Feb 27, 2008
By:Don Jewell </gpsmg/author/authorInfo.jsp?id=37850>
GPS World
The Nomad Finds a Home in the Military
The "nomad" I am writing about is the Trimble Nomad personal handheld
computer and GPS device. I have been testing the Nomad, which is actually
built by Tripod Data Systems, a Trimble company, for some time. You might
even call it a long-term test, just like the cars in the automobile
magazines that they drive for a year to see if the wheels fall off. I have
had two different Nomads to review, and they have both been absolutely
outstanding. My total testing time has been on the order of six months.
I hesitate to relate the rigors to which I subjected the Nomads, as Trimble
may decide I am too tough on their units and not send me any more to review.
I don't think that will really happen, as they test them very thoroughly at
the factory, but here, in full-disclosure mode, I'll relate how the torture
test of the Nomads progressed.
But first, let me give you an idea of the physical size and weight of the
fully loaded Nomad. It measures 17.6 cm (6-3/4 in) by 10 cm (3-3/4 in) by 5
cm (1-5/8 in) and weighs 596 grams, or 1.3 pounds, with the rechargeable
lithium-ion battery in place. In other words, it is just about the size of
(and not much heavier than) your standard paperback book, but the included
black elastic hand strap makes the Nomad much more convenient to carry and
handle.
I was extremely careful with the first Nomad and handled it with kid gloves
because it was a preproduction unit, sent to me by Julia Oliver from Sanda
Communications, which provides integrated advertising and marketing services
for Trimble. Julia assured me there were no more units available for me to
test at the time, but when the second production unit arrived directly from
Trimble, I decided to put it through the wringer.
It was minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on the day that UPS delivered the second
Nomad. I immediately opened the box, checked the contents, and then plugged
it in to charge. As has been my experience with all the Trimble products I
have reviewed, the unit was fully charged when it arrived, or nearly so. It
was only a matter of minutes before the amber charging light on the face of
the unit, which was the typical Trimble yellow with black highlights, turned
green, signifying a fully charged unit. More about the incredible battery
technology incorporated in the Nomad later.
At that point I disconnected the unit, made sure the unit was operating and
active, and dropped it into a sink full of warm dishwater. After ten
minutes, I immediately took it outside on our back deck and dropped it into
a snow bank, where it sank out of sight. I left it there for about 30
minutes, then brought it in and dropped it from four feet onto a hardwood
floor.
At this point I put the unit through its military paces, both as a handheld
computer and as a GPS device, and it passed with flying colors. In fact,
according to the literature, the Nomad surpassed military specifications and
certifications, MIL-STD-810F, for drop height, vibration, humidity,
altitude, and extreme temperatures. It also has an IP76 rating, which means
the Nomad is impervious to dust and water immersion. Official Trimble
testing has shown that you can submerge the Nomad for up to thirty minutes
without any harm.
Since the Nomad meets or surpasses all these specifications, it's highly
suitable for military and government field-related applications. Short of
using it to hammer tent pegs into the frozen tundra, I don't know how you
could damage the Nomad. Just use common sense, and I am confident the Nomad
will perform beyond your expectations in almost all field conditions.
The Nomad connected to my Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) secured wireless
(Wi-Fi) network in a matter of seconds. In fact, if you will allow me to
digress for a moment, the Wi-Fi antenna on the Nomad unit is more sensitive
than my new iMac or new HP computer because those two computers only sense a
maximum of four Wi-Fi networks in our neighborhood, and the Trimble Nomad
consistently locates seven available networks. Granted, some only rated one
bar of signal strength, but at least I knew the networks were available.
I connected to the three open or non-secured Wi-Fi systems in our
neighborhood without any problems, and they ranged in strength from one to
four bars. I was surprised it connected to Wi-Fis with only one bar
indicated, but it did, and although the throughput was slow because of the
low signal strength, the Nomad remained connected until I manually
disconnected.
This actually became an issue in Victorville, California, during the DARPA
Urban Challenge. Most of the other journalists there had laptops like mine
that could easily locate the Wi-Fi connection set-up by DARPA for our use,
but no others. My Dell laptop tracked the DARPA Wi-Fi network as well. The
Trimble Nomad not only successfully connected to the DARPA Wi-Fi Network,
but it also found two other nearby Wi-Fi networks to use when the DARPA
network went down. I was filing my Urban Challenge story, in real time and
on the fly, for more than six hours of continuous feeds to the GPS World
Website, while many of the other journalists were waiting for the DARPA
Network to be restored.
