Song Meter SM4 Firmware

2.4.9 (2024-06-13)
  • Improves SD Card compatibility.
  • Uses the first 11 characters of the recorder’s prefix as the volume label after formatting an SD card in the recorder. By default, the prefix is the 8-digit serial number and can be changed in the recorder settings. If the prefix is 9 characters or less, an "A" or "B" will be appended to the volume name to indicate the card slot.
2.4.8 (2024-02-01)
  • Add name for existing column headers for NS and EW in summary file.
  • Add volume label "WildlifeAco" when formatting FAT32 and exFat cards.
  • Minor fixes to FAT32 implementation.
2.4.7 (2023-12-26)
  • Adds an SD Card Mode setting to SM4 with choices of "Low-power" or "Max SD Compatibility". “Low-power” is the default and existing mode. "Max SD Compatibility" will work more reliably with some modern SD cards but will consume more power and thus decrease battery life.
  • Improves the low-voltage shutdown logic. The recorder now permanently shuts down to prevent data corruption due to brownouts when a low-voltage cutoff is reached and the setting is not set or set below 5V, indicating that internal batteries are probably being used. If the setting is set to 5 volts or higher and the voltage cutoff is reached, there is still a 24-hour retry cycle which is useful for external batteries that might recharge from solar panels.
  • Fixes an issue with how the recorders format exFat cards that prevented some Linux drivers from seeing files in the Data directory.
  • Fixes negative values being added to GPS coordinates in the summary file which was redundant to the labels “S” (south) and “E” (east).
2.4.6 (2023-03-03)
  • Reset file counter to zero after card format operation.
2.4.5 (2022-12-29)
  • Fix for SM4TS causing first recording after waking from sleep to start early and sometimes indicate the wrong start time by 1.000 seconds.
2.4.4 (2022-12-23)
  • Support for latest manufactured hardware version.
2.4.3 (2022-11-22)
  • Additional improvements to end-of-deployment battery management and reliability.
2.4.2 (2022-06-20)
  • Improvements to voltage level checking and the low-voltage cut-off setting during recording periods. This will reduce instances of “Dirty” SD cards.
  • When a GPS is attached (especially for SM4TS), the SM4 will wake up at least 90 seconds (instead of 30 seconds) prior to the next recording period to provide more time for finding satellites.
  • SM4 Configurator now supports absolute trigger thresholds.
  • SM4 Configurator now supports entering lower case "s" and "e" for denoting South latitude and East longitude.
2.4.1 (2022-02-01)
  • For SM4BAT-FS, now support 0.1s granularity in trigger window setting (previously 1.0s granularity). We recommend updating versions of the SM4 Configuration Utility (2.4.1 or later) and Kaleidoscope (5.4.7 or later).
2.4.0 (2021-10-11)
  • Improves SD Card reliability
  • Fix problem causing SM4TS mono-right recordings to not be synchronized correctly
2.3.9 (2021-09-22)
  • Improves SD Card reliability
2.3.8 (2021-09-11)
  • Improves SD Card reliability
2.3.7 (2021-08-02)
  • Improves SD Card compatibility generally, and especially when using GPS Module or RS-232 Serial Monitoring Interface.
  • Improves the programming and diagnostic reporting of GPS Module for SM4TS
2.3.3 (2021-04-26)
  • Minor improvement.
2.3.2 (2021-04-25)
  • Improve SD Card compatibility and reliability especially for SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro SDXC cards.
  • Fix problem introduced in 2.3.1 in which DIRTY bit protection was not used for exFat formatted cards.
2.3.1 (2020-10-03)
  • Improves SD card formatting and error checking to reduce possible card corruption issues.
  • New SM4 Configurator software fix battery life estimates.
2.3.0 (2020-06-03)
  • Fix problem introduced in 2.2.5 that caused some deployments to fail prematurely due to battery brown-out.
  • Fix problem introduced in 2.2.2 that caused the headphone time expansion monitoring mode in SM4BAT-FS to stop working.
2.2.7 (2020-04-16)
  • Fix a problem introduced in 2.2.2 where pressing STOP while "Preparing to record" would cause the SM4 to reboot and possibly corrupt flash cards.
2.2.6 (2020-04-02)
  • Improvements to RS-232 logging message latency.
  • Fix a problem for SM4TS where synchronization was sometimes lost.
2.2.5 (2020-01-13)
  • Add support for SM4TS time synchronization
  • Battery life improvements
2.22A (2019-04-15)

