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What is a TDI data collector? I have not heard of that....
Agreed...choosing which one is the hard part. I wanted it to be a surprise for Christmas, but after speaking to my Dad it seems he is happy with his current setup and equipment. I thought it would make it easier for him to have a laptop in the field and just needed a bit of guidance on that. It is nice to see that sometimes new technology and methods aren't always superior to the old ways 😉
Coincidentally an e-mail for a Dell secret sale was in my inbox this morning, so it seems like the stars are aligning perfectly today!
Have a great Monday, everyone. And again, many thanks for all your input.
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Ditto "The Spledster". 😀
How is he going to write off the expense on the taxes if you gift a computer to the company?
Personally, I'd prefer to order my own equipment and software.
I think the best and most thoughtful gift to a surveyor usually centers around wool socks, pants, and a nice wool jacket - for the winter months. For the summer, similar gear (weather specific) is a good choice.
As far as purchasing software and hardware... I'd steer clear unless you are the one who will be using the stuff day in and day out.
Stupid things... like what "name" do you give the computer?
what "User name" do you choose when setting up the Windows?
AS for surveying software... this needs to be registered to fully leverage the support by the vendor.
So,
As usual, it seems I am the odd-man-out, and I am actually going to disagree with 90% of the previous posters, and recommend that you do not purchase any software or hardware for a sole practitioner Land Surveyor. But, I'm used to getting beat up here at the forum, because I rarely find myself swimming downstream with the crowd. But I'm used to that.
I get that its a nice idea, its just not a good idea.
> It is nice to see that sometimes new technology and methods aren't always superior to the old ways 😉
Oh my, no. The technology is far superior to the old ways. Your father has to make the commitment to learn how to use and adapt to technology.
If you gave him some fancy GPS for Christmas, it would either sit in the box, be sold on ebay or he would commit to learn how to use it.
I do not mean to discourage you; I just want to recommend something he can use. Years ago when my father bought an old Magellan GPS, I bought him 48 rechargeable AA batteries (double what he needed for the units). It worked out well because he is tough to shop for... of course, I did use the company card to buy his present... and I was the one running the GPS units... But I did get him a nice card.
Can you help this young lady (from Saturday)
Young lady? Are you sure?
The father is using gear from Use your Illusions I & II era, I don't think she gets ID'ed anymore! Lol ( no offense, lady)
Anyway, I am with Craig, let the old man deal with his business. You want to make him a thoughtful gift, live your life the best you can. That's all a parent really wants from his kids, regardless of their ages.
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me either...I may be dyslexic, but that is what I think I read...old eyes may be playing tricks with me again. Just last week, I thought I saw a pink elephant.
Laptops are getting more and more practical. I use a laptop in the office with two flat-screen monitors and a separate keyboard. The laptop stays closed and just runs. I can unhook the laptop and take it out anytime I want. Two monitors is really great. I never thought it would be until I got two....now I can hardly imagine not having them both.
Some ideas to think about. I am guessing that's "TDS" data collection system? Is it an old card that goes into an HP48GX calculator? Othwise, I'm not sure what "tdi" is.
I agree.
Often surveyors don't know what they want and need. And, the process of discovery is also hard.
I think I need about 1 day twice with a Carlson ACAD guru. And, each day separated by a fortnight.
That would probably be the most productivity increasing action I could do.
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> She has replied to the original thread. It looks like he is using an old plotter, a desktop printer, and PC Survey.
That's me. Only I use a Leica 1200 robot, Leica GPS and dada collector. My plotter is an HP Designjet 430 which is inkjet.;-)
...with my 2cents, I would NOT suggest Mac. Defiantly go with Windows, but stay way from a laptop that has Windows 8. Windows 7 is still available, but you need to look for it. HP is selling laptops with Windows 7 still. Go with 64bit and 8GB of ram. This will boost his PC performance. As far as brands, I have become a fan of HP because that is all our company buys. Me and my crews use HP Elitebook. What i love about this laptop is we all use a docking station for the office. Our laptops connect to the internet via hotspot from our smartphones when we are in the field, and when we are in the office, we use a docking station. This docking station has the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, etc, all hooked up. Easy conversion from laptop to desktop...The one thing that i think about is if your data collector is old, it may require a serial port connection. Most older PCs had this, but they phased it out a while ago. So you would need to get a serial to USB conversion cable...you can get it just about anywhere.
As far as real-time field to office, I don't think there is anything yet that writes to the cloud as soon as you take the shot.. But there are close alternatives. Without spending a lot of money on a new controller, the next easy step would be to sync you laptop with a smartphone for a internet connection. You can download your DC after a survey to the laptop and save it to cloud based storage such as Google drive or Dropbox.... The person in the office would have the survey shots instantly.
Good luck,
Regards,
