New Wave Media

 

The firmware updates build upon the iBCN’s power efficiency and ability to be reconfigured via over the air commands. The update contains numerous improvements based on suggestions and feedback received from iBCN users. These include GPS status check, power up quick reports, transmission of current GPS location, LiNC integration and message format.

 

GPS Status Check — Allows the beacon to use GPS satellites as a method to recognize it has surfaced. With this feature enabled the beacon will turn on its GPS receiver, at a user defined interval of 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour or 3 hours, and check for a GPS signal. If a signal is found it will then activate, acquire a GPS location, transmit that location and then fall into its configured transmission interval.  This option is best used with low water profile assets where conductivity sensors are susceptible to splash over.

 

Power Up Quick Reports — This feature commands the beacon, once batteries are installed, to report at a 5-minute interval for the first hour regardless of its current configuration. This helps with shore side testing and allows for a configuration update to be sent and received by the beacon during this initial activation period.

 

Transmit Current GPS Location — When this feature is enabled the beacon will attempt to collect a new location and transmit that location as per the user defined interval. The beacon will continue to collect and store to its internal memory, health information such as when a timeout is recorded or the battery level is checked.

 

LiNC Integration — The new commands for changing the configuration options associated with the new features are now available within LiNC, our web-based tracking platform. A new model MetOcean iBCN-7500 [1.2.5] is available once the beacon is updated.

 

Message Format — The message format will remain the same, therefore no additional effort is necessary to decode the data coming from the iBCN if you have created your own data parser.