Bluetooth Adapter for Total Station Cable...

I've been using the Sena Parani long range bluetooth adapters to run my robot for 5 yrs. They work great for up to 1000 ft. or more and the battery lasts for days. I think the ones you have listed are just a shorter range version of the same technology.

The following link shows the same setups, but you can buy the parts directly and save some money: http://www.hayesinstrument.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/Robot_BanTam_Communications.html?sid=3b6LA-2zFA9K8Of-39112582605.8a

I have an older Leica TCRA 1103+ without blue tooth. What I would like to see is an adapter that would allow it to spit out data via blue tooth so I could connect it to my laptop.

Yes, that would work. But beware the range is always less than advertised.
I got tired of the bulky old Topcon radios and batteries about 4 years ago. I could not find a Bluetooth with batteries built in so I made this. It will reach 500 feet through the woods.
At the TS I spliced into the 12V battery for the TS. The SENA came with wiring. On the DC I bought a 4-AA battery holder from Radio Shack, glued and zip tied to the SENA. I use re-chargeable AA that I can charge in the truck. They last for days on the SENA.
DIY for under $200.00 🙂
http://www.sena.com/products/industrial_bluetooth/sd.php

I have a new DC on order that has a USB port, so I am going to try this one. Promises longer range.
http://www.kanda.com/products/Sena/PARANI-SD1000U.html

ps8182

Does the system work with the Trimble 5603 series robots? I'd love to get rid of the "brick" radio. If it can't be made to work with the 5600 series robotically I will likely be going the S6 route very soon.

ps8182

I think it will. With the setup I show below, the TS thinks the DC is plugged into it by the 9 pin cable.

ps8182

They will work with any instrument that utilizes 9 pin. I inherited a set of sd100's setup as shown below, but I didn't find it survey enviroment friendly. The sd1000's are what you need. They can utilize an attached entended life battery pack that will last for days and the short stub antennas need to replaced with the long range antennas on both radios or you wont get the range. I always get well of 1000 ft. of range,, woods or no woods, in fact the robot has tracking issues well before radio range becomes an issue.

This is the setup I use with my TCRA 1105. FYI - The nine pin cable has to be null modem or use a null modem adapter with a standard cable.

This is a close up of the radios

ps8182

I think it will too but was told otherwise by a dealer who may or may not know what he's talking about.

Anyone here using it with the 5600 series robots?

ps8182

Looks like we posted at the same time. I'm going to try to get a setup working and ditch the brick. I wonder what setting would be used in Carlson...Direct Robotic? I don't think it would be the "georadio" setting.

I had the same setup as you prior to upgrading sd1000's. I always got well over 1000ft of range, but I had long range antennas on both radios, not the stub as shown on one radio above.

> I had the same setup as you prior to upgrading sd1000's. I always got well over 1000ft of range, but I had long range antennas on both radios, not the stub as shown on one radio above.

Hey, I just noticed that yours are 1000 and mine 100. Did not know they had improved. Thanks for the pictures. I see you are using the old radio bags to carry the SENA in. Great idea. I did have the longer antenna on the DC, but broke two of them. Time to get the old radio bags out and carry the SENA in a safer place.
Thanks, Scott.

ps8182

I don' have any experience with the 5800's, but I would set the collector to communicate just as if it plugged into the instrument with a nine pin cable. If it is possible to run the robot with a nine cable plugged directly into the instrument the Paranis will work for sure, they just allow for a break in the cable via bluetooth. When you get the Bluetooth radios they need to be paired, which only takes a minute, and the dip switches need to be toggled to the correct baud rate.

I see the BamTam advertisement on Hayes instrument advertises use with Trimble Robots. I almost posotive they and others utilize the same radios, but package them up into fancy units.

I had both and didnt notice any range increase, both over a 1000 ft for me, but I've always usd the bigger antennas on both radios. I obtained a sd100 setup like yours when I bought some used equipment, but had problems with limbs ripping the cables apart and the units being exposed to rain and snow. The sd1000 had the small attached battery that allowed me to put the radios in a case. BTW the little cell phone cases that have a belt clip on the back work great. One hangs on the tripod hook and the other case can be zip tied the rod.

ps8182

> Does the system work with the Trimble 5603 series robots? I'd love to get rid of the "brick" radio.

