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Tips & Tricks for field technicians
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Minimize flagging or paint the stake around livestock. Flagging can kill an animal that eats to much.
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Fluoro paint fades real fast. Plain enamel lasts MUCH longer
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Make an overt effort to appear courteous towards people’s property. For instance, instead of cutting through someone’s lawn, take the less direct route down a shared boundary or fence line. The neighbors are watching you out their windows. If they see you carefully replacing plugs of their lawn that you just dug up looking for an iron, it’ll go a long way towards keeping the peace.
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Check your backsight after having been set up for ±20 minutes. You will, most probably, find that it has drifted off. Reset the backsight at that time and it will “hold” for a good while.
If you are having trouble keeping the backsight reading consistent one of the possible causes is a worn tribrach. There are three little “bumps” on the tribrach plate that the instrument contacts. If these have become worn, relative to the clamping mechanism, the instrument will shift enough to throw off the backsight orientation. The only fix for that is a new tribrach.
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Check your backsight after having been set up for ±20 minutes. You will, most probably, find that it has drifted off. Reset the backsight at that time and it will “hold” for a good while.
If you are having trouble keeping the backsight reading consistent it may be because the tribrach has become worn. There are three little “bumps” on the tribrach plate that the instrument contacts. If these have become worn, relative to the clamping mechanism, the instrument will shift enough to throw off the backsight orientation.
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Just because your locator doesn’t scream at a search point doesn’t mean there isn’t a rebar in the ground. I can’t tell you how many “dead” rebars I have found by just probing with the shovel.
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“Look for old cut lines, old flagging. Surveyors leave a lot of different kinds of evidence.”
AKA surveyor droppings
T. Nelson – SAM, LLC -
Before I stomp the shoes of the tripod legs into the ground, I take the instument off and put it in the box. Then, after the tripod is firmly set, I put the instument back on and finish the setup.
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts -
Lots of great tips here, I’ll just say that, you will be amazed at how long flagging tied on barbed/hog wire will stay attached, just the knot. Keep your eyes open out there.
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I’ve worked for a good number of firms and didn’t learn that about removing instrument while you stomp the legs in till the last one where it was the boss doing the fieldwork with his instrument! We just held it in hand but in the box is even safer. They are very fragile lab instruments that we take out and use in all sorts of environments.
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love this one!
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Please please teach them how to keep an orderly set of level notes. They should also do a simple check at the end of that set of notes add up the BS readings add up the FS readings the difference should be the misclosure. For the last few years I have seen some crazy level notes. None reduced but expect the office to do it. When I asked if they closed the loop how much error and such deer in the headlights look.
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“… didn’t learn that about removing instrument while you stomp the legs in …”
I used to do that and still would, but the last 5 total stations I’ve had to use (2 Topcon PS’s, a Topcon GT500, a Trimble S5, and a Leica TS16) – since 2016 – all had the optic plumb in the instrument and not on the tribrach. So I’ve had to give it up.
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I’m using TS16 and Geomax Zoom90 which have laser plummets in the instrument. Still the same process for me so not sure what you’re doing differently??
Get legs approximately over mark, attach instrument and move two legs around till pointing over mark, remove instrument from tribrach and stomp legs in (could unscrew tribrach too if you really wanted), reattach and point laser to mark with tribrach screws, adjust legs heights to get bubble close, fine tune bubble with tribrach screws, slide instrument the last few millimetres to be over mark and check level again.
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“…None reduced but expect the office to do it….”
I reduce level notes in a spreadsheet nowadays. But I’m never more than 5 miles from the office.
Levelling is becoming a lost art. There are many PCs and even some PLSs who have never done it.
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This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by Norman_Oklahoma.
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This reply was modified 1 week, 2 days ago by Norman_Oklahoma.
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This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by
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“Levelling is becoming a lost art. There are many PCs and even some PLSs who have never done it.”
I recently sold my DNA03 and Invar rod. I hadn’t used them (except for a one-off project calibrating a bracket I made for an Invar scale) since 2016, and since I no longer have employees I didn’t see any likelihood that I’d be using them ever again. I still do a fair number of topos, but all with a robotic total station.
I still have an old-school automatic level just in case, but I really only keep it around because it’s not worth selling.
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Grab a compass, plumb bob, hand level and a right angle prism and see what you can measure just with hand tools and a field book.
The concept of measuring without a piece of tech seems to be foreign but is valid, timely and critical for many tasks.
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My first week as a “surveyor” I was setting up a brand new Wild T1AE with the head of the surveying department on a construction site. The previous department head, who had ordered the instrument before being hired away to the development company, drives up to look at it. While he is looking through the eyepiece I stepped on the adjacent leg and punched him right in the eyeball! I figured I was in big trouble and I did get a little reprimand but once he drove away rubbing his eye I was applauded. He apparently wasn’t that popular with the field staff. Eventually I learned to be more carefull with the instruments.
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