Trimble Tablet

[lee-d]

Hi azweig, we have six Trimble Tablets. For the most part the field crews really like them, but there are some drawbacks. I’ll address your specific questions first:

1. It runs everything that we use it for fine, which is mainly Access and Outlook. I don’t think you’d want to try to run anything like AutoCAD on it, and I haven’t tried TBC. But as far as Access and Office programs are concerned it runs fine.

2. We only use it with GPS and often the tablet is off the pole (IM has the pole, PC has the tablet). I don’t think I’d like using it for robotics, I believe it would be a bit cumbersome. It’s not so much the weight as the size and balance.

3. Battery life is a definite weak point, it’s only good for about eight hours.

4. See #1. Another potential negative is that because it IS a Windows 7 computer, when you need to reboot it that takes a lot longer than it does with a TSC3.

Despite the things I pointed out that are not great, as I said, the crews really like them. The screens are large and very easy to see, even from the side and in bright sunlight. Because the screen is so large, Trimble has incorporated some nice enhancements that you don’t get with a TSC3 – for instance, the map screen is displayed in most General Survey applications. I really like using it with the V10, the transfer rate is much faster and the photos can be made out much better.

What I’d really like to try is a third party tablet in an environmental case. A couple years ago I looked at Dell tablets and found a company online that made rugged field cases for them, but we never tried one.

[christ-lambrecht]

Hello Lee,
is it good for keying in codes for the linework, how does this compare to keying in on the TSC?
Has it a good onscreen keyboard?

Do the field guys operate it wiht the stylus? fingers? gloves? …

Christof.

[lee-d]

Christof – It has a different kind of touch screen than the TSC3 (can’t remember the term – capacitive maybe?) – it doesn’t respond to a hard stylus, the stylus has a round rubber tip, or it will respond to your finger. We have endless problems with guys breaking and losing styluses. I’m not crazy about the stylus because it’s not as precise as a hard tipped stylus; it can be a little exasperating when trying to work in Windows Explorer but it’s good with the Access embedded keyboard.

You can of course use a portable BT keyboard and/or mouse with it – obviously not practical while collecting data but some of our guys have them in the truck. The nice thing about having a full blown Windows 7 computer is that they can interface to scanners, printers, create PDF files, create spreadsheets, e-mail, receive and open attachments, etc., etc. With the Pipelines app our crews can create a report of each day’s tally and hand it to the inspector in real time.

The keyboard that’s embedded in Access is pretty good; the one that’s native to Windows is not that good. For field coding we of course use an FXL file so the only typing they have to do is on the attributes. Linework is good because the screen is big enough that you can pretty well see what you’re doing.

[jalbrz]

azweig, I just saw your post while looking for answers to a feature of the Trimble Tablet. Ironically, I was using the tablet to search the site. We’ve had the tablet for a few months, but just hadn’t yet jumped into using it aside from carting it in and out of the truck for some reason.

Anyway, I just spent 3 days in the field using it so wanted to throw in my point zero two.

1. The only time I could get it to lag was when I panned around in the map (2D or 3D) while I was in a project with over 20k scan (with an S9) points, plus in the same project/map I had one alignment about a mile long, a shapefile, and maybe 100 points.

2. We still have not been able to purchase the pole mount, which is frustrating if you’re alone. I think this was the main reason we subconsciously avoided it. It would be amazingly efficient to have the IM run the pole while the PC runs the tablet… if the tablet was based on using it in portrait mode. As it stands I had some pretty serious lag while running this thing on Wednesday morning in Bolvar, NY (you can lookup the temps. Idon’trememberwhathteywerebutmylipsarechappedandmyfaceisstillsore.). This thing needs a physical keyboard, for real man. Yeah, then during a scan of a small bridge abutment Access froze while transferring a completed scan. I don’t know about that one, if maybe it was operator error somehow? I clicked to fast maybe, because I looked down a minute or so later and just saw the dreaded hourglass. I waited ten minutes (SRSLY GUIZE) then sadly did a Ctrl+Alt+Del. About a quarter to a third of the scan points were preserved. I am honestly blaming the cold temperatures, as Tuesday this this was nothing less than AWESOME with a two-person collection running one R8.

3. We have the extended batteries, and do NOT have the regular batteries. I was messing with this thing on and off while I was collecting various data and it lasted a full day in the field without having the modem connected via internal SIM card. That was a combination of GNSS and conventional work. At the end of that day the battery life was sufficient that I didn’t even commit it to memory. Over the 4 hours drive back to Pittsburgh I surfed the net, watched YouTube videos, translated and rotated points, forgot to sync the project via AccessSync (d’oh!), and downloaded a few relevant PDFs. When we got back to the office the batteries were at 47%. Not bad. I wish we had the regular batteries, as these ones stick out thus prohibiting the tablet from fitting in the S-series total station hard case. I would like to be able to test the regular size batteries to fully experience their weight and endurance.

4. The only other software I’ve run on it was Internet Explorer. I didn’t even download Firefox. I guess I was just sort of intimidated and perhaps even scared to, as our IT is horrible and would be of no help if anything happened to this thing. I am normally not afraid of that, had some custom backup software installed on the TSC2.

It is awesome for running the gun via the USB to hirose, as it was much faster to store photos that are part of a panorama collect. The video feed is pretty great on that size screen. It needs a physical keyboard and I would crown it King of the Castle. I don’t think human factor design played any part in the layout of it; this thing could be greatly improved if they had made the case as two parts, with two different back-halves. One configuration would be a deeper half to house built-in batteries and the internal radio, and the other would be shallower due to lack of internal radio. The 3D map was so cool. It isn’t just whiz-bang because you can quickly do a visual QA of a scan after it is saved. i don’t like the on-screen keyboard; I have always been a keyboard guy on the TSC controllers. But I do agree that the Access keyboard is better in general than the Windows keyboard, while both were seemingly affected by the cold temperatures. Make sure you have that data cable if you are going to attempt panoramas with an S-series instrument because with the 2.4GHz or bluetooth it was so painfully slow that of the numerous times I tried it before I was never successful. Oh, and it took me all these months to figure out how to get Access to talk on the Tablet like Survey Controller did, but all it was was the rubber plug I’d put in the 3.5mm audio jack (oops).

It didn’t come with Bubble Breaker 🙁

[jalbrz]

And that little telescoping stylus is not pleasant to use.

[RFB]

We didn’t like the Trimble Tablet and went with this Motion Computer.
They are good, but I am now looking at this one: XC6 DMSR
because it has improved reading in direct sunlight. A big concern with outside tablets.

[Unknown Member]

[USER=142]@RFB[/USER]
I looked at the F5m and then the XC6 DMSR which I really liked until I saw the 5K price tag. :-O
Bill

[tatsurveyman]

The Trimble tablet is a tough little tablet. It can run most any program you can install on it. I have run AutoCAD (I would stay away from Civil 3D though), Microsoft Office, Google Earth & TBC on it without any issues.

It’s 7″ screen makes it much more portable than a 10″ screen. But if you prefer a bigger screen then a tablet like the Motion may be better for you. The Trimble is not that cumbersome on the rod either. It takes a little getting used to though. I would definitely recommend getting the XT batteries! The docking station is a nice touch too. It holds it up-rite, has USB ports for peripherals and charges an extra set of batteries while it charges itself.

With all of that said, I would recommend waiting until after Dimensions this November to see what’s in store. I bet they will update the tablet and release it’s big brother in the survey line too…

[lee-d]

That’s the first I’ve seen of the Kenai, thanks for sharing. Yes, pretty safe bet that it will be released for Survey prior to Dimensions.