Carlson SurvPC
Hello all, was hoping for some help or to be pointed in the right direction. I see that SurvPC supports the S631 and also the Stonex 990 but not in north America. Is there a work around for this, this seems crazy to me that they'd specifically lock out for certain regions. There has to be some code in the SurvPC that could be altered to remove this lock.
Another though is could one flash the Brx7 firmware onto the S631 or C631?
Hi,
with the S631/BRx7 clones, such as the Stonex S900A, Gintec F90, Esurvey E600, Unistrong G970II Pro, it seems that the receiver firmware is the same, so you can you cross update with firmware of any of this models, but the model remains the same, it just updates the kernel, boot, imu.
The BRx7 currently, appears to have a newer receiver/webui firmware update than the S631:
https://web.carlsonsw.com/knowledgebase/kbase05.php?action=display_topic&topic_id=1197
The last from S631 i think it's S631-kernelV1.19-BootV1.16-Sensor1.3.6-App0.66.220901, from 2022, so a little outdated. Check yours.
Probably, flash the Brx7 firmware onto the S631, just updates the receiver as the others, which is good if Hemisphere hasn't new firmware available, but it won't help you.
Hope someone can give more info.
Regards
Thank you for all the information! I wonder if flashing thr Carlson WebGui would make the S631 show as a BRx7?
I guess another avenue would to figure out how SurvPC disables these units for NA only?
Would be really nice to get a 980a working with SurvPC.
The moment you connect the GPS receiver to SurvPC, it could know from the coordinates if it’s in North America or not. I’m not sure if this is what Carlson does, but it would be straightforward to use the GPS coordinates to lock out the other receivers.
Years ago I made the mistake of buying a used data collector tablet with SurvPC from eBay with TS and GPS enabled. It was from Europe, and it worked great with my total station. The moment I hooked up a GPS receiver I got a license error, as that SurvPC license was not valid in the US. I totally wiped the tablet, bought a new Windows license, and bought a new SurvPC license. Been working great for years now. I still got a decent deal on a used field tablet fortunately.
Has anyone tried connecting the S631, similar to this video?
What Carlson has done to block out certain units from their software like the Hemisphere S631 and Stonex units (or any unit that retails less then the BRx7 even if it is the same thing) is by using a geofence. The geofence works by reading the GNSS coordinates and if within NA you will not be able to store a position. However, if you are outside of NA it works great (a little greasy if you ask me).
Hemisphere is pretty bad about updating their support section of their site, if anyone needs the latest firmware please send me a message. I have a dropbox folder with the latest firmware I can send for the S631.
Thank you so much for the info. I am wondering how they "know" the BRx7 from the S631? If they are the same hardware then they have to be determining via software somehow. Which should be able to be flashed over. I have a software and electronics background and could probably figure it out if I had two units in front of me.
I guess SurvPC could know by serial or MAC? All seems pretty shady on Carlson's side of things.
Talked with Rene over at bench-mark and will definitely will be going with one of their S631 setups.
What are you going to run it with (software wise)?
I agree that it is "greasy" of Carlson. If you live in the northern areas of the US, they may still work with the Geo-Fencing, or at least it used 7 years ago.
Going to give FieldGenius a go. I've ran Trimble Access and SurvPC in past, hopefully it is comparable.
