I've had my Nomad for about 5 years now. The Nomad has been outstanding. Ready for work everyday. I've never had a down time or lost any data. I run wireless, and ative sync for transfers. Last Thursday I was set up, left the gun to go talk to my rod buddy Harrold. Getting back to the gun the Nomad had timeout and was waitng to wakeup. But it didn't! I figured the battery ran low, even thou I knew I had over 50% of life the night before. 50% would give me a couple of days use. Well Darn! Pickedup and went to the house to charge it. Plugging the charger in the Yellow light didn't come on showing it wasn't charging. I opend the battery hatch for the first and only time on the Nomad. Pulled the battery, and replaced it. Didn't help. Found a new battery local, installed it, nothing. Found a Trimble tech note on removing the battery, pressing the power button to discharge the simiconductor, replacing the battery, and power up. Didn't work! Called a couple of Trimble repair shops, borrowed a Carlson Explore just to get back to work, and put the Nomad to the side. But the strangest thing happened yesterday. Had a tech call me from ACC Systems yesterday about 3 pm. We talked about my problem. He said just for shipping they would trouble shoot the problem, and give me an estamate before repairs. If it was going to be to expancive he would sell me a new Nomad at a very very good price. Sitting there thinking about the matter looking at the Nomad, I pressed the power button. The darn thing came on like nothing was ever wrong. Got my data off it fast. Charged it up to full. Today I've got it on running the battery. Had an office day anyway. My buddy asked me what I did different? Went to church at noon was all.
Has anyone had this or any problems with the Nomad?
I don't know, but I'd put some chemical spray on the battery connection. And, I'd turn it on and wiggle the main power wire, from batt to unit.
Just to see.
N
I strongly urge you to use:
http://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=22
You can't beat Stabilant 22 to cure those mysterious "connection" problems. I've used it for years.
Stuff works as advertised.
Take the battery out and cross the contacts of the nomad.
Wait a minute, Nate, what about church?
I think that helped a lot, don't you?
Just funnin'. Kind of...
Sorry about the air rifle...we cool?
Don
The link above for the stuff to spray into the connection is great.
I found one of my wires that takes my GPS base power, into the Radio, was intermittent. but, it took several months, to figure out why base only ran for 6-7 hrs a day.
Don, I have a little grey in my beard. I did not get it for nothing!
🙂
N
"Take the battery out and cross the contacts of the nomad."
Please explane.
I also have a (TDS) Nomad since end of 2007. I agree, it has generally been a good tool for me. There are behaviors that I encounter every once in a while with the unit that I don't understand. I run it on Bluetooth with my robot. I have a suspicion that when I walk away from the instrument for a long period of time, the Bluetooth connection times out, and then there's a glitch when you come back to the instrument. Rotating beach ball in center of screen. You can wait all day and nothing will happen. Usually, the problem can be fixed by pressing and holding the power button and then releasing it and choosing "Shut down". You might lose your current occupy and backsight points during this process and have to set up your backsight again after you turn the Nomad back on.
I think once or twice, I've also been unable to turn the unit on/off (completely unresponsive). I think the solution in these cases was to remove the battery and keep it out of the unit for a while to let any internal charges dissipate over time (I think this is what SIR VESALOT is referring to, although if I understand his method it is to put a screwdriver or other metallic jumper between the contacts where the battery would ordinarily connect. I haven't done it this way, and I'm not sure it's safe for your Nomad, but it sounds like it might work. Either way, I think the goal would be to drain any internal energy from the device, and then follow by re-inserting the battery, and turning the power on.
Below is an excerpt from the Nomad manual, suggesting that the unit is designed to maintain a charge during a quick battery switch (won't reset). In your case, I think you probably wanted it to reset. Do let us know if you encounter this again, and if this procedure is helpful.
Al
Thanks!
Found a Trimble tech note on removing the battery, pressing the power button to discharge the simiconductor. Then replace the battery. That battery has about 8 pins. I would have no idea on which pins to cross? Than agin I don't feel safe do such.
Sounds weird, but sometimes crossing (shorting) the contacts of the equipment (with the battery out) reset "things" inside. Used to do this with a mobilemapper and several TV remotes.
