Topic: Is there a Trimble forum like the "Swamp"???

[Ken]

I'm hoping somebody here who is more familiar with survey equipment can get me headed in the right direction.

Our company just bought a new Trimble TSC2 Controller. Our survey guys are having trouble getting it to do some of the same things in the field and collect data in the same way that our current Nokia equipment does. I know nothing about how their equipment works in the field, all I see are the resulting point files when I need to put them into a drawing. Maybe it won't work they the way they want it to, but I'm guessing that the equipment will work that way they just haven't figured it out yet.

Does anybody know of a forum similar to this one, only for surveying, that they could post a question and get an answer from somebody who is actually using this type of equipment?

We're not getting much respone or help from our local equipment reseller and the Trimble web site was no help either. I've tried to Google and find a forum that might help them out, but so far I haven't found anything close to what I'm hoping to find.

I'd appreciate any help that somebody can provide for me in finding a good forum or other resources that might help us out.

Thanks

Ken

[Dinosaur]

I don't know of any specific user forum for Trimble and was surprised when I could find nothing about Trimble at augi either.  Did the controller come with any manuals or user guides?  If not, they are available as pdf downloads from Trimble and should at least get some answers for your crew.  The ultimate solution may be the boss sucks it up and calls for support.  As much as management wants to deny it, survey equipment and software has evolved past the point where even a very good surveyor can just pick up a new instrument and start producing without some good instructions.  If your reseller is being no help, I would contact Trimble directly and tell them how their agent is representing their product.

[Ken]

Yeah, Dino, I too was surprised that I couldn't find at least one forum out there where those guys are talking to each other like we do here at the "Swamp" and other similar forums. I even ckecked a little bit for Blogs and still couldn't find anything really happening in the Survey field. As much help as I've gotten from this forum alone, just seems strange that there isnn't at leasty one out there for these guys.

Anyway, thanks for looking! I'll try to push them to pester the Trimble guys to get the info they need because that looks like about the only place to go to get help.

Ken

P.S. Glad to see you've gotten you're own Blog set up.  "Civil 3D - In the Trenches"  I'm sure it's going to be another great source of info for Civil 3D.

[Scott]

try www.eng-tips.com

they have a survey forum there.  Don't know if it will be any help, but worth looking at

Scott

[ronjonp]

Ken,

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Our survey guys are having trouble getting it to do some of the same things in the field and collect data in the same way that our current Nokia equipment does.Can you be more specific. I've done same data collection using a Trimble unit and a pen top and have not had any problems.

Ron

[Ken]

Scott, thanks to link. That's by far the best site I've found so far. It does have a forum section that might be able to help us out, at least they're asking some specific field survey questions.

Ron, I've very limited in field survey knowledge, but the way they tried to explained it to me, is that with the Nokia insturment they could save a point form one setup as "pnt-1" and another point, from another setup as "pnt-2" and then recall those points to use to set up a curb return arc. I'm not sure if that explains the problem very well, but so far they haven't been able to find a way to get the Trimble we have to save points in the same way. 

Ken