Trimble TDC600

I like it, been using it for a few months. Pretty much GNSS surveys only, although I have done some total station work with an S6 (bluetooth to an external TDL radio). It will not work with the SX10. No complaints. I got an AT&T sim card, mostly for the data connection (VRS and RTK). It was $25/month prepaid for a year, with 8 GB/month. I don't use it for voice, but it is there as a backup (I use Verizon on my cell phone).?ÿ

I've been using one of these things for the last couple weeks and I'm a pretty big fan so far.?ÿ I've only used it with a 12i doing topos but with a carbon fiber rod everything is so light it's not miserable to be cruising around in the heat all day.

Has anyone purchased one of these things recently??ÿ I'm kinda curious what the ballpark price on one of them would be.

I have used it doing GNSS surveys running Access 2021.20. Screen is very readable in sunlight, the battery lasts all day, works as a backup cell phone, light weight. I'm currently looking into purchasing bluetooth radio so I can connect to S6 total.

I bought a Model 1 used for $1000 on eBay. The Model 2 has an upgraded processor I believe and runs a newer version of android.?ÿ

How unlocked is it??ÿ Could one install, say, FieldGenius on it??ÿ Thanks.

It's a pity it isn't Bluetooth v5.0 then could run Geomax (/Leica) robots with it too with decent range.

@lukenz?ÿ

Probably not much point in paying the Trimble premium when there are lots of regular phones that can be put in water proof cases, and have much more powerful hardware for a lower price.?ÿ

Even my new tsc7 was a downgrade (in speed) vs the much older Panasonic fz-m1 tablet I had been using with the old Leica. The Panasonic was around $3500 new and the Trimble I think is around $12,000 here in Canada.?ÿ

I like it; the problems I've had:

In the rain it's messy, a simple plastic bag will help with that

The phone 1/2 of the unit interferes with my field operations; I didn't get a sim card but all the apps connected with the phone keep trying to activate and I finally sat down and deleted all the apps. Made a big difference.?ÿ

The TalkBack feature is a real problem if it gets activated. To activate it you have to press the up and down volume buttons on the side together for a bit of time. That happened when I put it in my front pocket to walk along a steep side slope to a corner. Once that is activated you can't do anything. To deactivate it press the two buttons again and it will shut off.?ÿ

The cost was low, I didn't get all the features, it's strictly a GPS unit for me, although it can run the robot with some add-ons.?ÿ

What I do like is that it's really quick, small, easy to see anytime, large screen and I'm getting used to typing without hardkeys.?ÿ

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@350rocketmike?ÿ

But none of the android phones have the same sort of battery life. Nor do most of them have rain modes for screen, some have screen sensitivity adjustment which appears to be all a rain mode is.

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Best I can see is something like Samsung A53 (mid range so not too expensive if dropped/lost and is still IP67) but even that appears to only get 7-8 hours on test with screen constantly on streaming over wifi which would be comparible to being in field with Bluetooth on to connect to GNSS/robot (not to mention reduced capacity due to cold). Down here in NZ we get a much more limited selection so lots of ruggedised phones are not available locally.

@lukenz?ÿ

Does the TDC600 have water mode? Because the tsc7 doesn't. The keyboard and ability to turn off touchscreen should help a lot but I haven't used it a ton in rain yet. We tend to get a short period of complete downpour that could potentially kill any robot and then it stops. Not often rain all day long like PNW or the UK so we usually get all the equipment out of the rain (waterproof bag over the robot and run to the truck with the DC and prism).?ÿ

I would use my lg v60 if I was going to use a phone for the data collector. Huge 5000 mAH battery (still 95% battery health after 2.5 years), ip68 water resistance, it has extra sensitivity mode (for screen protectors or gloves) so in regular mode it isn't quite as sensitive to a little rain. I've used it in a ziplock bag before though, when streaming music in the lake on vacation. Top of the line processor so it's a lot faster than a new mid range phone like the a53.?ÿ

Being interested in tech and doing lots of research makes these decisions much easier but the owner of the company I work for is not like that, so after the tsc5 didn't work out he was too worried to spend 2500 on the radio module and then the software only to run access on the Panasonic tablet I already had...so instead he spent 12,000 on a tsc7 which is slower than the Panasonic and much heavier and much less battery life.?ÿ

I understand the reasoning behind it, but it is still frustrating using the equipment, knowing what he paid for it and how it compares to the old stuff.?ÿ

@350rocketmike Did yƒ??all return the TSC5. ?ÿI finally got one and used it with r10 and f12i and a S5 robot. I only had one major glitch of course at the most inconvenient moment. I did a 30 acre boundary and topo in the woods mostly. The one glitch I had was after I moved up to a new point and was trying to connect to robot via radio it got in some mode of trying to connect via Bluetooth or cable. I restarted the droid operating system and was back up and running. The next job was a construction site on a college campus new building and curb and gutter constantly had thise huge front loaders hauling the beams in and out to raise the new bleachers that attached to back of building on football field side. Once I got my settings right on search box window size and my anticipated as i walked past obstructions I really didnƒ??t have any issues. It did have a slower Proccesor I think than the TSC7 it was running the Trimble Access 2022.01 I believe. Ran it two weeks straight on those jobs and a few others. I would like to have a TD600 when only doing gps rtk work for simplicity for sure. I figured by now you had worked the kinks out. I figured out with the help on this site a few tricks with my old man eyes of using the magnifier. That was nice at times. ?ÿi am no longer at that company so now working mostly in office lining out crews. Getting to use TBC a lot more and learning civil3d arghhhh. ?ÿLol.

@olemanriver?ÿ

Yeah we sent back the tsc5. The main reason was the touchscreen freezing (in Access only) and lag (it took over 10 seconds to load the point manager in bigger jobs - some have 5000-7000 points in larger subdivisions) I'm field only so nothing I can do about the upload csv's or DXF's that I'm given other than turn off a few layers that are obviously not needed.?ÿ

I still have a lot of glitches in the tsc7 though, I'm mostly just learning to deal with. It almost always switches to passive mode after "check backsight" even when the entire job uses the same mt1000 target, joystick doesn't respond properly and sometimes just sends the robot off the other direction 90 degrees all at once.?ÿ

I also had the "attempting to connect by cable" glitch once, but multiple reboots didn't help. Switching the radio module to the other slot fixed it (either a bad connection or glitch or the one slot got fried). That day productivity was really lost the last 2 hours as I couldn't swap the module until I got home and found the right screwdriver in my cellphone repair stash. I spent probably 40 minutes trying to fix the issue before figuring out something we could do with gnss instead. We had a second crew setting corners with the backup Leica robot or we would have just switched to that as I was still carrying it around.?ÿ

I'm probably having way more issues than most people but it's definitely working a lot harder with large jobs and laying out or tieing in a lot of points in a day, lots of station offsets, inverses, etc.?ÿ

@350rocketmike gotcha. ?ÿI saw some glitches with TSC7 and older version of TA. For sure not to bad but if you have limited memory i am sure they can get worse for sure.

Question--I presume Access has the ability for the map to only display a range of points??ÿ Or points of a certain code description??ÿ Would that not help screen lag?

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We have some large subs with 1000's of points.?ÿ We, typically, have 2 methods in SurvPC to prevent screen lag:

1. A provincial job, typically, has per-ordain point groups for control.?ÿ We isolate just those points to see what we can set up on.?ÿ Disadvantage to this is that it requires a high level of job point organization.

2. Non-provincial jobs just kinda start at 1000 and use the running point.?ÿ We can isolate control via code description (ie. CC, TP, etc.).?ÿ Disadvantage to this is that you can only isolate by one code type.

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It may help on your large subs to use whatever equivalent Access has.

@jaccen?ÿ

I have not seen a way to do this but I'm far from a Trimble expert still.?ÿ

You can turn on and off parts of the DXF and make features selectable or not, but I haven't seen the ability to turn off point selections.?ÿ

Your method sounds ideal, however we're so swamped with work that the office doesn't have time for a high level of job point organization. The best they can do is give me everything and let me figure it out in the field.