Yet again, I had a great experience with Carlson. (We use SurvCE.)
My experience is that they do not "pass the buck", but work to get answers. Perhaps it is because they are third party, they do not tend to blame the equipment, etc. They want to make their stuff work with what you have.
I do not use their other products, but if you are looking for data collector software, I recommend the product and the service.
-David Myhill
HA
I second that, and there isn't close second.
I own a Carlson Collector but most of the support I've needed has been with the desktop apps. They really work hard at customer service.
Ralph
I concur. They are good dudes. And dudettes.
I agree, I have asked them many questions through the years, and in retrospect for some of them it had to be hard to not call me an idiot. How do I do this or that, or is it possible to do this or that, etc. One thing I have learned, also, is that their help menus are top notch as well.
That is great David. My experience with them is the exact opposite. They blamed my equipment. Turns out it was their software. I even had a rep come to my house. I showed him with SurvCE and with TDS. SurvCE had bugs and was told they probably would never fix the software for the Leica 1100 robot (they only cared about the 1200 series then). I had TDS internal but didn't like the dummy controller. So I upgraded to Alegro with SurvCE. Carlson just couldn't control the gun as good as TDS. So I just used Carlson for out in the open stakeout and TDS for the rough stuff. Both had their strengths and weakness. But I have never forgot about the poor service I got with Carlson.
Carlson is way top notch as far as I am concerned. My only disappointment is that they cannot drive Trimble S6 or Trimble R8GNSS. Carlson Civil/Survey is the best out there by far, in my opinion. Not even close.
I have used their stuff for many years, and I don't know of any support for any software any better than theirs. I guess anyone can have a bad day though.
> SurvCE had bugs and was told they probably would never fix the software for the Leica 1100 robot (they only cared about the 1200 series then). I had TDS internal but didn't like the dummy controller. So I upgraded to Alegro with SurvCE. Carlson just couldn't control the gun as good as TDS.
I've been using an Allegro CX with SurvCE v1.62 and a Leica TCRA1102 for about a year now. I've encountered a few minor annoyances, but nothing yet that I'd call a bug. Do you recall which operations you found faulty? I'd like to know what to look out for.
Thanks!
Ive been with Carlson 10 years use it in data collector and Office . They are always helpful and the software is the best I can find and Ive looked. I was a little un-impressed when the first release of 2013 standalone , but the December upgrade has fixed most issues , happy user again . Carlson Ce is very easy to use and powerful I could not do with out it . I wish they would go back to the every two years upgrade, because the first 3-6 months your finding all the bugs then by the time you get the correct version its time to upgrade .
Frank. It wasn't just a day. It was from the time I purchased SurvCE to the time I traded it in on a S3. Years buddy, years!
I'm going to guess and say you have never compared TDS search function to Carlson. If you want to know give me a call at 501-250-4229. To hard to explain in writing. And I will tell you how Carlson's Great Service Department took care of me.
For the past 4 years I've been using a 1105 with Survey Pro and have never been able to get the search function to work properly. I use the Geocomm remote mode, which give me the best overall performance and operates the Powersearch function flawlessly. The drawback of Geocomm for me is that when lock is lost the predefined search parameters are ignored for the automatic ATR window that can be useless. If I activate the RCS remote mode the predefined search window is utilized, which is great for regaining lock quickly, however when the instrument is searching all communcation are cut off untill the search function is complete, which can take a while. The gun works great and Powersearch is awesome when the instrument is facing a different area, but it doesn't replace an automatic search window for typical encountered losses of lock.
Hey, I complain often enough when someone does bad. Carlson does right by us. They aren't perfect, but when I call I get someone that knows what they are talking about, and cares. And they have a quality product.
To me, that is outstanding.
You must be using the ranger, right? I used the leica controller and could do either PS or window without any problems. But the problem with that controller is the TDS48 layout. Of course now looking back, it was a system that worked. And when the day is over that is all anyone wants out of their equipment and software. Everything else just makes that day better. And I'm glad to hear Carlson is better with their customers now because they wanted me to just go away. They knew their problem but just didn't want to take the time to fix because of my equipments age. So I guess the problem fixes itself with time. I now use TDS 5 point something and it is terrible compared to old TDS. It works but it doesn't talk with the robot as good as trimble access does. Even though trimble owns TDS. Big difference in quality of controls. almost like Carlson vs TDS on 1100 series Leica
