11 Glossary

Transducer
A device which converts one type of energy to another. For example, pressure transducers convert pressure into electrical signals. Also called “sensors”.
Pin (v.)
of a sensor: to get stuck reading one value even as the quantity measured is changing. For example, a pressure sensor may pin at some max value even as pressure increases. Can also pin to low values. Sometimes also “peg”.
Argos
A system of polar orbiting satellites and ground based stations which can locate beacons using Doppler calculations as well as uplink data.
Platform or PTT
A particular Argos beacon or transmitter. PTT stands for platform terminal transmitter.
LUT
Local user terminal. The ground based stations that download data from satellites.
Buffer
In general a region of memory used for temporary data. We generally use it to refer to the messages queued for transmit. See § 3.2.12.