I also used the built-in 2-megapixel camera for pictures of the Urban
Challenge event and by the end of the day, as I said, I was only using the
Nomad -- not just because of the extra-sensitive Wi-Fi receiver, but because
the very fine dust in the air in the high desert of California was making
everyone's laptop keyboards act funny. You could press one key, and you
might get that letter or one adjacent to it. Plus it was no fun typing on a
gritty keyboard. The dust did not affect the Nomad in any way that I could
determine. It is not a full-sized keyboard of course, and I found myself
using cell phone typing techniques, but the bottom line is, it worked
flawlessly while other computers around me were having serious Wi-Fi and
dust issues. My numerous e-mails from our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
tell me of similar problems with laptop keyboards plagued by the fine dust
in those areas.
And that ends my rather long digression; now back to the wintertime testing
of the second Nomad. After the physical testing ordeal, the Nomad connected
to my mail server and downloaded my mail within a couple of minutes.
Nominally the default is to download just mail headers, but it was an easy
change via the mail menu to change that to full downloads. I tested the unit
with three separate e-mail accounts, including one just for the Apple iMac
-- both directly and via the Apple website -- and it worked flawlessly.
When I turned on the integrated GPS with the Trimble GPS software, it found
seven satellites within 60 seconds and was displaying an accurate position
within 90 seconds. I then put the unit on the shelf and waited for the
battery to die. Although the Nomad is supplied with a hot-swappable
rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, meaning you can swap out the battery
and not lose all your work, frankly, with all the abuse I gave the Nomad and
with the sub-zero temperatures I subjected it to, I expected to see a
battery life of about six to eight hours at best. To my surprise, I did not
receive my first "battery is low" warning until the Nomad had been running
for more than 12 hours and then at the 13-hour, 28-minute point, I received
a "battery power is very low" warning. At the 13-hour, 41-minute mark, the
Nomad shut down and preserved all my work.
Unlike many handhelds that can lose data if they lose power, all your data
in the Nomad is always stored in non-volatile, persistent storage memory; it
uses a NAND flash ROM system to insure you never lose saved data. Therefore,
losing power does not impact saved data or configurations other than the
real-time clock, and that is easily restored via a Wi-Fi connection or when
the GPS is powered on by an application. The Nomad had to be plugged in or
charged before I could use it, and that took just a little more than four
hours for a full charge; my Microsoft Word document had been saved and I did
not lose a single keystroke. I could have resumed work immediately just by
plugging the unit into a household outlet.
Remember, this is a fully functional Windows handheld computer made by a GPS
company that tightly integrates GPS into the unit; it is difficult, if not
impossible, to not consider both functions as one unit. I think Trimble
planned it that way, don't you, Homer? D'oh!
But users beware, there is one serious caution regarding the Nomad, and
should you fail to obey it, you will be saying more than "D'oh"! Now my two
Nomad units never needed a hard reset, and they certainly never displayed a
"blue screen of death" or had to be rebooted as so many Microsoft Vista
users are doing these days. But should you ever have to execute a hard
reboot -- or "clean boot" as Trimble calls it -- "all application software,
whether installed by the factory or the customer, including licenses,
settings and user data will be cleared if you utilize this Clean Boot
function."
I never had to perform this function, and I hope most users never will, but
just to see what would happen, I started the Clean Boot process on one of
the Nomads. I received several dire warnings, plus the process counts down
to zero to give you plenty of time to change your mind; this procedure
cannot be performed by accident. There are several less-dire reboot actions
that you can take if you ever need to restore the unit for some reason, and
they are provided via a special power menu that allows you to place the
Nomad into a special mode when you need to clean the touch-sensitive screen.
Most touch-sensitive computer screens cause the computer to go haywire if
you clean them while they are running, and your only option is to shut them
down and perform a restart or place them in standby. This special feature
was a real plus for me in the dusty high desert of California and greatly
benefits our war fighters using the Nomad in theater, or so I've been
informed in several e-mails from Iraq.
So the Nomad is very rugged and nearly indestructible, but what about the
tightly integrated SiRF III GPS receiver? Like most SiRF receivers I found
it to be a very sensitive receiver, even picking up some GPS satellite
signals indoors. While not very accurate indoors, the sensitivity still
helps because it means that once you step outside with the unit, your time
to a useable first fix is greatly diminished.
In order to use the GPS on the Nomad, you need to have a GPS application
loaded. The GPS accuracy is rated at 5 to 10 meters, but I found my units to
be consistently accurate within the 2- to 7-meter range. Please note that
the Nomad does not have a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) receiver, but
for most applications WAAS is not a necessity. However, it is WAAS-capable,
so that is an option if you need greater accuracy. For those who need
single-digit centimeter accuracy, there are other options that conveniently
hook into the Nomad's communications ports inside the watertight rubber end
cap.
