Does the new survey Controller II work on any other hardware platform ???

While it's way to early to know, the merger of Compaq and HP could easily end the existence of this platform in the near future.....HP Jornado might be the "successor".

And I don't want to say anything negative but I personally would be wary for a while until............
The merger settles down and we see the "new" product lines.
Ashtech/Thalus develops a policy for those that purchase the Ipaq software anyway and what happens when/if the Ipaq disappears.

Just a thought,

Jimbo
Modified By James Webb on 9/5/2001 at 9:27 PM

Jimbo,

Who knows anymore when it comes to HP. Seems ever since the current CEO of Hp took the reins of the company, their direction has turned somewhat "generic". Consider when you and I first started using calculators and computers for surveying and or engineering purposes, Hewlitt Packard was the leader, hands down. The first office computer I used personally was an hp the size of a typewriter with a 2-1/2" paper tape, two cassette drives, and a little bitty 3 inch diagonal crt. That was cutting edge. And along the way were the predecessors to the 41, the 41 itself (tons of software), the 48, 48sx, 48gx, not to mention the 11c (I still use one daily of 1985 vintage), the 42 (still use it too since 1988). After all these years, nothing seems to have replaced the 48, yet HP has kept all of us that have come to depend on them in limbo as to where we're headed. I'm just not sure HP is going to remain at the top of the heap as far as our applications are concerned.

Sorry for the venting. The "lady" at the top just tics me off I suppose.

J.D.

I doubt they will end the iPAQ since the merger will take a year or more and by then there will be even better new technology than the iPAQ or Jornada.

HP just announced a new Jornada 560 series that is very similar to the iPAQ, same 206Mhz ARM processor. It is supposed to have a good screen outdoors, unlike the existing Jornadas.

It makes sense to support the most popular hardware, and the iPAQ sells about 100,000 per month.
The nice thing about Windows CE is its easy to make a version to run on any platform. So as hardware changes, the software can adapt easily. XYZworks runs on about 10 different platforms, but the iPAQ is tops right now.

Or not...that is the question...Has anyone seen one of these Ashtech survey controller's???????????????????
last I heard they were supposed to be out the end of july...but I have heard no more...I want to know...I want to buy the kinematic kit for the Locus!!!!!!!!!!!! Tom

Tom,

Yes, Survey Control II is Released & Shipping. Please Contact your Thales/Ashtech representative with any questions.

Survey Control II ships in (2) different configurations from Thales/Ashtech:

(1) configuration for Locus system.
(1) configuration for our dual Frequency receivers including Z-Surveyor & Z-Xtreme.

The Survey Control II for Locus works via IR (Infra-Red), similiar to HP-48.
The IR Range is considerably greater than the previous HP-48.

Survey Control II for Z-Surveyor & Z-Xtreme communicates with a USB/DB-9 cable.

That's the diffference between the SCII kits. Both kits use the Compaq IPAQ.

Bob LeMoine
Thales Navigation
Ashtech Precision Products

Jimbo, SCII will run on other hardware (as long as the O/S is CE). It hasn't been tested on a huge number of CE platforms, so it's possible it could misbehave on some.

Brian, its not quite that easy unless Ashtech provides a version for other processors. The current SCII will only run on ARM processors unless a version is compiled for that specific processor. The iPAQ is the only ARM processor besides the Ranger at this point. And TDS used a custom version of Windows CE which did not run most other ARM software until the newest version 3.0. And hardware with keyboards has to be compiled differently than hardware without, even if its still Windows CE.

Curt,
Thanks for the clarification. I thought CE was more cross-platform standardized than that, but apparently I was wrong. It's a safe bet that if the iPAQ goes away, we will port SCII to another hardware platform.

Curt:

The new Intermec 700 runs the Intel Strongarm 206mhz CPU. Would that put it in the class with the ipaq for software compatibility?

T.Wilson - MA

Thomas,

I'm not certain, but from Curt's revious post it sounds like any different processor requires a new compilation (if not code changes), so I doubt if s/w compiled for the ARM would run on a nother h/w platform. Hopefully, Curt will provide a certain answer, though.

Brian

Ya'll,

I'm fairly certain the ARM the Strongarm and similar processors are all RISC units. Therefore virtually everyone requires it's own compiled code (at a minimum) because the Reduced Instruction Sets are not exactly the same.

Jimbo

Tom, the Intermec would probably require a different version compiled since its not a PocketPC, even though its the same processor. Windows CE has many variants, and PocketPC is just one of them. Hardware with a keyboard or different size screens from 240x320 are not PocketPC.

Thanks for the information. I guess it is like the old DOS days of PCs. If it wasn't a real IBM maybe the software wouldn't run. It seem to be smart to stick with the hardware the vendors spec.

T.Wilson - MA

i have an iPAQ...the jury's still out in my mind...there are a lot of little glitches so far, but it's hard to tell if it's the platform or Windows or the operator...

on the upside, you can do some calcs using pocketExcel, writes some notes using pocketWord and keep track of stuff while out in the field...i go to the field to avoid doing stuff like that, but...

on the downside, some of us are going to need bifocals to enter survey data because that keyboard that pops up is very small...and it's hard to hold the thing out arm's length and use the stylus...

i have questions about durability, but i had them about the 48...i do plan on ordering more than one stylus...that seems to be the piece most likely to come up missing...one can use a small twig with decent results, however...