle. First, you must be certain the tag and attachment assembly will float! Second, you must have a way of knowing where the tag is after it leaves the subject. The typical approach is to incorporate a separate VHF beacon in the tag assembly. VHF wildlife beacons can be detected from distances of 20 miles or more, provided your receiver can be located at higher elevation (a building, hillside, or aircraft) and in an area of low electromagnetic noise (the bridge of a research vessel may not qualify). However, while a VHF beacon or something like it is a necessity to find the tag when it is within a few miles of you, it does not help you if the tag is out of range. In cases like this you will need a satellite transmitter. Important: developing an attachment and recovery system incorporating a satellite transmitter, VHF beacon, flotation, and tag body in an single assembly that is both easy to attach AND acoustically quiet is a difficult challenge. Do not leave this part of your project until the last minute! The Acousonde Model B003A comes with no attachment or recovery gear.
If it's so difficult for us, why don't YOU incorporate attachment, flotation and retrieval gear?: We will. The Office of Naval Research has sponsored additional development for a monolithic tag (Acousonde Model B003B) that will be molded with a suction cup, flotation, and a receptacle for a small VHF beacon. Development is quite far along and we hope to test the first Model B003B unit by late summer 2009.
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Name and design philosophy

How does the Acousonde differ from other acoustic tags?: The Acousonde, strictly speaking, is not an "acoustic tag." For decades, the fish-biology community has used the term "acoustic tag" to refer to active "pinger" tags that produce ultrasonic pulses. These pulses allow researchers with detection equipment to follow the tagged subject. The Acousonde, on the other hand, passively acquires acoustic data. It does not transmit ultrasonic pulses. We advocate calling passive-acoustic tags such as the Acousonde "bioacoustic tags" or "acoustic recording tags" to reduce confusion.
OK, how does the Acousonde differ from other BIOacoustic tags?: The two key differences between the Acousonde and many other acoustically-related tags are: (1) the Acousonde is designed to allow application by small, tight-budget biology teams without requiring extensive training or the presence of an engineering specialist; and (2) the Acousonde is a broadband acoustic recorder. It digitizes and records full acoustic waveforms, and does not include any detection or compression hardware such as pulse detection (although such capabilities may be implemented in future firmware releases). As such it is substantially more complex and requires more processing power, a larger battery, and greater data capacity than a pulse detector.
What happened to the Bioacoustic Probe?: Production ceased on the B002B model Bioacoustic Probe in November 2007, and all remaining inventory was sold by early 2008. Two factors brought about the end of the B-Probe's life. First, the design relied on mature technology such as a Motorola 68000-series microprocessor; this technology severely restricted even small design improvements. Second, the microprocessor chip and mass-storage hardware at the heart of the B-Probe had been discontinued by their manufacturers, limiting our future production capability.
Why change the name?: For many reasons. The most practical issue was that user communications frequently abbreviated "Bioacoustic Probe" to "BioProbe" which is a trademarked name for another instrument. Of course this choice of abbreviation was natural and the conflict unintentional; nevertheless there was potential confusion for both user communities.
How does one pronounce Acousonde?: Like "ACK-oo-sawnd" where the leading "ACK" is pronounced as in the beginning of "acoustic". It is NOT intended to be pronounced "ACK-you-sawnd" as if it were spelled Accu-sond. Accu-sond sounds like something you would buy at an auto parts store don't you think? Nor should it be pronounced "ACK-you-sound" as if it were spelled Accu-sound; that not only sounds like something you would find at an audio/video store, it is something you would find at an audio/video store. But rest assured we will support you no matter how you pronounce it.
How was the name Acousonde derived?: Sonde is a generic term for a sensor probe, derived from the French word for a ship's sounding line. It is in common use in both solid-earth and upper-atmosphere geophysics. The word Acousonde thus succinctly conveys the concept of "an acoustic probe".
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