One day last week I had to drive 200 miles one way to change the channel on a 900mhz Trimble Base. The Supervisor was on vacation, the top dozer hand had left about a month ago, and nobody on site knew anything about the base other than you set it up and hoped it remembered where it was (autobase).
The dozer was running about a foot off from the grades that the Engineer was shooting, something wasn't right. When I got there, the screen on the dozer said "new base detected". I setup my base which is 450 mhz and checked the grades and several new control points, the dozer was definitely a foot off. Went thru the settings on the dozer and didn't find anything unusual.
Changed the dirt crew's base from channel 5 to channel 8 and checked the dozer again, still a foot off. Problem is, the dozer is still on channel 5. Changed the dozer to channel 8 then cycled it off/on just to be sure and problem solved. It was running off of a different base.
The Engineer had a Topcon Hiper V set up. I know nothing about them. He said that the dozer would not work on his base but he couldn't tell me what channel he was on. From looking at the antenna, it's probably 900 mhz also.
My Question: will a rover or a dozer running Trimble equipment with 900 mhz radios and CMR+ run on a Topcon base?
Thanks
James
JaRo, post: 326523, member: 292 wrote: "new base detected"
I hate that message. It is almost always a sure sign that things are about to get weird.
What I really hate is the phone call "I lost signal".
Did you lose radio signal or GPS signal?
"Well, ugh, what's the... ugh, I don't know"
It's an industrial area along a railspur, it's quite possible someone else was in the area with GPS that I couldn't see but I think the dozer was picking up the topcon base.
James
JIm ost: 326523, member: 292 wrote: One day last week I had to drive 200 miles one way to change the channel on a 900mhz Trimble Base. The Supervisor was on vacation, the top dozer hand had left about a month ago, and nobody on site knew anything about the base other than you set it up and hoped it remembered where it was (autobase).
The dozer was running about a foot off from the grades that the Engineer was shooting, something wasn't right. When I got there, the screen on the dozer said "new base detected". I setup my base which is 450 mhz and checked the grades and several new control points, the dozer was definitely a foot off. Went thru the settings on the dozer and didn't find anything unusual.
Changed the dirt crew's base from channel 5 to channel 8 and checked the dozer again, still a foot off. Problem is, the dozer is still on channel 5. Changed the dozer to channel 8 then cycled it off/on just to be sure and problem solved. It was running off of a different base.
The Engineer had a Topcon Hiper V set up. I know nothing about them. He said that the dozer would not work on his base but he couldn't tell me what channel he was on. From looking at the antenna, it's probably 900 mhz also.
My Question: will a rover or a dozer running Trimble equipment with 900 mhz radios and CMR+ run on a Topcon base?
Thanks
James
No way. Impossible for Trimble 900 mhz radios to make communications with Topcon. Trimble has frequency jumping so they can not sync. On the other a Trimble UHF 460 mhz can make communications with Topcon UHF base. Is was likely another Trimble base in the area.
leegreen, post: 326614, member: 2332 wrote: No way. Impossible for Trimble 900 mhz radios to make communications with Topcon. Trimble has frequency jumping so they can not sync. On the other a Trimble UHF 460 mhz can make communications with Topcon UHF base. Is was likely another Trimble base in the area.
Do yourself a favor and set the channel to anything but 1-10,20,30 or 40 these are the most used channels in construction the higher and more random the better. I have heard of Topcon bases degrading trimble reception but unless the base has an external 900Mhz radio with the right protocol set Trimble GCS or SCS products will not be able to receive any corrections from it. You would be surprised how far 900Mhz corrections can go if given the right circumstances. I work in North Dakota(flat/no trees) and have had a fixed position 6+ miles from the base.
Even if the Topcon is in the 900 space, they are speaking completely different languages. An external 2nd radio would be the only way to make the two groups work together.
Thanks Daniel,
The Engineer I was working with said the same thing but when he couldn't tell me what channel he was on and didn't know what a Geoid was, I started questioning anything he told me. :-/
James
If the frequency, correction formats, link rate, and modulation are all the same, a Trimble rover could run off of a Topcon base. The rover doesn't care what color (brand) the base is. We run Topcon Hiper V rovers and Sokkia GRX-1 rovers with Trimble TDL-450 radios all the time.
