Hey all, I am new to the forum and have a question.
I recently acquired the geodimeter 610(boat anchor) It is my first instrument. My CU says no GDM connected and my tds ranger cannot seem to connect to the instrument, the geodimeter powers on I can see the red laser inside the scope, but thats all I can get it to do, the vertical and horizontal knobs function as they should I noticed a spare tube style fuse and I am wondering if there is a blown fuse inside the deodimeter, does anyone know where the fuse would be located and or why the CU would say no GDM connected?
I have all the proper cables and I am powering up via 12v lawn mower battery.
Thank you all for any help!
If anybody can answer Joes question above than maybe they can help me. I have the next generation of the 610, that being a 5600 robotic. Has anyone successfully changed the "internal Battery" without sending it to a Trimble shop and getting bent over for $500? I only use the instrument every once in a while and the warning comes up. It works regardless but I do not want to loose the internal programs. I've thought about breaking in and trying my luck but thought I would check here first. Thanks, Jp
p.s. spelling and punctuation Nazis, kiss off! 🙂 Jp
You can change the battery yourself, but, it is tedious. It is best sent to the dealer as they can copy the programs off and re-install them. If you do it yourself you have to maintain power throughout he entire process, so as not to lose the programing. If you lose the programming, the instruments are old enough that it might be hard to re-acquire. I remember seeing a video on YouTube on replacing the battery yourself, you might want to look for it. The battery announcements are timed and not triggered by voltage level just so you know.
Joe, I don't have answer for your question, but, I can guess that the instrument battery has died and it has lost its programing.
Norm Larson, post: 414476, member: 7899 wrote: You can change the battery yourself, but, it is tedious. It is best sent to the dealer as they can copy the programs off and re-install them. If you do it yourself you have to maintain power throughout he entire process, so as not to lose the programing. If you lose the programming, the instruments are old enough that it might be hard to re-acquire. I remember seeing a video on YouTube on replacing the battery yourself, you might want to look for it. The battery announcements are timed and not triggered by voltage level just so you know.
Joe, I don't have answer for your question, but, I can guess that the instrument battery has died and it has lost its programing.
Thank you! I will look for the you tube. Can't do much of nothing anymore without searching on you tube first. Thanks again, Jp
The cu still has all of the programs, and the intrument will spin with turning the knobs, but for some reason the cu keeps saying no GDM connected. I wish I could figure out where the fuse goes thanks all for the input
The instrument has programs too. My thought is that those are the ones lost
JoeScarola, post: 414804, member: 12507 wrote: The cu still has all of the programs, and the intrument will spin with turning the knobs, but for some reason the cu keeps saying no GDM connected. I wish I could figure out where the fuse goes thanks all for the input
have you tried cleaning the contacts on the back of the cu and on the instrument? use an erasure , make sure they are touching, I'll check the manuel tommorow
JoeScarola, post: 414411, member: 12507 wrote: Hey all, I am new to the forum and have a question.
I recently acquired the geodimeter 610(boat anchor) It is my first instrument. My CU says no GDM connected and my tds ranger cannot seem to connect to the instrument, the geodimeter powers on I can see the red laser inside the scope, but thats all I can get it to do, the vertical and horizontal knobs function as they should I noticed a spare tube style fuse and I am wondering if there is a blown fuse inside the deodimeter, does anyone know where the fuse would be located and or why the CU would say no GDM connected?
I have all the proper cables and I am powering up via 12v lawn mower battery.
Thank you all for any help!
Making some assumptions here but here goes:
1. "no GDM connected" I have only seen this message when the faceplate (CU) is being operated remotely in robotic mode and is a result of a bad radio, cable or improper activation before going remote.
2. I know of no fusses on a 610 other than on the batteries themselves.
3. You need to see if the problem is in the instrument or the faceplate.
4. For now do not hook up the tds ranger (there was a lot of initial issues regarding third party data collectors and since I don't use one do not know how they were resolved)
5. Remove the faceplate from the instrument and power directly through the port on the right hand side. If it turns on and goes to local mode it is working and the problem lies in the instrument or the connection between the two when you reattach the faceplate.
