Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Strictly Surveying › Stakin’ in the rain, what a glorious feeling!
Stakin’ in the rain, what a glorious feeling!
nate-the-surveyor replied 2 years, 5 months ago 31 Members · 51 Replies
@dougie
An uncivilized attitude if there ever was one!
On a side note, Kiel does not melt easily. I got one stuck in the defroster, and despite running the thing all shift to dry gloves while I worked in the “wintery mix” it’s still stuck!
Good looking out not putting a sail next to your total station. I mentioned to my boss that I used the popup tailgate on our yukon to protect the instrument and man from hard rain, when she purchased a transit connect. Her response was to purchase a 6′ square popup pavilion to protect the instrument.
Need less to say in a beach community… it was never used for that purpose.
Worked solo in the rain a lot in OBX, but usually far enough from the truck that an umbrella was just too much extra weight. Boss would say keep working every time I asked if it was raining too hard.
My vote is Keil too, or maybe a grease pencil, but they are very soft for field work, and not sure how well they would hold up outside??
Just today had to drape a rag over my controller, lol!
As to the OP question about marking, I liked the ??keeping stakes dry? suggestion best but if infeasible, and even lumber crayon fails, try a paint pen, but if that fails, try grease paint.
Grease paint is also called a paint stick, but not much to look at.
Iron workers (god-like prima donna??s) use them to mark steel.
Try a paint stick. It displaces moisture and leaves a greasy but inscrutable mark.
A guy I work with got told the same at his previous employer, so he kept working until his Trimble s6 got fried from water damage. Then he went home.
- Posted by: @350rocketmike
A guy I work with got told the same at his previous employer, so he kept working until his Trimble s6 got fried from water damage. Then he went home.
Once again I reiterate……. We all work in the rain regularly and routinely in the PNW. Instrument failures because of it just are not a thing.
Fried a Sokkia Set2C in the late 1990’s. The repair cost to me was more than the invoice for the entire job.
@mark-mayer we don??t stake in the rain down here south of the border.
Speaking for myself, I rarely work when the site is on fire. But that doesn’t cut down on my productivity much.
- Posted by: @richard-imrie
If it’s any consolation, down this way we use an umbrella, over the total station, as a sun shade.
@richard-imrie Are you working out of the Prado? I just recently made that my field rig. Gave her a 3 inch lift and steel bumpers. Was wondering if I was the only one… It’s a bit snug inside compared to a full size pickup but I like the offroad capability and it is easy to park
@norman-oklahoma it??s pretty awesome when there??s fleets of helicopters orbiting and VLATs (very large air tanker) buzzing us. First the Lear jet (Air Group Supervisor-Air Attack on the radio) goes over then the ground rumbles.
It’s a Hilux ute:
We do have Landcruisers (and Prado) down here, and certainly my preference would be to have one as survey vehicle, so that everything is closed in:
I’d say Landruisers only come in automatic, whereas the Hilux is mostly 6 speed manual. Our open road speed limit is 80km/hr and we rarely use 5th, and almost never 6th. At 80 km/hr its doing about 1800 rpm in 4th.
@norman-oklahoma
Well I know a few people who have had it happen to Trimble robots and tsc3’s and I’ve heard that it’s very common on leica’s with the radio handle.
I’m not sure why some people swear it’s not a thing and lots of others have seen it first hand.
If mine fails should I tell my boss “well some people on surveyor connect said this could never happen?”
It could be that units sold to us in the PNW have some special weatherproofing. But I’ve never heard anyone make such a claim. One thing I have heard is that service techs around here will always replace the seals whenever they have a unit open, because they will not reseal as well the second time.
@norman-oklahoma
The Leica robot I use was built in 2010 and has never been opened up or had anything done to it. One thing I know is that rubber seals tend to harden up and fail with age….so I could be wrong but I imagine that age would be a factor when it comes to water resistance.
Even when I was using the almost new Sokkia iX robot, after being out in the rain for a bit you could barely see through the scope from all the condensation built up inside it. It would stop getting a lock…then you’re walking back to the robot, wiping the lens down with paper towel, trying to sight in the prism to get a lock again and you could barely see it.
Personally I’ve found that if I can get a plastic bag on the robot before it gets completely drenched then you can try to wait out the rain while doing other tasks that don’t require it (notes, measurements with a tape, etc). If it gets drenched it needs to go back in the truck, get wiped down thoroughly and dry out in the heat/defrost for a little bit.
The first time I used the Leica in heavy rain I found it was dealing with the rain much better than the Sokkia… holding a lock and getting the shots every time. Then all of a sudden it stopped getting any shots at all. I wiped it and the prism down, still nothing. I figured I had fried it, so it went in the truck to dry out. Back to the office to get the Sokkia iX (because it’s newer and should deal with rain better, plus everyone hates it, so if it fails no big loss). Luckily after drying out for a couple hours the Leica was working again. Now I don’t let it get that wet anymore.
- Posted by: @bill93
Probably the wrong word.
Inscrutable:
Any person or thing that’s mysterious, mystifying, hard to read, or impossible to interpret
Using a paint stick would likely be inscrutable, but I was thinking beyond scrutiny, not smeared. I am gruntled by your response. Thanks for correction.
Did your Leica just loose lock or shut down? Oregon mist, kind of a light rain, coats everything in moisture as if it was sprayed with a mister. It does not feel like it is raining but you get completely soaked. I have found that my Leica instruments can have a hard time tracking in it. It is not that the mist is to thick to see through, the instruments various lenses just get coated in the stuff. If I wipe it down everything works great again.
I have spent my entire 30+ year career based of the PNW using either Wild or Leica gear. For a large chunk of that I was partially responsible for developing field techniques for a larger engineering firm with numerous multi crew offices around the PNW. I have never seen a Leica get wet while working in the rain. We did have an office with some Sokia instruments that would get wet. The killer for instrument is leaving them wet in the case.
I use a tall lath bag (sprayed with camp dry) and shorter lath. Still use old school markers and have no issue. If the bag is too short you’re going to struggle.
We use an umbrella held down by stakes and ropes. If you’re goofy enough to tie it to the instrument you were going to break it anyway.
We run trimble in snow and rain all the time (PNW). An occasional wipe with a lint free cloth keeps it running smooth. Dry it and leave it out of the case overnight and you should be fine. Never use a paper product on lenses or screens. It’s like scrubbing them with mini toothpicks and will destroy them in short order…
Log in to reply.