GeoExplorer 2008 xh with Zephyr Antenna

[EGWCorporation]

Hi

Just after a bit of advice please.  We have just purchased a couple of these from a neigbouring water authority and I'm struggling to figure out how to set the com ports up etc.

If I just want to use the device with the internal antenna (30cm accuracy) do I set the com port up in the GPS controller program and do I then need to do the same in ArcPad or will arcpad pick the settings up from GPS controller.

The other thing I can't figure out is if I plug the Zephyr antenna in, does it automatically switch to using that antenna or do I need to do something in the com port settings to tell it to use that one rather than the internal antenna.

Is there a visual way to see what the accuracy is on the device itself rather than capturing data twice using the two different antennas and comparing the two ?

Thanks in advance.

[PaulLohr]

In the GPS Preferences dialog, GPS tab, set Protocol to TSIP.

Set the port to COM3...that is usually the internal antenna on the GeoExplorers. It will probably be described as TSIP Serial Port.

If you have Trimble Terrasync software, you can look at its settings to verify that COM3 is the internal antenna.

When you plug your external antenna into the GeoExplorer, the external antenna is used and the internal antenna is ignored.

ArcPad will give you an estimated accuracy in the GPS Position Window dialog. Go to the Quality tab.

The Zephyr antenna may give you slightly better accuracy over the internal antenna.

There is an antenna height setting in the GPS Preferences dialog.

[EGWCorporation]

In the GPS Preferences dialog, GPS tab, set Protocol to TSIP.

Set the port to COM3...that is usually the internal antenna on the GeoExplorers. It will probably be described as TSIP Serial Port.

If you have Trimble Terrasync software, you can look at its settings to verify that COM3 is the internal antenna.

When you plug your external antenna into the GeoExplorer, the external antenna is used and the internal antenna is ignored.

ArcPad will give you an estimated accuracy in the GPS Position Window dialog. Go to the Quality tab.

The Zephyr antenna may give you slightly better accuracy over the internal antenna.

There is an antenna height setting in the GPS Preferences dialog.

Hi pml

Thanks for your reply.

When I have the external antenna connected (and the internal one for that matter) the only COM port that the device communicates with is COM port 3, the only other 2 options I have are:-

COM1
COM6: TP360B-024059

Neither of these 2 options work.

So using COM port 3 , when I go into ArcPad and in the the GPS preferences option, the 2 options I have in the protocol drop down box are :-

NMEA 0183 and
SIRF

The port drop down field underneath that I have the following options:-

COM1: Serial Cable on COM1:
COM2: NMEA Serial port
COM3: TSIP Serial port
COM4: DGPS Serial port on COM4

The only one that seems to work is COM2.

I have fiddled around with the Precision settings in GPS Controller and used the recommended Trimble settings for accurate data collection - Max PDOP of 6, Min Elevation of 15degress etc etc but this picks up less satellites that using the default settings when I tick the box next to the Productivity - Precision slider which sets the Max PDOP to 20 and Min Elevation to 5.

Last time I was out I had 9 satellites (with the Zephyr Antenna connected) and the accuracy was showing 5.7m.

Something is obviously not set up right.

I'm wondering if I should just do a hard reset on the device and reinstalling from scratch as it hasn't been done since we were given it by the Water Authority we purchased it from, so I'm wondering if its still got some settings or configuration cached in memory somewhere somehow.

Just for info, the device is running Windows Mobile 6.1 with the eval version of ArcPad 10.0 R4 (Build 4)...not sure if that helps or makes a difference to the issues I'm having.

Do I need to purchase a licenced copy of ArcPad or some other software such as TerraSync or the Trimble GPScorrect extention for ESRI ArcPad to solve the problems, or is it just some settings that I'm not familiar with.

Do I need to have anything configured in the Real Time settings or is this just for DGPS.  I was under the impression that the device itself with the Zephyr antenna would deliver 10cm accuracy at best without real-time or post processing

Thanks again for your help, and apologies if my questions sound a bit dumb....I'm still trying to pick things up as I'm going really.

[PaulLohr]

With that level of accuracy, it sounds like you aren't getting any corrections. That makes sense.

You may need GPSCorrect. You will probably want that to do sub-meter work.

I think the GeoExplorer 6000 series may not provide TSIP to ArcPad any longer (see the link below). If you have the NMEA output upgrade then you can probably connect ArcPad to the internal or external antenna. Not sure how this is done (perhaps through GPSController?). GPSCorrect should take care of the entire problem.
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/34178-ArcPad10-and-Trimble-6000-series-GeoXT?p=133453&viewfull=1#po...

In the GPSController application, make sure NMEA output is turned off. Start ArcPad and check if the TSIP protocol has showed up yet. Probably a moot point but it may be worth trying. Still you don't have a way of getting corrections.

10 cm accuracy would be around 4 inches. You may want to check into using RTK corrections instead of WAAS since you are looking for accuracy finer than sub-meter. Some state Departments of Transportation have setup RTK systems that users can access over the Internet. Also there is Trimble VRSNow which provides corrections for Russian and American GPS satellites but is expensive.

Do you need accurate vertical locations as well? If the answer is yes, Trimble Terrasync would be my choice over ArcPad.

Paul Lohr