It's finally here!
The board was waiting in the mailbox when I got home. Ordered on Christmas Eve.
Also got the Leica Disto E7400x, non-magnetic Li-polymer battery (with PCB), micro-USB connector.
Make sure you have all the necessary tools before beginning:
Taking apart the Disto - 2 boards - one for the laser, and the other gets replaced.
Desoldering and getting the old board off was a little tricky, as was removing the flip-out end piece.
I ordered the Li-Po battery with the PCB thinking it would be a safer option. Beat's website has a FAQ saying to buy the non-PCB version. I'm going to give this one a try since the PCB should also be non-magnetic. Getting the keyboard ribbon cable back onto the new board was also tricky.
The finished product:
I soldered on the micro-usb charge connector and charged it for 30 minutes. Connecting it to a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 via bluetooth went relatively smoothly (by Microsoft standards).
I took the tablet computer, running Pocket Topo, to a nearby field and ran through the calibration in 10 minutes. A validation of the calibration showed all orientations of the device giving readings within 0.1 deg of each other. FS/BS agreement between two plastic posts was within 0.4 degrees. I think taking my time and being more careful with my shots would improve this even a little more.
Survey records ... prepare to be decimated! All your survey are belong to us!