Review of How to Use the Trimble GeoExplorer XM

Trimble has numerous Hand Held Product to gather GPS in the field. Trimble GeoExplorer XM is one of the top product for rugged GPS HandHeld. It will cost more than $3000 for one unit of this. One of the advantage of using this is that the accuracy is 1 to 3 meters. However, one must take note that this device can reach that accuracy only when GeoExplorer XM can detect minimum 4 satellites during GPS gathering.

You can check the available Satellite by opening the program "GPS Controller" that comes with the product. The GPS controller is also pre-installed with Almanac module that keep track of the satellite movement. Meaning, this device when set-up correctly can let Almanac tell you how many satellite that are supposed to be prevent by the time you open the GPS Controller and where the positions of the satellite are.

Another advantage of using this device is that the GPS coordinates that you gathered can be post processed using additional procedures. The accuracy of information after post process can be less than 1 meter or they call it sub-meter accuracy. Thus, if you concern about the accuracy and your project or company has more budget, you can find procedures and tools to do post processing.

Inspite of all the advantage that Trimble GeoExplorer XM have, I found out some disadvantages as well when using these devices. Geo XM is somehow bulky and heavy for field hand held. Image yourself waiting in the location to get more satellites by holding the handheld extended from your body. This 10-30 seconds waiting can make your arm little bit tied. And image if you need to do this task the whole day when you stop in each point that you want to gather GPS coordinate.

In addition, if you want to create your own software to gather the GPS coordinate and other data. It means that the sofware needs to be installed on the handheld. Make sure you tested more and more. I developed application using VB.net and install the application in Trimble GeoXM. The communication between the application to GPS port has to be through GPS Controller module. Meaning that in order to obtain GPS coordinate to my application, I need to open GPS Controller first. At a glance and first try, it worked well. But by the time I used this on the field, problems arises. Everytime I got a signal and I needed to go to places without signal, the next time I went to the places with signal, my application did not want to receive GPS coordinates from GPS controller. Even if I already introduced refersh command every second. I needed to close my application and open it again to establish the connection with GPS Controller.

Finally, I needed to go back to my "drawing board", read some manuals, to explore the problems, research in the internet, fix, and testing them again using many possibilities that might happen.