Ya know what this world needs? A way to rent a few test tags that are all set up and registered on motus.org, so folks can easily confirm end to end data flow, all the way from their antennas to motus.org. This would save a huge amount of uncertainty from folks who install stations (like me), not to mention all of the duplication of effort and expense by organizations large and small as they all buy their own test tags. Surely someone could take this project on, for the benefit of all?
It can simulate the test tag that I recently purchased. It is registered and deployed as a test tag. My SG sees it and it gets processed by Motus.org and I have downloaded the hits from Motus.org. The next question I have is if I take this to another station whether Motus will process the tag and provide me with data on the hit. I am just not sure what Motus’s programming will do with a tag that is marked as test. One of the thoughts I have had is creating one universal test tag for each kind that can be set up NOT expire so that everybody could have a cheap test tag to test their systems with. this makes sense from the stand point of tying up tags id and prevent the eventual re-assignment of a test tag to an active bird causing an aliasing nightmare for the researcher that gets it. So, I would think that both LOTEK and CTT would like to avoid this as well as Motus.
So, in essence I agree with you and would be willing to use my tag for this purpose, 3, 000 days and counting. I think it is a necessary step towards increasing the coverage to a larger community as well. But this decision has to come from the others.
My relevant background is I have an active Tech class Ham license, and I am a retired programmer. While most of my career was working with databases and server programming I have been experimenting/learning about microprocessor programming.
We agree there is a need for standardized test tags (beacon tags) for Motus collaborators to verify both initial and continuing function of Motus stations. Such a beacon tag would definitely improve the reliability of the network. We are working with partners to produce a long-lasting and more affordable beacon tag, but it isn’t quite ready yet. As William notes, independently created test tags that have Motus IDs and do not expire could lead to unintentional duplication of tags deployed on animals after new tags with the same properties are issued (because Motus wouldn’t know replicated tag simulators are out testing stations). This has the potential to compromise the performance of the system as a whole. Clearly not a desirable outcome!
These upcoming beacon tags will all have the same tag properties and ID, which will never be issued to anything other than a beacon tag, so there is no risk of aliasing with a real deployment on an animal. We hope these beacon tags will help confirm that stations are functioning upon installation, and can also be used to monitor when stations are active throughout their deployment. I just wanted to mention that these types of test tags are something we’re working on, and we’ll hopefully have more updates for you soon. We appreciate your work toward improving Motus for all, and for considering both the benefits and risks of these types of test tags.
Motus test tags can be made very cheaply from readily available components. They’re only held up by NDAs with Lotek and can’t be discussed here. Contact me through some other method for details or peruse google…
