Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Strictly Surveying › Parani Bluetooth adaptors and high battery drain
Parani Bluetooth adaptors and high battery drain
Posted by 350RocketMike on May 8, 2021 at 9:55 pmI’m wondering if anyone has any experience with this or suggestions…I’m running a Leica TCRP1203+ with a serial Parani sd1000 at the TS and just added an sd1000u to the USB port of the Panasonic fz-m1 because I needed more Bluetooth range.
As soon as I started using the tablet with the Leica and the serial Parani the battery started draining like crazy. It goes through the extended battery in half the time I used to (less than a day vs a day and a half or more). I checked in system resources and Fieldgenius is reported as “very high” power consumption as soon as I connect to the Parani. The same thing happened when I added the usb Parani and used the pair of them. Baud rate is 115200 and I tried 9600 to see if that changed and also tried hw flow control on and off. No change. If I connect to the Sokkia iX RC handle or internal Leica BT there is very low power consumption from Fieldgenius. Also no drain using magnet field with the Sokkia.
I’m sticking with the Leica and the Parani’s so I’m hoping to fix this as it will wear out the battery pretty fast and having to charge 2 every night is annoying.
Thanks for any help.
ramses replied 1 year, 4 months ago 7 Members · 25 Replies- 25 Replies
Which battery is draining fast, the one in the Leica, the one in the Panasonic or the one in the Parani?
@jim-frame
Sorry the one in the tablet. The rest of the batteries have no issues. Windows 10 shows the battery drain is from Fieldgenius (my data collection software).
A few years ago on my GPT9003 setup I used Magnet Field with the Parani, so no I have never encountered that problem with FG. Also I used a 9 pin com to lemo connector cable from the Parani SD1000 wired to the instrument. Added a six inch antenna to SD1000 and I would get about 900ft from instrument to DC using this Bluetooth setup.
It must be some compatibility issue with Fieldgenius and the Parani serial connection setup. It works good other than the severe battery drain and some crashing when zooming in on clusters of points (not sure how that has anything to do the Parani but Microsurvey seems to think it has something to do with it). The software runs fast and it shoots and tracks really fast. Requisition of the prism when the Sokkia wouldn’t have even tried to keep a lock.
- Posted by: @leegreen
Also I used a 9 pin com to lemo connector cable from the Parani SD1000 wired to the instrument.
I’m picturing the Parani SD1000 being strapped to a tripod leg with VELCRO?? brand, ONE-WRAP?? tape (levitthookandloop.com) and the wire connected to our Topcon DL-502 digital level. When I’m running levels, I don’t want the cable to come loose from the level’s data port. What kind of setup do you use?
Also, is it possible to retrieve and read (not necessarily process) the data from running levels with Topcon MAGNET Field running on the Topcon FC-5000? We can’t process the data because we don’t have that software included with our Topcon Tools post-processing software.
MH When used correctly a digital level run needs no adjustment. My runs often close at 0.005ft
Yes, you can export the DL to many formats including StarNet. I run all my control through Magnet Tools, importing the MJF.
I connect the SD1000 to level via cable and velcro. Then use Magnet Field via Bluetooth with DL.
i use these which clamp to my tripod and strap with velcro and they velcro shut. Originally for Fieldhawk 2 way radios which could be used for robotic function with this instrument if I was using an old data collector with the serial port. They do a good job of holding the Parani and the external battery pack.
- Posted by: @leegreen
When used correctly a digital level run needs no adjustment.
I agree, but my exported DL file wouldn’t necessarily be for adjustment; I might use the file for another purpose. Maybe I want to print it out or archive it. Is it in XML format, or is it in some kind of encrypted format that can only be read by a customer of Topcon, MicroSurvey STAR*NET, etc.?
MH Yes, XML is one of the formats. Just open Magnet Field and give it a try. If you ograde from Topcon Tools to Magnet Tools you run the DL thru Tools and make reports. I think Magnet Tools subscription cost about $650 a year. Why are you still using a nearly 10 year old out of date version? I think Magnet was available 2012.
Did you ever get a solution to your tablet drain?
I have a Sena Parani UD100-G03 (USB) on an old Surface with FieldGenius 11, Haven’t tried yet to see if high battery drain on on the Surface but curious. Have 2 Sena Parani SD1000 with extended battery packs also. Btw, that Blue Soleil software that comes with UD100 sucks.
No I didn’t. I did spend some time on the phone with microsurvey tech support but we never found a solution. The solution was a couple of extra batteries and just lucky that the tablet had almost 2 day battery life under normal conditions….my current tsc7 would be through all 4 batteries end of morning if I’d been using it.
I used the paranis for a few months and then the boss got me a used RH17 radio handle which made life much easier. That was the best robot I’ve ever used once I got it.
I never upgraded fieldgenius past 10 but microsurvey didn’t think it would help any of my issues anyway.
I tried the UD100 on my Panasonic FZ M1 with a demo version of SurvPC and I had the same high battery drain. I think it’s the Bluesoleil combined with the UD 100. Never seen this problem with the SD1000 plugged directly into the serial port of my Nomad or Archer2 running SurvCE.
You’re probably right. I didn’t use the sd1000 alone for very long as the range wasn’t great.
@350rocketmike I got over 300m range with the SD1000 connected to the RH16 radio handle on my old TPS1200, and about the same when using 2 SD1000 (one at the DC and the other one at the instrument) on the even older TPS1100. I have to mention that I was using high gain antennas at both ends.
This is a bit off topic but I thought it is worth mentioning it here. A few days ago I did an experiment trying to test the Bluetooth range of my Samsung Note 10 phone connected to the Radio Handle of my Geomax Zoom 95 ( I believe Leica equivalent would be RH16, or 17) using Geomax ‘s own X-Pad field software. I walked as far as I could on that job site so I could still see the instrument and I measured over 280m. I am sure it would go even further, I just didn’t have the space to test it. I belive the answer to the long range is the Bluetooth v5.0.
I think there is a lot of interference on some of the jobsites I’m at so I was only getting around 100m with one parani at the ts end and 150-200m with both paranis, both with the longest antennas. With the rh17 and the same tablet without a parani 200m was more consistent. Also when I texted at the office I could go over 300m without issue.
I get longer range now with the Trimble and it’s long range radio but the radio feels like it takes forever to connect compared to the Bluetooth.
Note would be a perfect phone to use for this with the built in stylus. Bigger screen than the tsc5 and almost as big as the tsc7, with barely any of the weight. I would like my lg v60 for this too and it has stylus support but nowhere to keep the stylus in the phone unlike the note.
Does barely any of the weight equate to half day or worse battery life though as controller has screen on plus internet/Bluetooth running full time??
No use if it doesn’t 8hrs+, unless you can tolerate dragging a charging pack around.
I would have to find out, I know my phone can do around 8 hours screen on time watching movies and stuff over a couple of days. Plus modern phones charge a lot faster than our data collectors. And a small battery bank attached to charge would still be more convenient than the tsc7.
My favorite was still the Panasonic fz-m1, 7″ tablet. Less than half the size and weight of the tsc7 with 2 day battery life. And easier in and out of the bracket. If you have to have a keyboard then you must make a lot of sacrifices in other areas.
Log in to reply.