Bluetooth to robot

I've been using a pair of Parani SD1000 radios for five years and love it. This year I tried paring one of the radios to the internal bluetooth in my Ranger 3 and haven't looked back. My range was cut in half, but it still seems to cover 99% of my shots and I love not having a cable or radio at the rod. I still carry the other radio just in case, but I haven't had to use it yet.

How far can you get with the internal BT in a Ranger? I thought regular blue tooth was only good for about 30'? Does the Ranger 3 have "long range" BT built in?

> I thought regular blue tooth was only good for about 30'

Class 1 BT is spec'd at 100m, but with the right antennas a pair of Class 1 units can go up to 1km.

I was suprised to get about 60 metres range from my Carlson Mini to a Sokkia SRX. Not enough of course but alot further than it's supposed to work.
My crusty old mentor/work mate keeps breaking the antenna on the RC PR4 - the proper longrange radio/prism search device for the SRX - so I thought I would just try the direct DC to gun approach. I'm almost tempted to open up the mini and see if I can add a better antenna somehow (it must just be a tiny thing attached to the board and could probably be improved upon). 150 metres would cover me most of the time.

or get one of these...

http://apac.getac.com/news-and-events/news_2012101071.html

I think all DC's should be coming with longrange bluetooth - they should be able to cram a Parani SD1000U into them somewhere.

The Parani at the gun has the long range antenna on it and I get 500' when paired with the data collector. I get 1000' with a Parani at the gun and at the dc, but rarely need that kind of distance.

I've had the same experience.

When you say long range, do you mean the 5" 5dBi Dipole Antenna or the 9dBi Patch Antenna?

Patch

Or

5"

I took delivery of my first pair of SD1000's today and am amazed at how small they are, but I only bought two 5" antennas.

I have two of the SD1000 units, and I get about 600 feet with the small stub antennas. I bought two of the 5 inch antennas, but have only used them once, before I knew the range I could get with the short antennas.

> When you say long range, do you mean the 5" 5dBi Dipole Antenna or the 9dBi Patch Antenna?

I use the 5" antennas daily, and have gone (best I can recall) up to 1,900' with them. I got half a mile with a 5" on the DC and a patch at the gun.

Good to know, that was my plan based on what you said in another thread.

I'm really interested to know what range he's getting out of the internal bluetooth on his collector.. sounds like he isn't even using an SD1000 on his data collector but just one of the larger patch antennas at the gun.

What Butch is telling you is correct. We have done our own independent tests and found that in the right conditions we could get 600-750 feet. Is this the best way? No. The connection is slower that than that of a radio or a built in long range Bluetooth meaning that under certain conditions you will see a loss of signal or at least some fluctuation. This is also line of sight. At the max distances, something as small as a car passing between you and the instrument can cause a loss of connection. Again, if you are looking to work under 600 feet all the time, it will probably work fine. Unfortunately, if you ever get in a tight spot where you need that extra couple feet, you'll never get it.

If we can help please let me know. Take care.