6. If still not working, try rebooting it by holding down the "PWR" and "CON" key at the same time and then choose reboot. (NOTE YOU WILL LOSE ANY PREDIFINED UDS's AND COLLECTED DATA, NOT PROGRAMS)
If the faceplate still says no GDM connected and nothing above helped it needs service.
If the faceplate works and you clean and verify the contact between it and the instrument and you still get the error when it is attached to the instrument, the internal programs in the instrument are gone and will need to be factory re-installed.
Jim
The CU does go into local mode only, I will try to get the connections cleaned up a little, thank you all for the help. I bet all of you are right and the program is gone, that is the kind of luck I have.... Thanks again all
If it has been more than 2 years since the internal battery was replaced, you more than likely have internal battery issues.
I think it costs around $250 to have the internal battery replaced....probably $500 to reload firmware..just guessing.
Most of the time I had any issues the CU would throw an error code and let me know what was wrong...I seem to remember there was a way to do a hard re-set on the CU controller...you might look into that.
The internal batteries in the faceplate and instrument are pre-scheduled to be changed out every three years. A message will come up telling you do so. I suspect they are good for considerable longer. The message can be postponed by simply changing the date in the faceplate. The big issue with sending it out to have the batteries replaced is the repair shop needs to have a DOS machine to run the old Geodimeter proprietary upload/download program so that your programs and data is not lost.
I did not give the procedure to do a hard reset above as without the Geodimeter factory program to re-install programs it is death. It involves sticking a paper clip in the little hole on the back of the faceplate
James Vianna, post: 415152, member: 120 wrote: The internal batteries in the faceplate and instrument are pre-scheduled to be changed out every three years. A message will come up telling you do so. I suspect they are good for considerable longer. The message can be postponed by simply changing the date in the faceplate. The big issue with sending it out to have the batteries replaced is the repair shop needs to have a DOS machine to run the old Geodimeter proprietary upload/download program so that your programs and data is not lost.
I did not give the procedure to do a hard reset above as without the Geodimeter factory program to re-install programs it is death. It involves sticking a paper clip in the little hole on the back of the faceplate
Yes I remember you had to run the Geodimeter Software Tools (GST) to back up your CU programs. I do have GST 2.02 (2001 vintage) if it would help you back up your data...not sure what operating system is required.
James Vianna, post: 415152, member: 120 wrote: The internal batteries in the faceplate and instrument are pre-scheduled to be changed out every three years. A message will come up telling you do so. I suspect they are good for considerable longer. The message can be postponed by simply changing the date in the faceplate. The big issue with sending it out to have the batteries replaced is the repair shop needs to have a DOS machine to run the old Geodimeter proprietary upload/download program so that your programs and data is not lost.
I did not give the procedure to do a hard reset above as without the Geodimeter factory program to re-install programs it is death. It involves sticking a paper clip in the little hole on the back of the faceplate
I did not know that you can change the face plate date to put off the issue. Makes sense and I should of thought of it. Thanks, Jp
The "No GDM connected" message will only come up when the keyboard cannot find an instrument to talk to - either directly or my means of the RPU radio. It dosn't know if it is on the instrument or on the RPU set up. Even when in remote the instrument knobs work manually, so what you have described appears to be a connection problem, rather than a software one. The date is a red herring - as somebody has already commented this is effectively a calendar reminder for you to get it serviced - the internal batteries (one in keyboard, one in instrument) can last for four or more years - or less, you take the chance.
My guess is that you have one or more of the keyboard/instrument contacts playing up. It could be a broken contact on the circuit board (fatal) or it could just be a bad contact. After cleaning, check each of the sprung contacts on the instrument panel to see if one of them isn't protruding as much as the rest of them. If there is one then this might be the cause. They can be VERY gently eased out a little by using a pin under the curved section - just enough to ensure it makes a contact. You could try, first, rigging up a number of wires with their ends stuck to a card to give the right spacing and using that to make the keyboard-instrument contact - but you would need two of you, each with three hands! to do so easily.