I'm not sure the 5600 will do robotic through its serial port. I do know that when using a Trimble 5600/Geodimeter 600 robot with a DC50 data collector, you have to keep the brick radio, but you leave it at the gun and connect it to a BT adapter. Then you put another BT adapter at the data collector. (With the DC50, the BT adapter is built into the DC50 case.) You put the gun into robotic mode via the Trimble/Geodimeter faceplate, then control it remotely via the DC50. It's kind of a kludgy setup at the gun, but at least the brick radio isn't hanging on the prism pole.

P.S. I echo the positive comments about the Parani products. I've used them with a Geodimeter 640 robot, and currently with a Leica TCRA1102 robot. They're reliable and have a lot of power options. The only thing to be aware of -- and I believe this holds true for the RN-220XP -- is that they're not weatherproof.

P.P.S. The RN-220XP claims to be "the world's only totally wireless and portable Class 1 Bluetooth serial adapter." Not so; the Parani line offers the same features, and possibly more.

ps8182

> I wonder what setting would be used in Carlson...Direct Robotic? I don't think it would be the "georadio" setting.

Carlson is using the SD1000/SD1000U radios the communication option for the new Carlson CR2/CR5 robot with the Surveyor+.

To use the Parani radios with SurvCE builds 2.61 and earlier, you'd need to manually install the Sena Parani drivers onto your Windows Mobile device. In the SurvCE Equip screen, you'd likely want to select a Communications type of Radio with the Radio type to be Internal Radio. The port would be dependent on the collector and the baud rate would be based on the dip switch settings established on the SD1000 unit.

A newer build of SurvCE is available for the Surveyor+ which installs the drivers for the Parani radio and then lists them by name in the Instrument Setup screen. Installation and configuration information for this can be found at http://update.carlsonsw.com/kbase_main.php?action=display_topic&topic_id=857 .

Trimble 5600

These will work on the 5600 series, I've been using it between a Trimble 5603 and a Ranger 200C data collector for a few years with great results. I have the Parani SD1000 adapters, which are the model that use an integrated Li-ion battery. They are super reliable, and I can go well over a week without recharging the batteries.

The only issue I have is that the gun won't initialize with the bluetooth adapters connected - I need to connect the cable physically to the data collector, run through the level bubble screen and initialization, and then I'm able to plug in the bluetooth and work away. Has anyone else figured a way around this?

They look a bit fragile but are actually pretty tough, and cheap enough to buy one or two backups for when you do eventually smash one to bits.

Anyone using Fieldhawk BT setup, $1300?

SHG

I believe they use Parani radios also.

The Bantam X and Fieldhawk radio's, do have one advantage in that the "rover side" unit has both a longrange radio to reach the gun and a shortrange radio to connect to the datacollector (which must have bluetooth, of course). This eliminates the short cable from datacollector to radio unit.

Have any of you folks experimented with connecting 2 Parani, or similar, units together to achieve a total cable free solution?

I once saw a picture of the inside of a PSS DC50 datacollector and it was exactly that - 2 Parani's side by side, but there was a little circuit board in there too.
I would like to see something the size of a pop can, with 2 radio's inside, internal antenna, and a 5/8-11 thread to screw to the top of a pole.

Trimble 5600

> The only issue I have is that the gun won't initialize with the bluetooth adapters connected - I need to connect the cable physically to the data collector, run through the level bubble screen and initialization, and then I'm able to plug in the bluetooth and work away. Has anyone else figured a way around this?
>

Aloha, Justin:
I tried to do this setup with my 5603 and Ranger 500 dc. I still could not get the bluetooth adaptors to work even after successfully running through the level bubble screen and initialization. What am I missing. SD1000 are connected (the little green light blinks as it suppose to...)

What am I missing?

Thanks