Hi everyone.
I'm a new arrival to the amateur surveying ranks at the Ingleborough Archaeology Group (North of England - centred around 54.1659° N, 2.3975° W). www.ingleborougharchaeologygroup.org.uk
We use a Leica Total Station and a Magellan MobileMapper CX running FieldGenius. We survey sites of current and potential interest, the location of trenches when involved in excavation, plus the location of finds within the trenches. The equipment is not new, but neither are we. Like many amateur organisations, the age of the kit is only exceeded by the age of its users.
Unfortunately, the Magellan MobileMapper has no user group in the UK, and I have turned to this forum to seek help on a specific issue: connecting the Magellan to a laptop enabling the download of data. The manual refers to the use of Microsoft ActiveSync, but my laptop is running Windows 10 and tells me ActiveSync is a thing of the past (XP era).
Is there anyone here connecting a device like the Magellan to a Windows 10 laptop?
If this is an inappropriate question for this forum, I'd be most grateful if you would point me in a better direction.
Thanks in anticipation.
John Cuthbert
Replies
welcome to the team..what i think you should do is to run the os the software recommend. For this case download the xp os then install, whenever you want to run magellen with the ActiveSync start your system with xp. It will not of course deprive you from using your windows 10 os. Hope it was helpful.
It i not inappropriate. This is about surveying and "amateur" implies it is done for the love "amour" of it. One cannot be a true professional unless also, and first, an amateur.
I've this problem with several software packages I use. There are two straightforward solutions available. The first is to find an older computer with the older, compatible operating system. The second is to create a virtual machine on your current computer. You may do so giving it whatever operating system you like. Check out VMware.
JAC
The quickest way (it is not the easier but you will get it) is:
- Download Oracle Virtual Machine Virtual Box from https://www.virtualbox.org/ (Free)
- Get or download a Windows XP 32 bit distribution. If you can´t get it, please, give me your email and I will help you. (Commercial or "Free")
Ready?
1.- Install Oracle Virtual Box.
2.- Run it
3.- Create Virtual Machine
4.- Virtual box will ask for the name and the location of the ISO image of Windows XP or the Installation disk. Call it "Windows XP 32b" and search for the Windows XP distro.
5.- Run WIndows XP Virtual Machine...
6.- At this stage you will have a Windows XP 32 bits running in your Windows XP
7.- Update the system through Windows Update.
8.- Once that the system is updated, then run Internet Explorer and instal Active Sync from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15.
9.- Done... You can connect your Magellan gadget and work as per manual.
This proccess will take around 3 hours with a 10Mb/s downloading internet connection.
And Welcome to the Survey World!!!
ActiveSync didn't really go away. It was updated and renamed. With Windows 7, it was called Windows Mobile Device Center, and was essentially a part of the operating system. If you connect the device to your computer, it should recognize it and load WMDC, or what ever it is called under Windows 10.
As I recall, when I switched from XP to Win7, there was a small download that Win7 did the first time I connected our data collectors. This was done automatically by the OS.
Let us know if you continue having trouble.
Welcome to the Community! We look forward to all you have to share with us!