I have a ts12 and cs15 robotic total station setup and love it. Recently ran into contract with icon 60 robotic doing dig hole stakeout on his own. There were point i had witch he needed for his layout but my control was blocked with heavy equipment. We ended up reading out and keying in coordinates for him to use. I said if i could connect to his total station would have been easier than reading out 60 points. We didn't have time to try it out. So has anyone ever gotten the viva cs15 to work with icon or are their communications different. Guns looked identical just different color.
I almost feel like making the 2 hour trip to test out. My stupid curiosity gets me to do dumb things and waste time. Surveyors adhd.
Surveyor12345678,
You cannot control the Icon equipment with the Viva software. The applies to both TPS and GNSS gear. The software, Viva and Icon, both look to see what the are trying to connect to and will not work. This check is built into both systems.
If you look in the connection listing for total stations you will not see an option for Icon instruments.
So will the icon instruments only work with the software that comes with them? I've seen demos of the icon stuff. It is pretty dumbed down. It's geared toward contractors rather than professional surveyors, but the instrument itself seems like it could be a decent robot. I'm just curious if third party software will work with it?
Dan,
I am not sure about Icon with third party. I would need to contact Leica Support for Icon. The software is indeed geared towards contractors in order to have a specific product basket for that market. It actually has some nice features. The robot is the TPS1200/TS12 with a different colored housing. The GNSS for Icon is essentially the same as Leica Viva but is more ruggedized in order to also be used mounted to equipment for machine control. There are tow flavors of Icon software - one for layout and surveying and one for machine control.
Basically the product basket is built for contractors and machine control.