Basic4ppc onboard a Nivo C

C

ceaser

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi

I need advise or help again please!

When I run my surveying program on a external handheld computer connected to a Total Station, I can control the Total Station by sending commands to the instrument through the RS232 port or by bluetooth - no problem.

I have now re-arranged the screen layout so that the program runs onboard the instrument (Nikon Nivo C)...there is no problem...the program runs fine.

My question is....how do I send commands to the Total Station with the program being onboard the instrument?

I have "googled" the internet for possible solutions, but nothing.

Any advise please?

Regards
Michael
 
M

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User

For myself, I don't understand the terminology. How many devices do we have? What is "the instrument"? What commands are involved? Could you perhaps draw a diagram?

Mike.
 
C

ceaser

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi Mjcoon

Thanks for coming back to me.

The "instrument" is the Total Station (a Land Surveying equipment that reads angles and distances...in this case the Nikon Nivo C). What has been done in the past is that you have a external handheld computer (like the Workabout from Psion, Recon from Trimble,etc) on which my program is running. This handheld is connected to the Total Station via a cable to the RS232 port on the Total Station or via bluetooth. All commands are send from my program to the Total Station to do something...i.e read the horizontal angle, read the distance, etc. The syntax of the commands are different for each model of Total Station...Leica, Topcon, Nikon, etc.

Because the onboard processing power of the Total Stations have become much more powerful, it is now possible to load my Surveying program onboard the Total Station.

My program runs fine on the Total Station, but I cannot get the Total station to respond to the program's commands. I think the problem is that I am addressing the wrong port...remember that the program is not connected to the Total Station anymore via Bluetooth or a cable.

How do you think should I go about sending a command to the Total Station when the program is onboard?

I hope that you can give me some advise please or push me in the right direction.

Regards
Michael
 
M

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User

OK, sounds to me as if the conceptual object called "Total Station" has some listener program which accepts commands via RS232 or BT. Presumably there is only one RS232 port, so it would not be possible to use loop-back to make it appear that the on-board Ceaser program is external because the port would have to be opened twice. But I do not know how BT works. Can it be used for loop-back or is there also only a single port?

Unless what I called the "listener" also offers some inter-process interface I cannot see any other solution...

(But offering advice in this situation is a bit like doing key-hole surgery without knowing anything about the anatomy involved!)

Mike.
 

agraham

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
You will need to find out if there is a public API available that exposes to onboard programs the same facilites that an external data collector can access. Apparently the instrument is made by a joint venture company - Nikon-Trimble, but unfortunately they appear to not publish any support material apart from this web page so I guess an email or phone call is your only option.
 
C

ceaser

Active Member
Licensed User
Gentlemen thank you all very much:sign0188:

I have contacted Nikon and Trimble and I am sure they will be able to help me....I am doing it for them as well!

Regards
Michael
 
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