[Acoustics] Rio's and bluetooth serial connections

[Nick j Everard]

Roy

They are very widely - and successfully! - used in the UK Environment
Agency.

When we initially bought Rios they were supplied with Freewaves, which
worked great but turned out to be not licensed for use in the UK.

We then moved to Westermo (aka Elpro) radios and found these to be
rather less successful than the Freewaves - the range was less (not
really an issue with our small rivers) and reliability was poor.

The UK RDI agent, Hydro-Logic, then gave us some Bluetooth modems to
try and they worked a treat! They have proved much more reliable and are
very small and neat to use - we run them through the serial port with
power taken from the USB port. Really neat! We set 'em up just like any
other radio with baud rate set to 57600. Most (all?) Rio Grande users in
the Environment Agency now use them.

I have range tested them up to around 100m, but my biggest river is
only 45m wide.

I don't know where HL buy them but I found some advertised at
www.expansys.com, although they have no stock!

Mick Smith is the guy at HL who sourced them and set them up. Good work
Mick!

Nick.

Nick Everard
FMD Officer 1 (Hydrometry)
Environment Agency - W Area
Thames Region 
Windrush House
Howbery Park
Wallingford
Oxon, OX10 8BD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1491 828400
Mobile: +44 (0)7831 559379
E-mail nick.everard at environment-agency.gov.uk
Internet www.environment-agency.gov.uk


>>> Roy Wellman <rwellman at usgs.gov> 07/02/06 15:19:38 >>>
Has anyone used a bluetooth serial radio to connect their laptop to a 
Rio? These things can transmit up to 100 meters. If your only using one

  com port, using these radios could be pretty easy. I'd appeciate any

feedback.

Roy Wellman
USGS, Portland, Or
503-251-3295

rwellman at usgs.gov 


_______________________________________________
Acoustics mailing list
Acoustics at simon.er.usgs.gov 
http://simon.er.usgs.gov/mailman/listinfo/acoustics

Information in this message may be confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else.

We have checked this email and its attachments for viruses. But you should still check any attachment before opening it.

We may have to make this message and any reply to it public if asked to under the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act or for litigation.  Email messages and attachments sent to or from any Environment Agency address may also be accessed by someone other than the sender or recipient, for business purposes.

If we have sent you information and you wish to use it please read our terms and conditions which you can get by calling us on 08708 506 506.  Find out more about the Environment Agency at www.environment-agency.gov.uk