Both of my Nomads came with Trimble GPS software installed, but you can
elect to use software from several different manufacturers; you are
definitely not limited to Trimble GPS software, although their various
software programs worked extremely well for my needs.
For those die-hard or professional GNSS and GIS aficionados, the unit works
especially well with a number of mobile GIS programs from ESRI. For those
that don't know this, ESRI -- headquartered in Redlands, California, at 34
degrees 3' 25.35" N, 117 degrees 11' 44.44" W, or so their software says --
is considered by many to be the 800-pound gorilla in the GIS arena. Their
products are considered among the best in the world for GIS users, but they
are vast and extensive programs that require a very capable and fast
computer to run properly, and the Nomad ran all the ESRI software without a
glitch.
Initially I was concerned that the Nomad might not have the power to run
these GIS programs, or it would be so slow that the program was of no use,
or barring that, the display might not be up to the standards required to
read tiny text on a map background. I need not have worried, as the Nomad
passed all the GIS tests I put it through with flying colors. The software
loaded quickly and ran flawlessly.
I ran ESRI's ArcPad 7.1 software, which is specifically designed by ESRI for
simple and efficient data capture in the field. The Nomad and ArcPAD allow
you to load your own aerial photos, cadastre, or other GIS data and use it
as a background reference, or the foundation for further data capture.
ArcPad integrates with ESRI's ArcMap/ArcGIS and can also export data
captured in shape-file format for other systems, such as AutoCAD.
I found the Nomad screen to be very readable under almost all light
conditions, even in bright sunlight, although in extremely bright desert
sunlight you will be looking for shade (for more than one reason). But then,
every handheld I have tested to date has the same problem in bright
sunlight, and the Nomad fared far better than most.
The first Nomad handheld I tested was a preproduction version of the
top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles, including an
integrated 1D laser barcode scanner and the aforementioned 2-megapixel
digital color camera. We (Trimble and I) added capabilities and updates as
time went along, as well. The unit comes with Microsoft Active Sync and all
the necessary cables for updating.
The Trimble folks gave me a secure Website and a special code and password
and had me sign in blood not to reveal them. I'm kidding, of course, but
with those crucial bits of data I was able to download new firmware and new
software and all the new features for the Nomad as they were developed.
There are several different models of the Nomad -- four, at last count. They
are all rugged to the same standards as the model I tested, and have the
same basic or standard features.
STANDARD FEATURES
System
* Windows Mobile version 6.0 software
* 806 MHz XScale processor
* 128 MB DDR SDRAM
* 1 Gbyte non-volatile Flash storage1 (the 800B Model has 512MB)
* Secure Digital (SDIO) memory card slot
* CompactFlash (CF) (Type II) slot
* Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
* USB Boot with USB-host, and audio jack
* VGA display (480 by 640), sunlight-readable color touch screen
* Integrated speaker and microphone
* Notification LEDs
* 15-hour battery life with active use (default settings)
* Numeric-style keypad
* Audio jack
* 12-month limited warranty Standard Software
* GPS Controller for controlling NMEA output and in-field mission
planning
* Transcriber (handwriting recognition) Standard Accessories
* Rechargeable Li-Ion battery module
* Rugged stylus with spring-loaded tip
* Stylus lanyard
* AC Power supply with International adapter kit
* USB data cable
* User guide
* Hand strap
* Screen protectors (2-pack)
* Getting Started CD with ActiveSync
Software
* Microsoft Office
* Mobile Word
* Mobile Excel
* Mobile PowerPoint
* Mobile Outlook
* Mobile Internet Explorer
* Mobile Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Calculator
* Windows Media Player
* Microsoft Pictures and Videos
* Online help
Now that you know about the basic unit, here are some additional
configurations:
Configuration Options
* Integrated 802.11 b/g wireless LAN for local network connectivity
* Integrated GPS (2-5 m with post-processing accuracy)
* Integrated 1D laser barcode scanner
* Integrated digital camera (color, 2-megapixel resolution)
* PDA or numeric-style keypad
There is also a long list of options, which make the Nomad an extremely
versatile handheld computer with tightly integrated GPS.
OPTIONAL FEATURES
Optional Software
* TerraSync software
* Trimble GPScorrect extension for ESRI ArcPad software
* GPS Pathfinder Tools Software Development Kit (SDK)
* GPS Pathfinder Office software
* Trimble GPS Analyst extension for ESRI ArcGIS software
Optional Accessories
* Nylon carry case
* 12 V vehicle charging cable
* Serial boot with 9-pin RS232
* Vehicle mount
* Spare battery charger
* Serial interface cable
* Tripod bracket
* Extended cap
* Range pole bracket
* There are a large number of aftermarket add-ons for the Nomad, and
as usual there is something for everyone, but frankly, I found everything a
general GPS user would need in the original factory package.
