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Backsight zero drift in Trimble S series total stations
Eric Kara replied 7 years, 9 months ago 25 Members · 37 Replies
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John Hamilton, post: 392828, member: 640 wrote: I also have reflective striping on my PFD
Do PFDs come in a size that fits an R8?
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Fiberglass/composite tripods are horrible for expanding/contracting this time of year.
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Jim Frame, post: 392845, member: 10 wrote: Do PFDs come in a size that fits an R8?
Now that is just cruel! 😉 Actually, not a bad idea. I dropped the TSC2 into the river last year, it floats so I got it back, although it took about 45 minutes to get a boat and lock it through to where it fell off of a tainter gate.
Actually I do have a little PFD for my camera, which is waterproof but does not float.
I have not given up hope on recovering it, although I don’t expect the R8 to be salvageable. But the tripod (Crain Trimax) should be good. The day after we dragged the river searching for it another company was doing sidescan hydro, and they THINK they saw it, 20′ downstream of the end of the wall, which makes sense.
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I’ve seen the S6 sit there and vibrate like crazy before. Something to do with the mag drive I’m told.
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the vibration happens on “inferior” tripods. That is why we use the trimax. That is a known issue. Not sure what exactly constitutes inferior.
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John Hamilton, post: 392863, member: 640 wrote: the vibration happens on “inferior” tripods. That is why we use the trimax. That is a known issue. Not sure what exactly constitutes inferior.
I use a Trimax with screws and cam locks and have had my S6 do the vibrate thing when set up on concrete. Draped a log chain between the legs to stop it.
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eddycreek, post: 392890, member: 501 wrote: I use a Trimax with screws and cam locks and have had my S6 do the vibrate thing when set up on concrete. Draped a log chain between the legs to stop it.
It was Trimax and it was set up on concrete. thx
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we set up a lot on concrete, never had that happen with a heavy tripod like that. I was also told it depends on how wide the legs are set (i.e. narrow setup or legs splayed out).
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I once had a brand new Topcon TS with a servo drive (probably an 8200 series, but don’t recall exact model) that would intermittently reset to exactly 4 minutes off zero. It didn’t happen with every 0-set, or even every setup. In fact the only consistent thing about it was the magnitude of 4′. When we got it back from the shop, they said it was a bad motherboard or some other of those green circuit boards inside.
If the problem with the S9 can’t be attributed to the length of time between checking the BS, or a change in direct sunlight on the instrument, it might be something similar as we found on that Topcon.
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The vibration happens on “inferior” total stations! That’s why we use a leica.
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57″ would be tripod. Unless the instrument has bounced of the ground a couple of times. No amount of calibration would fix this. Nor can this be a “Trimble” error. They wouldn’t be in business if this was the case.
It might be a well made tripod, but that doesn’t mean its tight. Set the tripod up with out the instrument and try to rotate it. Man handle it a little bit, It should be like a rock.
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Conrad, post: 393273, member: 6642 wrote: The vibration happens on “inferior” total stations! That’s why we use a leica.
Must be great to know everything.
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John Hamilton, post: 392720, member: 640 wrote: A client noticed last week that when he checked his backsight using a S9 after about an hour it was off by 57″. Actually the first time he noticed it showed up as a 0.2′ slope distance error, which was not really in the distance but rather was due to the angular drift.
We do almost everything (using an S6) by rounds (except topo shots), so it is constantly being re-oriented, and is usually a couple of seconds or less, but that is with little time in between. I have noticed in the past when doing topo that when I check the BS after some time it does drift off.
I imagine this is maybe caused by the fact that it has a magnet drive rather than a direct motor drive. Has anyone ever asked Trimble about this? He is wondering if his instrument is faulty, I think I have seen the same thing on mine.
My VX rarely creeps and it’s mag driven also.
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squowse, post: 393627, member: 7109 wrote: Must be great to know everything.
I hope you realised it was in jest; a light humoured dig after these posts:
John Hamilton, post: 392863, member: 640 wrote: the vibration happens on “inferior” tripods. That is why we use the trimax….
eddycreek, post: 392890, member: 501 wrote: I use a Trimax with screws and cam locks and have had my S6 do the vibrate thing when set up on concrete…
R.J. Schneider, post: 392902, member: 409 wrote: It was Trimax and it was set up on concrete. thx
But you didn’t realise… did you? Neither did the dude that “liked” your post.
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Hey, insulting a man’s total station is like insulting his kids! Or worse!
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We have 3 older S6’s and 5 newer S5’s. We are a concrete contractor, so we deal with setups on concrete all the time. We just recently started having problems with one of our older S6’s. infact it is going into Trimble tomorrow. We get it all setup and on a backsight, leave it for an hour and the backsight drifts 0.15′ +/-. All our other guns will run all day long and hit dead nuts on their backsights at any point in the day. So we believe there is a mechanical malfunction for what ever reason. Just hope Trimble finds it.
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Gil Wright, post: 403128, member: 12308 wrote: We have 3 older S6’s and 5 newer S5’s. We are a concrete contractor, so we deal with setups on concrete all the time. We just recently started having problems with one of our older S6’s. infact it is going into Trimble tomorrow. We get it all setup and on a backsight, leave it for an hour and the backsight drifts 0.15′ +/-. All our other guns will run all day long and hit dead nuts on their backsights at any point in the day. So we believe there is a mechanical malfunction for what ever reason. Just hope Trimble finds it.
Gil, bring your tripod to your dealer. They should take a look at the tripod feet. Could be rounded, thus moving a little as time goes on.
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