Leica question for cwlawley or surveythemark

I have the Getac PS336 with the LRBT cap, and SurvCE 2.62
driving a Leica TCRA 1105 with a Class 1 Parani SD 1000.
I cannot use the Long Range Cap. Luckily the internal Class
2 Bluetooth will reach out to 500-600' without a problem
which has been ok for me so far.

Unfortunately the Getac PS 336 with the Long Range Cap is
NOT programmed from Getac to work out of the box.
You will need a third party company to program for the Long
Range Cap and as far as I know SurvCe 3.0 does not do that.
Nor does Field Genius.

The Geo Max PS336 may work with the Long Range Cap. You
might want to check with them.

Also, Leica made the CC50 based on the PS 226 so they may
have it working on a PS 336.

When Getac sold the PS 226 they made an " extended " model.
But it did not carry over to the PS 336.

I had many emails to Getac Tech Support and the best they
could do was offer me a " Developer's Kit" to write my
own program to make the Long Range Cap work with the 336.

So for now I have just been using the internal bluetooth to
500-600' and I haven't had the need yet to go out past that.

I have been "buying my time " till Carlson or Field Genius
gets it programmed for the LRBT Cap as I'm sure many people
would like to use this combination.

The good news is that the PS336 is a great Data Collector.
Tough as hell with long battery life and works in any weather
or temperature I work in. I'm glad I upgraded from an Allegro.

I just took a quick look at Surv Ce 3 release notes
and it seems they fixed a bug in Jan 2014 related to
the Getac PS 336 and Long Range Cap

Under 3.03

Bug Fixes:
SurvCE/SurvPC Bug Fixes:
? Getac Data Collector -- The long range Bluetooth cap will now reset before opening port to clear residual settings from other software.

So maybe Carlson does have it working.

Maybe someone from Carlson will chime in on this subject.

Would like to upgrade myself but waiting for the LRBT Cap to work.

Thanks a lot Side,
I really appreciate the info.
ibenhavin

As far as I know the only data collector that will work with the RH16 LRBT Handle is the CS15 (even if run with Carlson) using the CTR16 Radio cap. The spec distance for the LRBT is 1200 meters. I myself have not been able to reach this. I have been around the 3k feet (duplicatable). The signal, like the radios is severely diminished by things like the woods, etc. In thick woods, you can expect not much over 500', sometimes not that.

I have seen many a third-party manufacturer put claims on what works and what doesn't. My opinion though, Robotic is Robotic. If I was to spend 20k+ on an instrument I wouldn't want it to be limited by short range bluetooth or a "tied-to-me" serial/usb dongle.

As for my personal opinion on the LRBT, I am not completely sold just yet. I understand why Leica has gone that way. Further, we see a significant improvement when it comes to bandwidth and moving data (imaging and scanning data). That all being said, this is the ONLY offering as the old-style radios no loner exist.

Also, be very careful about running the 3.xx version of Carlson with the 1200 series Robotic. It is my suggestion that you call Carlson and have THEM walk you through instrument settings.

Thanks for the info

I think everyone who has responded has covered the GeTac better than I can. I have seen other long range Bluetooth (LRBT) radios work with the RH16.

So for the TPS1200+ instrument I think everything should work if Carlson can establish a connection to the LRBT cap on the GeTac. If you have been running Carlson before with your TPS1200+ you should be fine with any needed license keys on the instrument. The only thing you need to look at is thre firmware you are runninf on the TPS1200+. This is because you need the version that has the RH16 defined in the avaiable COM devices for the GeoCOM interface. You will need firmware version 8.71 on the instrument which is the last version published. The need maintenance date for loading FW 8.71 is 23NOV11.

On the GS14 or other Viva recievers....

I needed to check this again because I want to be 100% sure....

I think you can only run Carlson with the Viva receivers onbaord the Leica Viva CS15 controller. I think this may have changed but I defintely check. The GS14 does all of the work in that it will produce the fixed coordinates but I think there still may be some requirements of Viva SMartWorx running in the background to provide all of the information from the receiver.

I will verify this and get back with you.

In the case of using Carlson with the GS14 ... you will also need to purchase the license key

Part No 771498 LOP17 License, OWI enable for GS10/15/25 sensor

Let me verify this about the GNSS side of this combination

Thanks for the help surveythemark,
ibenhavin

Not all Getac PS336's are the same?

I have been advised by a Geomax dealer that the Getac they sell has something special to make it work flawless with Carlson of Microsurvey software. Other Getac's do not work. So, if you're interested in running Carlson SurvCE you need not purchase the Getac plain vanilla from an online Getac seller for $1500.
Not verified, but interesting just the same.

The Leica CS25 LRBT will work with the RH16 handle. The bluetooth range of the CS25 LRBT is roughly 350 meters.

I'm a little late to the party here, but YES, SurvCE 3.03 does work with the Getac Long Range Cap, and yes you can use that cap to connect to the long range bluetooth radio handle on a Leica total station.