picoFix® : the world's lightest weight GPS tracking tags from 0.75g

picoFix®

picoFix® is the successor to our highly successful nanoFix® GPS technology. Since its launch in 2014 nanoFix® has been the lowest power GPS solution available on the market, successfully deployed on a vast range of avian species around the world.

Continuous innovation since 2014 has led to the successful development of picoFix®. Boasting a four-fold increase in GPS capacity compared to nanoFix®, the vast power reductions obtained have been achieved without compromising our GPS performance. Never before has it been possible to obtain GPS locations using such little power.

picoFix® was launched in late 2024 and is now available across our entire product range from our smallest GPS loggers to our largest wireless download tags using either UHF or GSM.

The revolutionary performance of picoFix® leads to a vast array of cutting edge tag configurations that we can produce. With significantly smaller battery and solar options now feasible, we can further push the boundaries of lightweight tag options that we can deliver with our range now starting at just 0.75g. Alternatively existing customers wishing to maintain the same form factor that they have been using with our nanoFix® tags can benefit from far greater GPS data volumes with picoFix®.

A picoFix® 0.75g mini GPS logger. This tag has been successfully deployed on a variety of species including Leisler’s bats, nightingales and skylarks. It measures 18x11x3mm plus ~50mm external whip antenna. It can provide up to 320 GPS location attempts depending on species. Burst or continuous accelerometer data capture is available at rates of 1Hz, 12.5Hz, 25Hz or 50Hz.

A picoFix® 2.0g GPS with UHF download tag. This tag has been deployed on a range of species including Baillon’s crakes, common terns, crakes, least terns, and pygmy owls. It measures 34x12x6mm plus ~50mm external whip antenna. It can provide up to 700 GPS location attempts depending on species. Burst or VeDBA accelerometer data capture is available at a range of sample rates.

The significant power savings of picoFix® enable a diverse range of performance benefits to be achieved. Examples include:

• (1) The potential for winter tracking of species that have never been able to be tracked using GPS during these periods of time. The vastly reduced power requirements of picoFix® in combination with our extended range of solar charging options now makes this a possibility.
• (2) An ever growing range of small, lightweight multi-sensor tags can now be produced with ever greater capacities, due to the reduced power requirements of our GPS processing.
• (3) For wireless download tags the significant power saved with our picoFix® GPS processing can instead be used by our tags to offload increased volumes of accelerometer and/or depth data, allowing far greater understanding of species behaviours.