We use both the BlueSnap-AAA Bluetooth Dongle & the BlueSnapXP DTR Bluetooth Dongle to connect our Sokkia electronic total stations to our HP50g calculators for field data collection. The BlueSnap-AAA Bluetooth Dongle is used for short-range connections from our HP50g calculators to our Sokkia total survey stations that have inbuilt short-range Bluetooth capabilities. The BlueSnapXP DTR Bluetooth Dongle is used for long-range connections from our HP50g calculators to our Sokkia total survey stations. In this case, the BlueSnapXP DTR Bluetooth Dongle is connected to the data out port of the Sokkia total station using a Sokkia or generic cable. In both cases, the SerialIio BlueSnap Bluetooth dongle is connected to the HP50g’s serial port using a custom serial cable from Eric Rechlin, and the in-built HP50g serial commands are used to control the total stations & initiate measurements. The required data is then extracted from the received data strings. Additionally, to this, we have also recently found that the BlueSnapXP DTR Bluetooth Dongle works with the new generation Sokkia total stations that have in-built long-range Bluetooth capabilities. This means that we do not need to have a Bluetooth dongle at all on the total station end, just one connected to the HP50g data collector. The SerialIo BlueSnap Bluetooth dongles free us from being physically tethered by a direct cable connection from our HP50g data collectors to our total stations for data collection. This dramatically increases our field productivity. We have found both models of the SerialIo BlueSnap Bluetooth dongles to be easy to set up and reliable to use.
