Hi All got a question from Martin,

      I am having major problems trying to get my PDA to pick up information from the DistoX.

      The Bluetooth connection seems to set up fine, that is the PDA and DistoX actually register a connection when they are both on, ie the DistoX bluetooth icon flashes and the DistoX icon on the PDA goes green and the connection appears in the active connection window.

      However the problem arises when I try to make measurments. When I press the Dist button on the DistoX I get the lazer, moving it around causes the compass and clino to vary but the distance reads ---. Press the button and the distance it locks in on is displayed along with the compass and clino. But different from the Disto X instructions the reading counter to the left of the compass reading does not increase, but remains at zero.

      No numbers appear on the PocketTopo display and when looking at the status of the Bluetooth connection there is zero bytes of information transefered or received. I am using COM6, as some one with an identical PDA has got that to work, but have gone through all of them.

      Any advice would be very welcome as I am suspecting that there is a fault in the DistoX at the moment.

      Thanks in advanced,

        Martin Groves

What does the DistoX without BT connection active? Is it measuring normally or not?

This does sound like the reading is not being stored in the DistoX memory. To be sure, turn off the PDA and take a few readings with the DistoX. The little number at the top of the display should increase once per reading taken (up to some maximum if can display (around 19?) after which it will just show 'In'). If you successfully connect a PDA running Pocket Topo then you can see these numbers count down to zero as the readings are transferred to the PDA.

Check this link. There are mostly general informations about DistoX + PDA workflow. Not only for therion users

http://therion.speleo.sk/wiki/doku.php?id=paperless

I'll thank you chaps for your help on behalf of Martin Groves as he can't be doing with forums & has never joined! 

Joel Corrigan said:

he can't be doing with forums

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I guess you could tell martin to ignore and forget all the useful information he's just gleaned from one then  :

Oh, my sides are splitting from the witty comment.  Not.

Message from Martin:

Thanks for the replies, am waiting for my own account to be activated. The measurement increment never increases whilst taking measurments and I cannot find anything in the literature to suggest that there is a way to change this. I can view the last 9 or is it 10 measurements by pressing the review key. I suspect that the Disto has developed a fault! Great! Any advice welcome, but cannot find anything on the web that points to a solution to this particular problem

Joel Corrigan said:

Thanks for the replies, am waiting for my own account to be activated. The measurement increment never increases whilst taking measurments and I cannot find anything in the literature to suggest that there is a way to change this. I can view the last 9 or is it 10 measurements by pressing the review key. I suspect that the Disto has developed a fault! Great! Any advice welcome, but cannot find anything on the web that points to a solution to this particular problem

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Have you checked the user guide? One may switch DistoX to mode when DistoX is working as normal Disto without X. It looks as your case.

Joel Corrigan said:

Message from Martin:

Thanks for the replies, am waiting for my own account to be activated.

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How long have you.. sorry.. has he been waiting, it should be fairly instantaneous. Has his activation email been directed to his spam folder by his system. Try checking there.

Dunno why I did not get an activation e-mail because I requested another and it came straight away! Oh well sorted now, so thanks SamT  :halo:.

It was my first thought that the DistoX unit was in normal Disto mode and not the DistoX mode, but reading the manual surely the Bloothtooth icon should not be flashing if that was the case. Or have I got that wrong?

I'm seriously thinking that there is some malfunction in the DistoX unit, but hopefully I'm wrong, but I seem to have a connection as when I choose Calibrate on the PDA the DistoX screen displays CAL.  But it all falls apart when you try and make measurments as the reading are not tranfered.

It seems as if the PDA can commuincate with the DistoX, but not the DistoX to the transmitter.

THe unit had this problem intermitantly on the previous expedition it went on, only found this out yesterday!! 

Very frustrating as we are due to go away in 10 days time. If it is not a common problem then I'll have to wait for the weekend to test my set up with another (know to be working) unit.

But any further possible things to try would be welcome. All I really want to be able to do is calibrate the unit whilst away, am happy to write results in a note book.

Cheers

Anyway, Beat will replace the malfunctioning DistoX unit. Consult it with him directly.

m.

Thanks for the advice, now sorted thanks to Beat. The DistoX had somehow been put into silent/standalone  prior to me picking it up!! In this mode you need to write down the measurements as they are taken.

Just for the record in case anyone else is unfortunate enough to encounter this problem to jump between silent and the transmit mode press the followiing, from Beat (no way I would have guessed it!)

Area, Area, Ref, Ref, Clear!

Cheers

Martin

MG said:

Area, Area, Ref, Ref, Clear!

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Just a quick note to say how useful this has just been. If only I knew this during the survey trip last night....