Telemetry Frequently Asked Questions:
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What is the operating life of your implantable transmitters?
The operating life of transmitters depends on the total sample rate and implant mass. Smaller animals require smaller implants. Smaller implants have smaller batteries. Smaller batteries have lower charge capacity. The version table for each of our families of transmitter provides examples of operating life, sample rate, bandwidth, and mass.
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What is the shelf life of your implantable transmitters?
We define "shelf life" as how long the device can remain asleep and use no more than 10% of its battery. The shelf life of our smallest transmitters is three months, and of our largest is ten years.
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Can transmitters be turned on and off while implanted?
Yes, transmitters turn off and on with a magnetic switch, and you can turn them on and off even when they are implanted. When you order an OSI data acquisition system, we will send you a strong and suitable magnet for use with live animals. Note that any magnet is capable of activating transmitters, so do not store transmitters near hard drives or other magnetic objects.
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Does your telemetry system use Bluetooth?
No, our telemetry system does not use Bluetooth. Instead, it uses the 902-928 MHz band, which is an unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band in the United States. Our telemetry system is real-time and continuous, which makes it more efficient than Bluetooth.
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Are your transmitters rechargeable?
No, our transmitters are not rechargeable. With care, however, transmitters can be re-implanted so long as they have sufficient battery capacity remaining.
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Can you record Cortical Spreading Depolarizations? That is: can you record down to true DC?
Yes, all our biopotential sensors can be configured to record down to true DC, exactly zero Hertz.
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Can I record continuously from animals living together?
Yes, provided that the telemetry sensors and stimulators are implanted beneath the skin of the animals. We recommend against co-housing animals equipped with our head-mounting transmitters.
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How many antennas are needed to record from 16 mice in 4 cages?
Four coaxial antennas are sufficient to record from 16 mice in 4 cages. Alternately, four Animal Location Trackers (ALT) could be used, one under each cage, to record telemetry signals and measure activity from all sixteen animals.
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What is meant by the "frequency response" of a biopotential sensor and why is it important?
The "frequency response" of a sensor is how the gain of its amplifier varies with frequency. Almost all biopotentials, with the exception of EMG (electromyogram), must be low-pass filtered before sampling in order to reduce aliasing distortion. We accompany every shipment of telemetry sensors with a certified copy of the sensor frequency responses. If a telemetry sensor manufacturer does not provide plots of frequency response, it is safe to assume that their low-pass filtering is inadequate to prevent aliasing.
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What is the smallest subcutaneous transmitter (SCT) you make, and what is the largest?
The smallest SCT we make is the A3048P, which is 1.5 g and 0.85 ml. The A3048P2 provides a single biopotential input with passband 0.2-80 Hz sampled at 256 SPS and runs for 21 days. The largest SCT we have in our version tables right now is the A3049L, which is 14 g and 6.0 ml. The A3049L4Z provides two biopotential inputs with passband 0.0-320 Hz and runs for 158 days.
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Can I change the sample rate after I receive my transmitters?
Only if you have purchased one of our programmable devices. Programmable devices include the A3054P Programmable Intraperitoneal Transmitters (IPT) and the A3041 Implantable Stimulator-Transponder (IST). Non-programmable devices provide longer battery life than programmable devices.
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Will I need a Faraday Enclosure to operate the OSI data acquisition system?
Maybe. Laboratories in basements, in windowless rooms at the center of brick buildings, and laboratories in rural areas are places where you most likely will not need Faraday enclosures to operate your first telemetry system. If you want to operate a second system in the same room, you will need Faraday enclosures to isolate the two systems. If your laboratory is above-ground in a city, you will most likely need a Faraday enclosure to isolate your telemetry system from local interference in our wireless 902-928 MHz band.
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What is an Event Classifier Library?
An Event Classifier library is a set of human-selected events in a telemetry recording that have been human-classified as members of two or more event types. Our Event Classifier program uses event libraries to classify events automatically.
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Is it possible to implant an Implantable Stimulator-Transponder (IST), Implantable Light-Emitting Diode (ILED), and a Subcutaneous Transmitter (SCT) in an adult mouse so as to both invoke and record cortical spreading depolarizations (CSDs)?
Yes, absolutely. We have done this in mice ourselves.
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Do you make an implant that can record three channels of iEEG in a 20-g mouse for more than thirty days?
Yes, the A3054BL Long-Life Intraperitoneal Transmitter has mass 2.4 g and will record three channels of iEEG, each with 0.0-80 Hz bandwidth, for 41 days.
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