[time-nuts] Trimble Studio, what is it?

[GandalfG8 at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/01/2014 19:35:05 GMT Standard Time,  
paul.alfille at gmail.com writes:

I take  it you found the  URL:
http://trl.trimble.com/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-674264/TrimbleStudio.exe  --
it's not that obvious on the website.

For me:
"New  Connection..." from the button bar
com2
GPS Receiver / Com2 (again) /  9600 / None / 8 / 1 / Ok

Works. I'm having trouble with the google maps  loading, but the sky map,
satellite tracking position and monitor all  work.
-------------------------------------------

Most  interesting, and the plot definitely thickens:-)
 
After the  release of Trimble Studio 1.21.0 in July 2013 Trimble seems to 
have  started running two parallel development streams for this  software.
 
The URL above links to a version that describes itself as "Trimble Visual  
Timing Studio" version 2.01.6 of 25th October 2013, with the status reported 
as  "Private", although the release notes still show it as "Beta", and with 
the  update server being "not available"
 
The version I normally use describes itself as just "Trimble Studio" with  
displayed status as "Beta" and will offer to update to the latest version  
whenever run, which it does. At the time of writing that "latest version" is  
1.23.0 of 20th November 2013.
 
Whilst  Trimble Studio doesn't seem to be quite as easy to find as it once 
was,  with Google generally turning up third party links to earlier versions 
 but not the more obvious direct links into Trimble as  before, there are 
still links to be found via some Trimble product pages,  such as here.....
 
http://www.trimble.com/embeddedsystems/condor-gps-module.aspx?dtID=support
 
The file that downloads from there is still an earlier version but it  
will, as said, offer an update to the latest version.
If accepted, that update will automatically overwrite the file in  use so 
best to save a copy of that first if you want to make  comparisons.
 
The release notes for either version describe what was originally  called 
"Trimble GPS Studio" as being a major update to Trimble monitor  1.06.0, so 
no point it would seem in looking for any later versions of  that, and 
checking the "configurator" menus shows that support for earlier  products, 
including the original Thunderbolt, is not included. There is an  option for 
"Other Timing" but I haven't found the courage yet to attack a  Thunderbolt with 
that:-)
 
I've used Studio with the Thunderbolt, and the Trimble Nortel  boards, and 
as Paul comments it does work but with some limitations.
The rather nice looking option to interface with Google maps produces a  
scripting error here and quite a lot of the front screen data, position data  
etc, doesn't display, I can't remember right now whether this also occured  
with some of those later devices included in the configurator list so  would 
need to check that.
 
It can be worth playing suck it and see with the various Trimble  monitor 
offerings, particularly with older versions and with older  hardware, I've 
found at times that what's recommended for a particular  product might not 
always be the best option.
 
I've got a variety of Trimble files, different programmes,  different 
versions etc, most are probably still available online but  I'm happy to make 
them available as a single archive if anyone's  interested.
 
Regards
 
Nigel
GM8PZR