Tips & gotchas

There is no bucket-tip-height setting. The DIG module corrects the bucket-tip offset inside its own GPS feed during its external setup and calibration, and the benchmark carries calibration from there. The only implement-height setting in the app — Blade Height (Settings → SURVEY) — is applied only during survey recording and never to the excavator depth display, so there is nothing to enter or measure for the bucket.

Benchmark calibration with DIG uses the bucket tip directly. When you drop or calibrate a benchmark, hold the bucket cutting edge on the spot you are calibrating to. The DIG module's GPS feed is already at the cutting edge, so the average lands at ground level without further adjustment.

No valve commands — ever. Excavator mode is visual guidance only. The app suppresses outbound valve commands regardless of which control module is connected. The DIG module has no valve channel at all — it is a one-way GPS feed by design.

Achieved-grade overlay is per-bin (10 cm). Adjacent dug bins fade together into a smooth green segment. Skipping a bin (you stayed too high there) leaves it red on the chart — go back and dig that section.

The achieved-grade overlay records the most recent reading at each 10 cm bin. If you dig down then sweep back across the same spot shallower (or the bucket lifts off the trench bottom), the chart updates to the latest reading. Aim for the slow trend rather than chasing every bounce; you'll see the green band fill in cleanly as you commit each station. Heads-up: if you swing the bucket out to empty and pass over an already-dug bin at a depth below your real cut, that swing reading will overwrite the bin's value. Unlikely in normal digging cadence, but worth knowing if your chart suddenly shows a deeper-than-actual spot.

One pass per segment. A single Excavator dig is a single pass — you don't multi-pass the bottom of a trench. The achieved-grade overlay records the most recent reading at each 10 cm bin, so come back over a spot only when the bucket is at-depth. To switch grades mid-trench (for example, a hand-over from one slope to another), tap Change Grade; that closes the current segment only — the new segment is anchored when you next tap Start (after editing the inline Set Grade bar and confirming Ready to Start?), and the chart keeps both legs.

Walking with Bluetooth GPS. If your excavator's GPS is on the operator station and not where you'd want to survey, you can pair a Bluetooth GPS receiver to walk the trench centerline manually before driving the machine. See Bluetooth GPS in the reference appendix. The DIG module doesn't replace this — Bluetooth GPS is for the survey step, DIG is for the dig step.

Excavator and benchmarks from AGD files. Imported benchmarks live with their AGD design and only appear as Design BM rows in the Calibrate Elevation sheet while a Land Forming design is loaded. In Excavator you'll usually calibrate using the Loaded survey row's Calibrate button (5s avg) against the survey points that produced your design, or drop the bucket on a known control point and use Advanced → Zero to current GPS. If you have an AGD file with imported benchmarks, load it via Land Forming first, calibrate there, then switch to Excavator — the BM offset persists.

0% is a valid grade. Type 0 in the Target Grade % field of the inline Set Grade bar and tap Set Grade (or Apply) — that's a level pad. Position the bucket where you want the pad surface to be, tap Start, and confirm in the Ready to Start? dialog. The app locks your current GPS position as the 0+00 reference; dig down across the pad until the chevrons stay centered.