A dealer was trying to sell me one of these earlier. They are supposedly about to be sold in the US. Anyone know anything about them?
Buy it and give us a report back...
I don't know anything about the CHC gear, but I think that competition by the Chinese in GPS receiver manufacture is much more plausible than it is in the total station market. The latter requires miniaturization of complex electro-mechanical systems, and it's not something that lends itself to a sharp manufacturing learning curve. GPS, however, is very different; as long as you start with an accurately designed and constructed antenna, the rest is mostly digital electronics and straightforward RF design, plus packaging. That's stuff the Chinese know how to do very well, and at very low cost. As long as they pair it with well-designed software, I think they're on a winning track.
I dunno. I wonder what controller would work with it. What kind of software comes with it? What features does it have?
I think the point is that GPS is pretty simple on the hardware end, and if they are smart, they are making it easy for any controller to be compatible with it.
It looks like they are marketing their own controller as well, with Landstar on it :
http://www.chcnav.com/products-detail.asp?BID=9&SID=0&ID=27
i think ed zachary was on the design team for these things.