Work-around 2019 GPS week number rollover in old Garmin GPS units

2.2.1 (2019-03-21)
  • Add absolute trigger option for SM4BAT-FS: In addition to positive trigger levels representing thresholds above the noise floor, you can now set the trigger level to negative values representing thresholds relative to full scale.
  • Release support for status and activity monitoring over a serial protocol available in the latest revision of SM4BAT-FS recorders.
2.2.0 (2019-01-15)
  • Now intelligently adjusts the recorder's wakeup time so card scanning does not intrude into scheduled recording times.
  • Add support on new SM4BAT-FS recorders for real-time status and bat activity reporting through optional RS-232 interface
2.1.1 (2018-01-26)

Fixes the GPS longitude user interface to allow all possible values.

2.1.0 (2018-01-17)
  • Adds a WAV compression option called W4V that will record using various levels of compression to save card space. Resulting W4V files can be opened and/or converted back to uncompressed WAV files using the free tier of Kaleidoscope software.
  • Adds a locking feature that can be activated to require a passcode to change the recorder's settings. Use the SM4 Configurator software to create a configuration to use this feature.
  • Fixes a problem that could cause incorrectly formatted exFAT cards if cards were formatted using the onboard utility after exporting diagnostics.
  • Separates SM4 and SM4BAT FS firmware from SM4BAT ZC. The latter lacks memory for the previously released Advanced Scheduling feature to work properly so it has been removed from the SM4BAT-ZC version.
2.0.0 (2017-09-21)
  • Add an SM3-style advanced schedule mode allowing advanced users to create schedules that depend upon the date or that have complex details within one day. A new setting in the Advanced Settings menu selects either the original, SM4-style daily schedule mode or the new advanced schedule mode. Changing of audio settings from within the advanced schedule is not supported.
  • Add more digits to latitude and longitude settings (5 digits to the right of the decimal point). The precision is now equivalent to about 1.5 meters horizontally. Note: GPS positions are now displayed with the same, finer precision, but they are usually less accurate than that precision would imply.
  • Include additional information about latitude and longitude in recordings' metadata and in the summary file.
  • Use more accurate values for Preamp gain in the Audio menu and in recordings' metadata.
  • Improve labeling of Preamp settings.
  • Improve readability of Quick Start menu items.
  • Correct the list of schedules in the Quick Start menu on SM4BAT ZC.
  • Fix incorrect display of rise and set times in the Date and Time menu.
  • Include internal temperature value in recordings' metadata.
  • Include details of advanced schedule mode operation in recording's metadata.
  • Properly save the date and time when the recording schedule first starts after the previous reboot, for diagnostic use.
  • Prevent latitude and longitude settings from being changed by the user while there's a GPS fix.
  • Fix a problem that sometimes truncated the summary file.
1.2.2 (2016-10-05)
  • Added left and right preamp settings to the Audio menu (SM4 model only) to allow turning off the 24dB preamplifier for calibrating the microphones and recording louder noises.
  • Added a new Advanced menu to the Settings menu and moved the Battery Cutoff setting into that menu.
  • Added left and right microphone sensitivity settings to the Advanced menu (SM4 model only).
  • Improved the recorder&39;s ability to fully utilize an SD card's capacity.
  • Changed the blink rate of the red LED on SM4BAT-FS and SM4BAT-ZC when armed; it now blinks once every 2 seconds. The blink rate of the green LED when triggered or recording is still once every 1 second.
  • GPS status is now displayed only in the Main, Quick Start, Settings, Schedule and Utilities menu, and not shown at all if no GPS receiver is attached.
  • Corrected the model names encoded in recording metadata. Previously SM4BAT models reported "SM4".
  • Fixed a bug that could affect recordings with large Max Length settings.
  • Fixed a scheduler bug related to high latitudes with sunset occurring after midnight.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect recording durations on SM4BAT-ZC.
  • Fixed a bug related to schedule duty cycle settings that would produce exported schedule and settings files that could cause incorrect displays in the sm4config configuration tool.
1.2.0 (2016-05-25)
  • Improves how the scheduler handles solar events at high latitudes or with large offsets
  • Fix setting of right channel gain on SM4 acoustic recorder
  • Fix SM4BAT-FS preventing triggering when using a high sample rate with a large trigger window
  • Added a GPS status line on several screens to show fix status of available GPS accessory
  • Improves Time Expansion mode in SM4BAT-FS to allow changing the headphone volume during playback
1.0.8 (2016-02-09)

Fix instant record when delay start is enabled

1.0.7 (2016-01-11)

Initial release