I just looked on the back of GIM magazine and lo and behold Sokkia has come out with a new GPS reciever. It is called the Radian IS. To look at it, it looks like a beefed up LOCUS. Difference is it is a dual frequency RTK system. Looks ain't all either. The unit "integrates the reciever, antenna, data memory and battery into one lightweight and rugged component."
I know this is an Ashtech board, and I don't know that Ashtech had any direct influence into this product line, but I thought that the influence the LOCUS system is having on the higher order units is impressive.
Shawn Billings
SIT Texas
Hardware is one thing, but the way the hardware interacts with the software and the end product is what makes the "system".
Until Sokkia comes up with a sponsored message board and the guy that developed the "system" as we have in Bill Martin and Locus shows up, I'm going to stick to my guns and stay with Ashtech.
You gotta admit though, the new Sokkia looks a lot like a Locus. Especially considering the "all in one" design. Hmmmm. Wonder where they stole, I mean discovered, that innovation.
And Dave, we aren't in any hurry to leave our Locus units behind either. Still too impressed with the final data quality.
J.D.
Not Shawn. I sure hate this Log in thing.
J.D. Billings
I guess once again I made my post too brief and left my point in the clouds. I think that the fact that a manufacturer other than Ashtech has come out with a system so very similar to the LOCUS system is a compliment to the innovation of the LOCUS system. LOCUS, to my knowledge, was the first GPS reciever to combine all the necessary operating components in one box (a very small box I might add). I guess you'll just have to see the ad for this SOKKIA thing and maybe you'll come to the same first reaction that Dad and I did: It looks like LOCUS has made an impact. Sorry if it sounded like I was ready to drop LOCUS and buy the Sokkia system or try to convince others to do that. That was not my intent.
Shawn Billings
SIT Texas
Not to rain on the Locus parade, but I seem to remember the Ashtech Dimension units which we sold a few of 8 years ago or so....Antenna and receiver in one compact unit, disk battery that clipped into the bottom, HP 95's as the controller with Survey control software.....Ashtech simply went back to their own history books and rewrote them in a smaller, lighter, faster, less power hungry, (yada,yada) version WITH killer software........back to the future......
I believe that Sokkia has been marketing the Grey LOCUS for a couple of years now. I think it is the same everything as the blue ones, just in a grey case. I even think they were still called LOCUS, just marketed under the Sokkia name.
The Sokkia units (it is my understanding) were manufactured by Ashtech while there existed a partnership between Sokkia and Ashtech.
As far as the "all in one" package the Trimble 4600's were out before the Locus. I went with Locus over the 4600's because of the memory storage, the battery life, and most of all the software and support.
I've seen this "new" animal called the "stratus" on a Canadian instrument sales website, I think it is Sokkia's latest attempt at entry level single frequency GPS; odd thing is that it is not on the Sokkia website, which had the last "what's new" addition back in October 2000. I'd venture to say, and this is just a guess, that it is something that Sokkia and Novatel put together.
A lot of talk about the new Sokkia GPS. Truth being told, it is true that at the time that Locus first came out, Sokkia and Ashtech were in a contract agreement, and were in process of negotiating a closer relationship. In fact, it was Sokkia that has sold the vast majority of Locus receivers on the market today, and demonstrated the feasability of an L1 solution. Ashtech and Sokkia were beginning work on an all-on-the-pole system based on the z-surveyor (Sokkia 2300), what is now today the "Z-extreme". Since the relationship ended, Sokkia and Novatel entered into a joint partnership, and have been developing both dual freq and single freq all-on-a-pole systems which they are launching at this ACSM. That is what my dealer told me. Too bad Sokkia hasn't done a better job of promoting themselves.
Sokkia has a message board. It can be found at http://www.sokkia.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi