Carlson RT4 SurvPC Experiences?

I think the battery performance is amazing. I have 2nd removable battery and I picked up an external charger directly from the Juniper Systems website, but honestly I have never used the 2nd battery or the external charger.

We have sold a pile of them and had no hardware issues yet. There have been some video driver 'issues' that are touched off by the standard Windows Updates. [ See Notice for details ] My take away was to keep a keyboard and mouse (usb wired) in the pickup at all times in case I screw something up. Actually have had to suggest to a customer that they stop a Walmart and pickup a USB mouse to install the new video driver because the touchscreen was 180 deg out of alignment.

The screens are bright enough and the pointy-stylus works good for me unless there is a drop of water or a single snow flake on the screen. Then you need to switch to the water mode, which is okay with finger or rubber tip stylus.

Last spring I wrote a pretty detailed description of them [ here ].

I have a couple of customers running the Microsoft Surface Go tablets too. They purchase them at Costco and get the extended Costco warranty for $70. I think Amazon has a decent case with a pole bracket and they have nothing but positive comments about that setup too. The problem with this, is if anything does not work and you are not running SurvPC on a Carlson branded tablet, Carlson won't help you.

I think one thing we can all agree on is Windows Mobile Device Center sucks so bad that Windows Mobile devices are nearing the end of their run.

@mark-silver

thank you for all of that information! ?ÿIƒ??ll be perusing your blog for more information!

We have 2 FC5000s (Juniper Mesa 2) and just picked up a Carlson RT4 (Juniper Mesa 3) with SurvPC to run the new Carlson Base and Rover setup we got.

As Mark mentioned, using them in the snow or rain can be a little tricky. You have to use the right touchscreen setting or it can be a PITA. We have found that applying Rain-X to the screens helps a lot in being able to use it in these conditions. Also the grounded stylus further improves the usability.?ÿ

We have only had our RT4 for a few weeks, but it is noticeably faster and more responsive. Battery life is great and I can even get 2 days of work done sometimes without recharging the tablet. ?ÿ?ÿ

@mark-silver

It's very well written!

"There is an optional detachable keyboard for the RT4.

Before you read the next sentence,?ÿplease sit down and make sure you wonƒ??t be injured if you pass out:

?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ The detachable keyboard costs ..."

@mark-silver

Great review. Reviews like this are one thing that our industry lacks. Thank you for sharing.?ÿ

One item that the Topcon (FC6000=RT4=Mesa3) sales person told me: the grounded stylus is a necessity in wet weather, so much so that he pushes it in his packages because it eliminates a large percentage of the complaints for new users.

?ÿ

https://shop.junipersys.com/mesa-2/grounded-stylus/

@dmyhill 'Great Reviews': well, remember that I work for a company that is a Carlson dealer. So my hands and comments are tied if there is something bad to report. I probably won't do it in writing, but if you call I will either tell you any bad news or tell you that I am not going to tell you and hint where to look.

In the case of the RT4, there really is nothing bad to say. Being the 3rd generation, most of the bugs have been worked out. Juniper Systems has great service and they are nice people too.

The RT4/Mesa3 are Windows 10 computers and suffer from all the update induced problems that all Windows 10 computers have. But Windows Mobile Device Center has become such a problem that anything beats the Windows Mobile devices at this point.