Progress

This is a component of our survey kit. It can talk to various survey sensors; GPS  receivers, total stations, echo sounders, some scanners, complex 360 degree cameras, even drones.

I have had good service from this brand and the Edinburgh based supplier we deal with. The downside is the eye watering capital and running cost; where an annual service and calibration costs more than a full frame Nikon and lens. I have had such a service carried out recently and this also includes software updates to the pictured device.

On resumption of its use post service I was surprised that a very commonly used routine was repeatedly making the device freeze up and beome unresponsive. On reporting the issue to my contact in Edinburgh he was so incredulous that such a fundamental and regularly used part of the program could possibly be faulty that he was sure that some legacy settings files I had stuck with over the years were causing the lock up on the mosr recent version. No one else had complained. I tried a few suggestions but they made no difference and to his credit D (now suspecting something else) had a replacement promptly sent up for me to use. Last night was spent setting up the device for work today. Stripped of my legacy settings (and with resulting inefficiency) I was appalled when the new device toppled at the same stage as my own.

Thankfully, working in an area with decent signal, I phoned Edinburgh to report my frustrating findings. I am always the first one to blame myself for some unwitting pilot error but I finally had to ask, had he actually tried to emulate my findings at his end?

Obviously he had a machine set up nearby and in about 30 seconds I heard the distinctive error code "ping" before he could speak again.

"Its just done it with you hasn't it?".

"Just try again"

"No point, it will just happen again at the same stage"

Poor D was thoroughly aghast and embarrassed. He is passionate about the brand and its quality and takes customer care very seriously but the evidence was staring him in the face. His only concern was why he had received only one report (mine) on a key part of the survey app not working and he conceded it was a huge impediment to efficient  workflow.
I said I will just go back to the previous version which works  (and I can do this at my own desk)  but he pointed out all the projects stored on the device had been modified on the upgrade to be read only by the updated vesion and there was no easy reversal of those files so I would no longer be able to use them..

That's progress for you.