Bluetooth Communiciations

Bluetooth doesn't have the range that the freewave radios have.

Air Cable Bluetooth

We have two air cable bluetooth radios that I have been using for the Rio Grande ADCP setup. I also have two external 8.5 dbi omni-directional antennaes to go with them. I have been using them on the kayak to send back GPS and ADCP data to a laptop w/ bluetooth on shore. They are quite fidgety and lose connection often. I am not a big fan of the one labeled "GPS". Connection is lost frequently. NOTE: THESE HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED -- DO NOT USE.

Sena Parani SD1000 Bluetooth

I have a parani sd1000 bluetooth radio that seems promising. I have a 3, dbi, 5 dbi dipole antennae and a 9dbi patch (directional antennae) for use with this. This can be used in the toughbook serial port to boost the toughbook signal (instead of using the internal toughbook class 2 bluetooth w/ only a 30 ft range). This one seems to have good communication when attached to the laptop for use with the streampro.

I also use this one to send the GPS data on the kayak or tethered streampro, back to the laptop. I usually just use "mode 3" discoverable (where any bt device can discover it). I set the baud rate on this to 38.4K or higher.

The Parani SD1000 has "hardware flow control" setting. This should probably be turned on.

Sena UD100 Bluetooth

This is a USB bluetooth. We can use this for laptops that don't have internal bluetooths (like the big toughbook) or we can use it as a boost for the mini tough book, instead of using the internal toughbook bluetooth. It has a 3, 5 dbi, or 9 dbi patch antennae. The 9 dbi patch antennae has worked very well on large distances. The 5 dbi one only works to about 250 ft before it loses comms with the toughbook. I tested this one with the streampro. Note that this needs to be secured into a USB port and can be bumped easily in the field, losing the connection, and the newer models are hard to get into the USB ports on the toughbook, you really have to shove them in to get them to work. The mini-toughbook USB ports are not so great for plugging in this bluetooth radio, but it seems to work really good. If we can get it better secured in the mini-toughbook, or use a USB extension cable it may work better. I am sure it will work fine in regular laptops.

Update 5/8/2013 We purchased some new UD100 bluetooth radios (red -- you put them in the USB port). Well they use a new software called "Blue SOleil". I installed the new BlueSoleil software on the toughbooks. The older models use the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack software. You can tell which UD100 uses which software by looking on the UD100 near the searial number. It will either say Toshiba or Bluesoleil.

To turn on the appropriate software (using a toughbook), be sure the have the wireless switch off or else the lightning bolt on the task bar set to Bluetooth Power OFF (to turn off the internal toughbook bluetooth, which has insufficient range for ADCP measurements).

Then determine which software you need to use (look near S/N on UD100). The Toshiba Bluetooth stack software has the bluetooth icon in blue/red on the task bar. The Blue Soleil software has a blue/white icon. Then you can right click on the icon to get the UD100 going (i.e. enable bluetooth or turn bluetooth on). Once you get the toughbook, take a look.

Then you will need to establish a connection to the device (i.e. RDI streampro, or perhaps another Parani SD1000 radio that is hooked up to the GPS).

Attached is the manual for the Blue Soleil.

http://www.sena.com/download/manual/manual_parani_ud100_B-v2.0.1.pdf

Mini Toughbook Internal Bluetooth

The mini toughbook has an internal bluetooth that only works up to 30 ft w/ the streampro. With the Rio Grande ADCP and the GPS bluetooth radios, we can add a better antennae to those radios and extend the range to over 150 m. I suggest not using the internal mini toughbook internal bluetooth, but instead use the Parani / Sena USB bluetooth external radio.

General Bluetooth notes

• Baud rates should be set to what the instrument is set up at or higher. For example, the ADCPs should have a baud rate of 115.2k and so the radio should also be set to that baud rate. The GPSs are running at 38.4K baud, so you should set up the radio (Parni SD1000) to run at that or higher so we make sure we are tranmitting that data frequently enough.
• The laptop bluetooth software will assign a COM port to data coming in via bluetooth. For example, on one of the mini-toughbooks, the streampro adcp com port when data comes through bluetooth is COM40, the rio grande adcp with bluetooth is COM42, and the GPS with bluetooth is COM43. This won't be the same for all laptops, you may have to play around with it to figure out what is what. The bluesoleil and toshiba software might have a properties button where once you set up the connection between the UD100 and the streampro or Parani SD1000 w/ GPS you might be able to click on an icon and get the assigned COM port. Then you would know what COM# to set up in Winriver II.
• If you use the Parani in the laptop serial port to communicate with the Streampro or toughbook (to increase the range, instead of using the internal bluetooth or UD100 in the USB port) data will come in through COM1.
• Keep an eye on "lost ensembles" and "no data" in Winriver. It may not be obvious that you lost comms with the bluetooth, so be aware. You may have to reconnect if you lose comms and start the msmt over.