Want to make your own Argos satellite transmitter?

CLS and the Arribada Initiative are proud to announce the release of a new open-source reference design by Icoteq, Ltd for building your own Argos transmitter.

This story started with an ESA project named SHARC. This project aimed to develop a new low-cost generation tag equipped with Argos-3/4 features dedicated to track migrating marine animals.

The ARGOS ARTIC chipset was developed during this project by ANSEM. This miniaturized chipset (7mm x 7mm) allows the use of new Argos-3 & 4 capabilities like the bidirectional communication capacity and new modulations increasing the volume of data collected by ARGOS satellite constellation.

After this amazing development driven by CLS, ANSEM and ESA a new collaboration with Arribada gives birth to this new package that unlocks access to the Argos satellite system, when used with the ARTIC R2 chipset.

The ARTIC-R2 chip (the black chip as seen in the photo), available from CLS and the Woods Hole Group, a CLS subsidiary, is an integrated, low power Argos 2/3/4 single chip radio. The ARTIC-2 is only  7 mm x 7 mm in size; during operations it provides both the satellite uplink and downlink communication.

The open-sourced reference design developed by Arribada Initiative contains everything needed for communicating with the Argos Satellite System. The reference design allows you to simply plug and play into your own board (via a PicoBlade connector, the white connection point pictured in the photo) or embed the design on to your own PCB in order to miniaturize the tag/system that you are developing.

Argos satellite transmitter design that is accessible for all

The Arribada Initiative is committed to developing open source conservation technologies. They have teamed up with CLS to promote this reference design and provide access to the Argos system to the largest number of conservation-minded engineers and scientists. So, try it out!

If you are interested in learning more about developing your own Argos transmitter, please send a message to the CLS Telemetry team. We will make sure that you receive the documentation and support to ensure that you and your team are successful.

Title photo: National Geographic “Sea to Source Expedition.” Photo copyright Alasdair Davies