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Oldest recommended GPS system?
Would appreciate any advice for an older GPS system to be used for primarily Engineering/topo surveys (no boundary work).
What would be oldest (cheapest) system you guys would buy that is RTK, VRS & GLONASS capable?
I just don’t want to purchase something that is already obsolete (or will be after April).
Any buying advice for Ebay equipment?
Hoping to spend less than $5k.
(PE, LSIT)
Thanks
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37 Replies
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??I just don’t want to purchase something that is already obsolete (or will be after April).?
Going to be tough to get equipment that is not ??end of life? at 5K or less.
I??m not sure if this is end of life or not but I would check out.
https://shop.geo-tronics.com/Preowned-GHX2-Network-Rover-GGD-10-Hz-1004135-01-UGHX2.htm
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I suggest you buy NEW.
Failure to pull your pants down to pee, DOES save time (money). But, the additional time needed to do more laundry, more than eats up the savings.
Look at the prices of a new truck. Or car. New gps is near +- the cost of a new auto.
If you cannot justify the cost of a decent gps, maybe you could skip coffee, or skip Starbucks, or just wear flip-flops, instead of boots.
What I mean by my kinda strong words here, is: YOU ARE TRYING TO SAVE IN THE WRONG PLACE.
Buy new modern gps, and be frugal with some other category of expenditures.
It’s not cost effective to SAVE money on flagging, and let the crew spend 2 hrs, finding your control stations.
Flagging is cheap, considering the cost of crew time.
Not trying to be harsh, but you got your priorities wrong. One bad shot, or 3 bad shots, in design foundation, is not cheap to redesign, especially after concrete is pouring.
And, the cheapest new gps may not be the best answer. When you are in the data business, don’t ever show up with a bad shot.
N
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Lol, thanks for the input.
As Mr. Eastwood says, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I certainly do when it comes to critical data. I call in the big boy PLS’s for that work.
I’ve been using a Nikon TS for preliminary data gathering, and I am just looking for a cost effective way to increase productivity.
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Tough to predict what older GPS will not work on April 7, until April 8.
For what you want topo work, not precise surveying, almost any obsolete GPS only RTK system that can handle the rollover is adequate. $5,000 may be sufficient for more recent GNSS setups.
Paul in PA
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Engineering/topo surveys need to be better than Boundary in my area. If you want to replace conventional methods with GNSS in this regard, you would be wise to invest in the best rather than the cheapest. Pay me now or pay someone else more later.
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Maybe the good ole Topcon Hiper Lite Plus series would fit the bill. Someone who is very close to me (OK, it is me) is selling a set on eBay here. It doesn’t have the GLONASS option activated (When I demoed it, I didn’t think the slight performance enhancement justified the $2000 upgrade cost). It has been upgraded to the latest firmware put out February 2019, so it is good to go for the GPS week rollover. I ran it both in RTK and RTN configurations (VRS on Florida DOT Network). If you would like to pair it with the data collector it worked with you can check it out on eBay as well here.
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This is what happens when you get PE in front of LS. ??????¯????
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Vertical is critical in design. I would not want to tell the developer that they need to bring in 0.5 feet of extra fill over 100 acres or spend the money in design by dropping the entire site 0.4 feet. Depending on constraints, you might not be able to do that.
By a new system and avoid higher insurance premiums.
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0.4 meets RMSe specs for 1’ contours.
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That’s photo though. You know what you’re getting into when you do photogrammetry. Imagine using a dated GPS system thinking you are tight. Let alone throwing another layer of error on to of it when flying the site.
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The situation is:
New system prices are down.
Quality and reliability are up.
No point going with an old retired system, when a newer system offers so much.
What’s available now, new, was not available at ANY price, just a few yrs ago. Even 2 million dollars, could not get you what can now be had for less than a new car.
Take advantage of it.
N
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That??s for all 1?? contour mapping….not just photo. Every gps Topo survey that I??ve ever checked with LiDAR has bad rtk shots in it. You??d be shocked at the number of bad fix solutions you get.
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I’ve checked a lot of LiDAR and found issues with it. I haven’t found issues with GPS topo points, with the exception of challenging environments for GPS say under canopy. Bad fix solutions are rare with modern receivers, more likely are HI changes that get missed.
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No reason to buy new. Even the oldest RTK systems (1992?) will dramatically improve your productivity. All that matters is that it works. Once RTK was invented, all the improvements were incremental. You just have to decide which improvements you are willing to pay for. I still do a significant amount of work with an early ’90s total station, and static GPS, but I am very thankful, when RTK is appropriate, that I can use our brand new Javad system.
I would wait untill after April 8, and not buy without trying.
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Lol, how do you really feel about PEs.
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You cant just check the points you have to check the surface i.e. interpolated elevations. When you do that LiDAR data will win hands down.
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I have a full set of Hiper Lites with a FC200 collector, non glonass, but can be activated for $3000.00 I bought it brand new in 2005 and it works
as it should, I made the jump to Javad and this unit has plenty of good surveying days in it, just not needed with my one crew setup.
If you are interested, let me know.
Thanks
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Aren’t Hiper Lites considered end of life by Topcon?
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I spent $500 having the internal memory turned on in a single Hiper Lite+. A few months later the board fried. Parts not available.
If I had a short term need for RTK I might go for a pair of Hiper Lites to do it. They are certainly capable. But on the understanding that at any moment my investment could go poof! and be gone. In my case, being experienced with the units, and having a work flow around them, we made an attempt to replace the fried unit. By the time we did it’s mate had also fried. So we gave it up and bought a pair of Trimble R8s’. Which I expect to fill the bill for many years to come.
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I think that you aught to listen to Nate’s opinion on this matter. He is playing it a little low-key with his advise here, but those who know the history know that he soldiered along with an old unit for a long time before finally taking the plunge with new. And finding that the new unit performed near miracles compared to the old.
The Javad units Nate bought are certainly lower cost than the Trimble’s I bought and by all accounts do an excellent job.
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