Impressions of the Ashtech MobileMapper100 and ProMark200

We generally try and purchase GPS/GNSS equipment that is made locally at Juniper Systems, Inc., here in Logan, Utah; however, a recent project required that we purchase three Ashtech PM200s (which is operated by the MobileMapper 100). Here are a few first impressions:

The unit itself is fantastic for acquiring data. The "Blade" technology seems to do the job and using the Utah TURN network, I can have a 2-3cm fix (or better) in less than a minute, and closer to 15 - 30 seconds hot. Without the TURN network, I can have a sub-meter (generally 10 - 30cm) fix in about 15 seconds or so. I will say that it works well for rapid high-precision data capture.

The physical usability of the device leaves much to be desired. We have grown accustomed to the more ergonomic and well thought out devices developed by Juniper - so the less than adequate quality has taken some getting use to.

The device is not pretty, a slightly rounded brick comes to mind when you hold it - nto to mention the overall lack of a hand strap, or any place for a hand strap. The unit is meant to be in a cradle and mounted on a pole, not carried by hand.



(Note the screen - it looks great... indoors.)

From PM200

(Tell me that isn't fugly, really.)


The unit is rated at MIL-STD-810 514.5, it is nowhere near IP-67, not that they claim it is, but I'm still used to fully sealed devices. Once you pull the SD card slot cover aside, all bets are off. In a dark room you can look into the SD slot and see the back of the screen. Water and dust would be a bad deal for this unit. There is a thin rubber gasket around the battery door that should give you about two seconds to pull it out of a puddle that hopefully isn't more than a centimeter or two deep.



The OS, Windows Mobile Pro 6.5 really needs no comment. It generally sucks and Ashtech spent almost NO time customizing or making it easier to use - but then, it seems rare for many companies to spend time making these kinds of modification on smaller market devices.

Just a note on the battery, it isn't keyed very well and can be put in backwards. While this seems obvious, it is worth mentioning  for the sake of overall functionality.

The SIM card is locked in under the battery. There isn't much to say here except that Ashtech was NOT helpful at finding the correct data plan to request from ATT. I would be happy to correspond with folks who are trying to identify the correct plan. We had to jump through some hoops before the service rep was able to click the right buttons.

Mounting the unit on the pole and connecting it to the antenna is very straight forward. We use 2m locking poles that seemed very durable except for the top threads. I am concerned that these may weaken and break in cold weather work, but thus far, it has worked out well.

As far as connections go (not speaking of connecting the antenna, rather other devices through ports), there aren't any. The unit really only swings one way - and that is to connect with its dock. The unit is Bluetooth capable, but there are no serial or USB ports to speak of.

The dock is required for all charging, data transfer, etc. However, the dock is equipped with an extra battery charging slot. In our field work, it seemed that having two batteries for a full day of work (8 - 12 hours) was a necessity. You can reduce power consumption by turning down the screen brightness and turning off the modem when possible.

Apologies for continuing to compare the PM200s to the Juniper Systems equipment, they really are different beasts, but one last comparison is required. Outdoor screen readability. Juniper devices thrive in the sun - seriously, the brighter the direct sunlight the better you can see the screen - and yes, it seems counter-intuitive. The PM200 - really, the MobileMapper 100 is horrible in the bright sunlight, especially with the dull screen protector. Screen sensitivity is good, and in general, when you have cloud cover, the screen is great - just not that great.

Where the PM200 package excels is in processing power and rapid data high-precision data collection. As far as I can tell, I don't have a similar GNSS Toolbox option for the Juniper Systems devices thus, my connection to our network would be mute point on those units. The crew, once we made some executive decisions collected lots of high-precision data very fast. But, not without some angst when it came to trying to rapidly learn (and collect) data with Fast Survey. The program is certainly developed for the survey community so if you are a GISer thinking that Fast Survey will be simple and FAST... you had best think again.

In the end we ended up abandoning Fast Survey for Esri ArcPad 10.x. We set up the GNSS Toolbox to connect to the Utah TURN network and parse out the strings via a virtual COM port. This was a bit tricky to figure out as the documentation to do such a think isn't readily available.

In the end, for what it's worth, I would rate the Ashtech PM200s at a 2.5 stars out of five. The units seem half-baked and the overall functionality leaves much to be desired. I would encourage interested parties to test a unit, in the field with respect to their particular application, before making the purchase commitment.