handhelds

[lumberjake]

hello,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice for choosing a new or used handheld. I bought a couple at a sale a few years back and got one of them to work, it still had the other fella's program but i figured it out for the most part. But i bought new batteries which were not cheap by any means and it seems even after i charge it fully the next time i use it it's dead. I understand it's a pretty old unit maybe it's past its prime i dont know. but it's a husky fs3 i believe i could be wrong on the number but it's a husky. with a timber cruising program on it. id like to get one that had log scaling and timber cruising on the same handheld but i was pricing new ones and they are alittle expense. I guess what im asking is should i go all in and buy a new one or should i try a new program in mine but the battery thing is still an issue. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[SwampDonkey]

I guess I've not heard of a handheld by that brand. If you need a new one and aren't using GPS, a rugged one is sold by Panasonic, the Toughbook CF-P1 which uses Windows Mobile, but there are not programs included. Most of these forestry programs are custom written or possibly sold or downloaded from a federal or state agency. I have written my own, based on NB volume tables and run using Visual CE, which can be synchronized with MS Access. My handheld is built for outdoor environments and has a built in GPS for locating plot centres. Even that requires something like ArcPad displaying a mobile GIS map. Purchasing the handheld is just the beginning, then there is the software. Nope, it ain't cheap and you have to ask yourself if your going to do enough work to get serious. ;) If yours won't charge new batteries, it sounds like the charging cradle is shot or the power supply is burnt out. You can built your own programs, it's mostly just setting up tables, form fields, relations and formulas. For cruising and scaling, it's mostly using look up tables. For my cruising, I just use it as a tally sheet. But I could use it to output a report onscreen if I wished, only I just download the tally to the laptop and print off reports there. With Visual CE, like MS Access, it's the report (Report CE) that does the math and displays the results.

[mad murdock]

A few foresters that I know use a Trimble handheld. There is a product line by a co. Called G-tech, they actually build product for both Panasonic and Trimble, and their pricing is better than any of them. I know one reseller where you can check them out- loge rehear navigation in San Diego, fwiw. We use a beefed up net book for our "field" work, and run realtome steps guidance software in the helo's with dgps input from a separate receiver (an ex blueII by GeneQ), this setup runs is about 2400.00 a little cheaper than mOst of the out of the box gps equipped handhelds,and full featured was you have windows 7 rather than just a ce. Version. Might not be practical for a guy slogging it on foot though.

[SwampDonkey]

The latest Windows Mobile versions is more like the desktop windows, internet browsing and email and such, Blue Tooth, memory card. Windows CE is a bygone version. Visual CE is just a name from those earlier times that has carried forward with the latest Windows Mobile releases.  I have traversed 3000 + acres of ground over the past 5 years on mine during rain or sunshine. That's not just perimeter, it's strip lines to, every 40-50 meters offset.

[lumberjake]

thanks for all the info. When it comes to computers im lost. Im just tired of scaling timber with timber tallies and a pencil and then sit down at a desk for 8 hrs figuring totals and prices. it'd be nice to just hit enter after walking a track and have all the info in your hand. i like to 100 percent the timber i scale just to make sure there is no question. a fellow logger told me he liked the program he had on his because you could break down the tree into logs so you werent paying high dollar from stump to top and in the end it still scaled out as one tree. that would be nice. i think ill ask one of my friends who knows alittle more about software and stuff like that to look at all this and maybe explain the computer end of it to me. i didnt know you could make a program for scaling timber i thought you would have to buy it. thank you so much for replying to my post. im glad to get information from people who know and use these.

[mad murdock]

The latest Windows Mobile versions is more like the desktop windows, internet browsing and email and such, Blue Tooth, memory card. Windows CE is a bygone version. Visual CE is just a name from those earlier times that has carried forward with the latest Windows Mobile releases.  I have traversed 3000 + acres of ground over the past 5 years on mine during rain or sunshine. That's not just perimeter, it's strip lines to, every 40-50 meters offset.

. That sounds really cool SD! I guess I have netbook bias because that is what we use, plus we do a bit of .shp file manipulation which makes the keyboard a very handy feature. The mobile interface on handhelds have really improved. I got an iPod touch for my b-day and I am simply amazed! Haven't dinked around with a handheld device besides my non smart phone cell handset in a while.

[SwampDonkey]

Just a little video. Don't know how good the resolution is when Youtube does it's thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_772yvCmo

[KBforester]

I asked about hand helds a while back... I ended up getting a used Panasonic Toughbook, Cf-U1 which runs a full blown windows XP or Vista.

http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/ultra-mobile-rugged-toughbook-u1-ultra.asp

I like it because I can run any program on that that I can run on my PC. When I go check out a woodlot for a land owner, I've got tax maps, management plans etc all at my finger tips in PDF, Word, Excel, or whatever format you want. Cruising is nice and easy with a full keyboard. GPS is not integrated in mine, but I've got a blue tooth gps receiver to go with it. Its as accurate as it needs to be for harvest layout.

SD's point about hardware only being the first step is an important one. Anything that starts with "Arc" is going to be expensive. I run a free program called Q-GIS (Quantum GIS). Its a little slower than Eseri  products, but I've never run into a task that Q-GIS wasn't able to do. You can manipulate and create .shp files without translating.

I got mine used from ebay for $600.

[SwampDonkey]

Another quick video. This is a cruise program I wrote, just running through the screens fairly quick. There is more not shown, including the PC version I synchronize it with. I didn't bother writing reports for the handheld, I just do it from the PC and print them off there.

I run ArcPad in the background and switch screens to find the plot locations and then switch back to enter cruise data. Multitask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJSXSylmSLY

[KBforester]

cool

[stavebuyer]

hello,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice for choosing a new or used handheld. I bought a couple at a sale a few years back and got one of them to work, it still had the other fella's program but i figured it out for the most part. But i bought new batteries which were not cheap by any means and it seems even after i charge it fully the next time i use it it's dead. I understand it's a pretty old unit maybe it's past its prime i dont know. but it's a husky fs3 i believe i could be wrong on the number but it's a husky. with a timber cruising program on it. id like to get one that had log scaling and timber cruising on the same handheld but i was pricing new ones and they are alittle expense. I guess what im asking is should i go all in and buy a new one or should i try a new program in mine but the battery thing is still an issue. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Its my understanding that replacement parts are no longer available for the Husky. We used to run Huskys and switched to the Juniper Allegro about ten years back. Very reliable units.