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Mobile and External Sensors for Street Sign Inventory

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07-21-2011 06:51 AM
by Anonymous User
Not applicable
My office is currently working on a project to collect GPS points of street signs as well as sign retroreflectivity using a retroreflectometer.  As of now, I know ESRI does not have an extension for the Retroreflectometer, but I was wondering if anyone has built one or know's how to connect it to a Trimble handheld in either ArcMobile or ArcPad?  We want to be able to collect the sign reflectivity on the reflectometer and send it via bluetooth to a specific field in ArcMobile or ArcPad.

Any ideas on how to accomplish this?
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3 Replies
AkhilParujanwala
Regular Contributor
Yes this is possible. I am doing a similar thing with a radiation detection detection device.
My app sends a request to the bluetooth radiation device, to get a value, and then I store the value into a field, along with the GPS coordinates of the point.

The hardest part of all this is to figure out how to read from your bluetooth device. Bluetooth communicates via serial connection, and you will need to ask the manufacturer of your retroreflector to give you the protocol to read via bluetooth.

For example, if I send the letter "V" to the radiation device it will return the model number. If I send "z" it will return a radiation number.

Your retroreflector will be similar in terms of communication.

Here is a rough outline as to what one of my GPS data collection process looks like.
1) Start GPS calculation and averaging
2) Attempt to read from radiation device 5 times (in case it fails, it loops)
3) Save radiation value into field, and populate all other fields for that point
4) Save point and show on map and also synchronize with server.
5) If failed to read from radiation device, it will trigger a procedure to cancel the data point, meaning no point will be display on the map.

This all occurs under 1 button being clicked, and it takes 4-6 seconds to complete, because I have my GPS averaging set to 2 averages.

As for the code to read from your retroreflector, no one here will know, but saving a value into a field of the feature isn't too difficult. Search the forums for that part, I think I may have some code posted on how to do that.

Hope this helps.
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MikeMiller
Deactivated User
Did you find a workable solution?  I am in the same boat.
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AkhilParujanwala
Regular Contributor
In terms of reading from a device that communicates through serial this is already possible using the SerialPort object.

Putting a value into a field for a feature has been already discussed here and I believe in the ESRI samples.

To know how to communicate with your device, you must contact the manufacturer and understand their protocols. You may or may not get the protocol to begin with, since they may not want to give it to you.

I was fortunate that the device I was using is supporting what I do and has given me the protocols to communicate and read a value.
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