Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Strictly Surveying › Robot lifespan
@jim-frame
Point taken. I rarely run level anymore either. I’ve never find much difference in the results I get from running good control with my instrument. I only break it out when there is a contractual expectation. If it is short, say a couple of turns, or personnel access issues then I may go the one-person route. Anything long I break from my solo mode of operation and hire another warm body through a temp service. And that happens about once a year.
What sort of issues did you have with the 1200+ series? Just speed in general? What software did you use?
I just went from a painful couple years with a modern Sokkia iX robot to a 2010 TCRP1203+ with a pain in the butt Parani hanging off the legs and it keeps a lock way better than the Sokkia did. It connects faster and gets lock just as fast. Only thing it’s slower at is turning, but I can tell it which way to turn towards me which saves a ton of time. If this thing keeps running I could put up with it another year or 2 and I do 12+ hours of solo construction layout right now. I’ve been getting enough done in a day to amaze the office staff, both with the topcon gt we had on loan for the last Sokkia ix repair and with this Leica.
Update: I don’t know why it had no more than 10m range with the rh15 radio handle (it’s since gone missing so I couldn’t play around further) but a Parani sd1000 attached to the instrument only (using a Panasonic fz-m1 with long range Bluetooth built in) I can go 150m under ideal conditions and the tcrp1203+ is a much better instrument than the modern Sokkia iX I had been using.
I had thought the radio handle wasn’t compatible with my tablet but it doesn’t seem like that’s true after all. Anyone else have thoughts on that?
What are you using for robotic on this instrument?
- Posted by: @john-putnam
Does not take much in the way of knowledge to run the rod.
I’ve never met anyone who could reliably look at the bubble. I’ve met plenty of rodpersons who can reliably look at everything else, except the bubble.
I like to walk to the side of the pole and check it from 90?ø when it’s a bit too high to see from the front. Eventually it got to the point I always had it dead on in and out even with the parallax from the front. On control points I still always check it from the side.
@350rocketmike if you mean software, TDS Survey Pro on a Ranger data collector, with Deaton Geo-Tronics bluetooth (sort of Parini type) ??radios?.
EDIT:
The lifespan of a modern total station has a lot to do with your business model. One that has become less competitive in high production topo work may continue to be very viable for control/boundary.
It also depends on how it is handled and cared for day-to-day. If the guy making the monthly payments is the guy using it the life span will be greatly enhanced. I’ve seen some going strong at 15 years, others that were done at 3.
In the end the availability of parts and service is the last word.
How about any thoughts on water resistance after 10+ years? This time of year we’re fighting with rainy weather a lot. In the winter it’s snow and ice.
Before I was worrying about damaging a $20,000 robot and now it’s like a $3000 robot (my bosses money – but I do care).
I feel more worried about rain damage on an 11 year old robot with older seals etc. I like this instrument a lot better than the Sokkia iX so I’d really rather it not get destroyed and I’m stuck with the Sokkia again (if it’s still around) or my boss has to buy something else. I wouldn’t mind if he bought me a new Leica ts16 but I don’t think I really need it at this point. The old robot shoots fast, holds a lock with an iron grip (compared to what I’m used to – I haven’t used a Trimble) and it connects in like 2 seconds because of the serial port BT adaptor.
I also have to keep water out of the Bluetooth connector and cables, which I’ve done by best with a waterproof cell phone case to keep most of the rain off it.
Here in the Pacific NW we work in the rain and get our instruments wet on a regular basis. We also bring them inside to dry out overnight, out side of the box, whenever they do get wet. We do that day after day, year after year, and it doesn’t seem to affect service life.
I never worried about a light rain, but if it starts pouring we are packing up whatever instrument we have. I’ve never seen anyone keep running it in a downpour.
It’s the moderate rain for a longer amount of time, especially in the cold, (when the inside of the instrument gets all fogged up to the point that you can’t even see through it) that worries me.
I’ve personally never had a failure, but I’ve talked to people who have with Trimble robots and tsc3’s.
@mark-mayer here in central IN, this fair weather surveyor does not work in the rain. 😉
I’ve worked on the plains as well, and I didn’t work in the rain there. And I didn’t expect anyone else to once I saw it. Rain there comes with lightning and gusting, swirling wind. It also comes in buckets, for a relatively short duration. So that’s a no-go. I get it.
If you are getting fogging inside the instrument that is a very bad thing. I would expect that to impact service life severely.
@norman-oklahoma but I confess that I might use the technology as the excuse for not working in the rain when in fact I just don??t really want to.
And I don’t work in the snow. That will make people in some parts of the world shake their heads. I could, of course, but there is just no need to. I can afford to lose a day or two or three in the winter.
I work in the rain because I have to, not because I like it or because I’m super tough. I can’t lose 100+ days each year.
@brad-ott The first raindrop to hit me is God’s fault, the second drop to hit me is mine!
Come hang out in WA in February. We all keep running in a downpour. I have worked through some of the historically wettest days the state has had.
Yes, I have had instruments get fogged. Typically, they dry out. But, they are also typically the older instruments. We aren’t going to give up a month of billing to put off buying a new total station by half a year.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@norman-oklahoma
Exactly, I typically do not work in the snow either. But it isnt because I cant.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@norman-oklahoma
The fogging has happened every time it rained a decent amount on the Sokkia robot I was using. A few years back running the conventional Leica I believe it was the same thing but that crew chief didn’t keep us in the rain as long as I keep myself in it.
The Leica I’m using now actually seemed to take a lot longer to start fogging up, but then stopped shooting after a couple hours of the garbage weather.
Half a year or ten years? Who gets to tell the boss you fried his $20,000 robot?
Also no rain here in February. Just snow, if it’s crazy warm maybe freezing rain.
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