One unique feature of this handheld is the Nomad stylus. Now many of you are
probably saying a stylus is a stylus, but this is not your normal stylus by
a long shot. This multi-functional stylus is matte black and very
comfortable in your hand. It is also serrated for a better grip in the
field, because at one end is a spring-loaded nylon tip for using on the
computer screen while at the other end, covered by a tight fitting plastic
cap, is a Phillips head screwdriver for use on both the weather-tight
battery compartment on the back of the Nomad, and for the end caps of the
unit. These end caps protect and contain all the communication and
connectivity ports on one end cap, and the camera and barcode reader (if you
opt for the top-of-the-line Nomad 800LE) on the other.
Another useful feature, depending on your application, is the versatility of
the Bluetooth connection on the Nomad that allows it to manage Bluetooth
devices even when the device is in standby mode. The literature says the
Nomad can be configured to automatically power on from standby when it
receives a wake-up command from another Bluetooth device. It can even remain
connected to other Bluetooth devices that do not have the capability to wake
up the Nomad before sending data.
One scenario that Trimble mentions is an automated field sensor that needs
to log data to the Nomad every thirty minutes. This Bluetooth connectivity
capability allows the Nomad to conserve battery life between times when the sensor is not active or logging data. I can think of several military
applications where this capability would be useful.
I promised to say more about the battery capabilities of the Nomad. Not only
does it boast a long-lived 15-hour lithium-ion battery and give you ample
warning before it shuts down, but it allows you to profile your battery
usage and correct any errors that can creep into the battery log over time.
The battery log displays battery/power usage information and even has a
"today" screen to indicate whether the GPS hardware is active. The GPS does
consume more battery power than just the handheld computer alone; the today
screen can definitely help you conserve battery life.
Probably the most unusual battery feature is the battery calibration system,
however, which actually improves the accuracy of the battery gauge. Because
the battery power display can become inaccurate over time, it is possible to
see premature or incorrect "low battery" warnings. This never occurred with
either of my Nomads, but the literature says that running the
battery-calibration program begins a testing scenario that runs
approximately 19 hours to recalibrate and improve the accuracy of the
battery gauge and battery warnings. This is a procedure probably best
accomplished over a long weekend, because if you interrupt the procedure you
will have to start all over again. You may never need it, but it is
encouraging that Trimble thought of it. I wish I had this capability on all
my battery-powered equipment.
Different models or configurations of the Nomad have either a numeric keypad
or an eleven-key, standard directional-type interface. I preferred the
numeric keypad myself, but for different applications I can see where the
directional control interface would be useful.
Pricing for the four different Nomad handheld computer models with
integrated GPS starts at $1,700 for the 800B model, which is the base unit
with 512 Mbytes of flash memory and Bluetooth wireless capabilities. The
800L, which has 1 Gbyte of flash memory and adds 802.11 b/g wireless
networking, is $1,900. The Nomad 800LC adds an embedded 2-megapixel camera
for $2,100 and the top-of-the-line 800LE, which was the model I used for
this evaluation, adds a barcode scanner to the package and costs $2,500.
In my opinion, the Nomad is as close to perfect as the military can get for
a commercial rugged handheld computer and integrated GPS for many field
purposes. The standard color scheme is certainly not ideal for covert
operations, but I have seen similar Trimble handheld computers, the Recon
for instance, and GPS units with camouflage color schemes, so I'm sure
Trimble can accommodate our war fighters. I know Nomads are already being
used in theater, with or without camouflage, and with or without government
waivers, because of the letters and e-mails I receive informing me about how
well the Nomad performs in theater. Our war fighters deserve the best
computer and GPS units available, and the Trimble Nomad combination
computer/GPS handheld currently ranks at the top of the list with me.
Author Information </gpsmg/article/articleAuthorList.jsp?id=494500>
Don Jewell
Don Jewell has spent more than thirty years in the Unites
States Air Force, where he was involved with GPS systems from their
inception, either as a test system evaluator or user. He served as a
Commander at Schriever AFB, the home of GPS, and retired as the deputy chief
scientist at Air Force Space Command. He then spent seven years as a senior
marketer for two large government contractors dealing in GPS software and
hardware. Jewell currently serves on two independent GPS review teams that
he helped found, and on four independent assessment teams that frequently
deal with GPS issues for the U.S. government. He has served on numerous Air
Force and Defense Scientific Advisory Boards, and he writes extensively on
technical issues. Jewell has earned his Bachelors degree and MBA, and the
PhD is in progress.
|