Overview

Laser rangefinders are important cruising tools that can improve efficiency and accuracy when measuring tree heights and when determining if borderline trees are in a plot. They are increasingly important for calculating tree coordinates for measuring stem maps for lidar data validation.

MobileMap 4.4.15 and higher includes significant enhancements to the integration of laser rangefinders for tree data collection. Once configured properly, MobileMap can read tree height, distance, and azimuth directly from supported laser rangefinders.

MobileMap can also collect current GPS location at time of laser data capture and store it as an offset GPS coordinate point for later calculation of individual tree location. When using this functionality, it is recommended that a high quality, sub-meter GPS be connected to your MobileMap Android device to ensure that the tree location can be calculated accurately.

Some laser rangefinders (e.g., Haglof Vertex Geo) can connect directly to a sub-meter GPS and calculate the target tree coordinates directly. When using these devices, MobileMap can receive and store the tree coordinates at the same time as the tree height information.

Supported Devices

While most Bluetooth devices will pair with MobileMap android devices and communicate using the NMEA data specification, we have found that the exact messages sent vary by device manufacturer and model. Currently the following laser rangefinders have been been integrated and tested:

*Offset X/Y is captured from the MobileMap Android device via the onboard GPS antennae or a Bluetooth connected GPS (e.g., Juniper Geode or EOS Arrow 100). It does not come from the laser rangefinder itself, but the capture is triggered when laser rangefinder data are received, so the coordinates stored are the GPS coordinates at the time of laser data capture. It is essential that the GPS antenna be co-located with the laser rangefinder (not at plot center!) for these data to be useful.

Pairing Laser Rangefinder to Android Device

Follow these steps to connect your laser rangefinder to your Android device:

1. Ensure that Bluetooth is enabled on your laser rangefinder

   1. LTI TruPulse steps (from TruPulse 200 user manual)

2. 

   Enable Bluetooth on your Android device using Android Settings

   1. Settings > Connections > Bluetooth

   2. Look for appropriate device name in the list of available Bluetooth devices

      1. For example, a TruPulse 200 might show up as ‘TP200B-107632’ where ‘TP200B’ stands for TruPulse 200 Bluetooth enabled.

      2. Check your laser rangefinder user manual for your device name

   3. Select your device from the list

      1. If prompted for a PIN, follow instructions from your laser rangefinder user manual

      2. For LaserTech devices, the PIN is typically ‘1111’.

   4. Your device should now appear in the Paired Devices list

   5. Close Android settings

Configuring MobileMap

Follow these steps to configure MobileMap to use your laser rangefinder:

1. Configure laser range finder tree-level settings found in Settings > MobileMap Cruise > Trees. Make sure to enter exact field names (not aliases) for all tree attribute fields that you intend to populate via the laser rangefinder. Available settings:

1. Configure MobileMap’s Bluetooth connected devices

   1. Actions > Bluetooth Devices

   2. Find the correct Bluetooth device from the list of paired devices

   3. Select the appropriate device type (Rangefinder LTI or Rangefinder Haglof)

   4. Slide the toggle to enable this device

   5. You should see a message saying that the device has been connected and a green checkbox by the device

   6. Tap Save (disk icon) to close this dialog and save the settings

Collecting Tree Heights

To collect tree heights, follow the standard cruise workflow to edit a plot and open the tree list. When MobileMap is configured using the steps above, attribute fields that can be populated directly from the connected laser rangefinder will have their column headings highlighted in cyan. In the example below, an LaserTech TruPulse 360R is configured to populate the total height (Ht), distance to tree (Dist) and azimuth to tree (Az) fields. MobileMap is also configured to populate the GPS location at time of laser rangefinder data capture into GPS offset latitude and longitude fields which are hidden from the tree list.

If you do not see the cyan highlights either a) the fields settings have not been properly configured in Settings > MobileMap Cruise > Trees, or b) the laser range finder has not been properly paired, configured or is not on.

When a measurement is taking with the laser rangefinder, it will be immediately sent to MobileMap, and MobileMap will populate the relevant attribute fields automatically and play an alert to notify you that the data were received.

LaserTech TruPulse 200

When using an TruPulse 200 and recording tree heights, use height (HT) mode. If the distance to tree is also desired, use the down arrow on the TruPulse 200 to select missing line (ML) mode

LaserTech TruPulse 360R

When using the TruPulse 360R height, distance and azimuth can all be captured in height (HT) mode. When the first component (horizontal distance) is captured, it will be sent to MobileMap. An alert will sound and the distance and azimuth will be populated. When the angle down is captured, an alert will sound but no new data will be populated. Finally, when the angle up is captured, an alert will sound and the height, GPS offset coordinates will be captured from the best available GPS location.

Haglof Vertex Geo

Details coming soon

Troubleshooting

As described above, if you open the tree list and you do not see the cyan highlights for attribute fields that will be populated by the laser range finder then either a) the fields settings have not been properly configured in Settings > MobileMap Cruise > Trees, or b) the laser range finder has not been properly paired, configured or is not on.

If you are still unable to correctly configure your device and collect laser rangefinder data, please contact our support team.