Hi,
We have some Bluetooth sensors underwater, HOBO Mx temperature datalogger, and I wonder if it will be possible to connect a usb bluetooth antenna to the ROV and then make a bridge to receive the data in the hobo software at the surface?
Best
Luis
Hi Luis -
Unfortunately, radio waves don’t travel far in water. For 2.4Ghz bluetooth this distance is typically 1cm or les…
If your Bluetooth receiver was in the ROV housing, and that housing could be brought into direct contact with the datalogger, you may be able to make a connection, but it could be quite challenging. The Raspberry Pi 4 does have a bluetooth radio, so you could try developing an extension to use it to talk to the hardware. If it works on the surface, testing is simply driving into the unit while underwater and triggering communications via your interface!
You could also try plugging the USB receiver into the Pi and using VirtualHere or USBIP to communicate using the vendor software on your topside computer - obviously the physical contact would still be required, so I’d recommend testing on the surface without water in the way first!