Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Strictly Surveying › Topcon GT Series Robotic Instrument – looking for reviews
Topcon GT Series Robotic Instrument – looking for reviews
eddking2003 replied 3 years, 4 months ago 19 Members · 48 Replies
I don’t give a “glowing reviews”. I just speak from my experience. I do provide training for Topcon products which I own and use daily. Mostly because people see how productive I am, and they ask how? If I owned Trimble or Leica equipment, it would be the same. I have provided insight on this forum (both positive and negative) from my experience, I don’t bash products. I do NOT work directly for Topcon, I work for myself. Topcon has chewed on me from comments I’ve made on here, and I have just as hard a time getting answers from Topcon as every else on this forum. Topcon resellers such as Admar do hire to train their clients as they see fit. Mostly I am teaching them surveying procedures with latest technology. In the past few years, I have been adding Trimble GNSS products to my arsenal. I don’t bash them, just because I don’t understand the products. I seek the answers from those that do know.
Well, the base is less, but if you want Galileo, GLONASS, etc etc etc, it costs a chunk of change for each step up.
I found that this is where the new manufacturers really kill the Big Three. When they say their receiver does something, they don’t mean that you have to double your costs to get it all turned on.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.To be clear you are referring to the Topcon HiperHR, where there is added cost to enable Galileo, Beidou, IRNSS, QZSS, SBAS. The HiPer VR automatically tracks signals from all available constellations — including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, IRNSS, QZSS, SBAS. There is extra cost to have Tilt and Internal cell Modem.
We bought a GT-505 about 2 years ago as our first robotic total station and have been using it to do boundary work in 2-man and solo crews. We have several FC-5000s with one of them having the Hybrid Mode unlocked and we have tested it with our Hiper SR rovers. I have used a few other robotic total stations that were older while in school and as a demo, but have never done a full days work with them. Also we not have an RC-5 unit for our robot.
Overall we have had pretty good luck, definitely turns fast, is quite light, and tracking is decent once you get used to it. There are a few issues we had.
– got locked out and unable to use the gun due to “Third Party Software Detected” error while an hour from the office and working in -5 degree weather. Had to send it back to get updated. Error comes back sometimes, but hasn’t locked us out.
– certain reflective vests throw it for a loop at close distances (~50 ft or less) and it will go crazy trying to find the prism that is right there. This issue also appears to be affected by sunlight conditions as well.
– there are specific Tribrachs you must use with a set screw that are supposed to help keep it stable. I have turned sets with and without the set screw as a test and there was no noticeable difference, but they claimed that was part of the tracking problem.
– I work in dense wooded areas and several times and have lost Bluetooth Connection while only being 250 feet from the gun. Sometimes I would have to get within 50 feet for it to reconnect.
– Hybrid Mode is very nice and makes certain workflows faster, but be sure to understand the automatic GPS vertical offset MAGNET adds if the Hybrid Mode is checked. Also if you use the Find Me function while in Hybrid Mode and your GPS location is autonomous due to tree cover it will stare up at space or down to the ground if the elevation of that autonomous point is way off from where you are.
– Forget tracking within 15 feet, easier to stop it and manually turn/lock once you get to your point.
– MAGNET took some getting used to and seems more geared towards construction type jobs rather than boundary surveys, but I don’t mind it after I took some time to learn it.
– FC5000s can be a pain in the ass to run while raining or snowing, RAIN-X helps significantly but still can be some frustrating times if you find yourself working in those conditions.
Just some stuff we ran into, feel free to ask specifics if you need. Like I said I have not used another robotic ts for a long period of time so some of these problems may be found in others.
- Posted by: @dooryardsurveyor
– there are specific Tribrachs you must use with a set screw that are supposed to help keep it stable. I have turned sets with and without the set screw as a test and there was no noticeable difference, but they claimed that was part of the tracking problem.
Yes. This is good to mention. And the Topcon tribrachs cost right around $700 with an optical plummet. The gun comes with an appropriate tribrach, but it doesnt have an optical plummet, so if you like to leap frog your setups without uprooting the whole thing, then you will need to spend $2100 extra for three tribrachs…
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong. I’m curious if there are any other users of the GT-1000 series of Topcon robots. We had used Topcons forever and decided to try either Leica or Trimble. We decided to go with Leica even though the software has supposedly always been tough to navigate and hard to figure out. But it was very powerful from what I had heard. We went that way and have had great success and just minor issues; the Topcons seemed to always have problems even though they were workhorses and easy to use. With the Leica’s we get very good horizontal and vertical results.
The Topcon GT-1003 we purchased in 2016 has had major motor problems. Was fixed once, broke again and then it was not fixable so Topcon provided another one. That was fair of them.
Since that time the newer one (received in 2017) had the same motor problems again in 2019 and is now flaking out again after going all the way to Topcon in California to be fixed.
I would have chalked it up to the first one just being a lemon (and these things happen) but now we are seeing the same thing with the replacement. Very frustrating for sure.
Just looking to see if we are the only ones seeing these problems.
Thanks
@gregg-gaffney….Not just you on this one. We had one go down about 6 months into use. Motors had to be replaced (done under warranty) and luckily my crew caught what was going on because the issue showed up in angle readings (had about a 30 minute dead spot). While getting it fixed, talked about getting 2 more and was notified this is a very common GT issue and to either wait for the new model with different motors to come out or slide back to the PS series.
@terminus-nc Thanks for letting me know, what a shame. Very small and light robot which the guys liked of course. I wont even be able to sell it once its fixed since who would want this with all these problems. And I am not one to sell something and not disclose that there are issues with it.
By the way, we saw some of the issues with dead spots as well. Now I can’t even get it to make a full rotation. Sigh
sorry for your problems as well, these days not much holds up the way it used to. We have a 20 year old HP Laserjet that just keeps chugging along and a graveyard of newer printers the die within a year. You would think with a precision instrument you would not have these kind of issues.
Check with your dealer. The new firmware has supposedly ended the burned out motors and other issues associated with it.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@dmyhill will do, much appreciated
I’ve been using a refurbished GT-1001 w/ RC-5 for the past few months with zero problems. The only complaint I would have is with the battery. If you leave a fresh battery in the gun, for some they still draw power and go dead. The PS did the same. Also, there is no battery indicator on the RC-5. It will last all week. Just seems to die at the worst times. I love the gun, lightweight, very accurate, fast, and stable. Much faster than the PS Robot. I can double angles at every shot, will almost no additional downtime. The 3x optical plummet is a huge improvement for accuracy, over the PS.
I’m trying to get Topcon to give me a demo of the GTL-1000 top-mounted scanner.
FYI: Topcon just released an upgrade, the GT-1200 series.
@leegreen Lee – hope that works out for you and you do not run into these same issues. Seems to work perfectly, then not so much.
We liked the instrument for its size and speed as you mentioned, but having one replaced already and in the shop 3-4 times for the same problem in 4 years sucks. We always pull the batteries out also as you mention.
Wondering if the upgrade to GT-1200 is due to the issues mentioned with the motors on the GT-1000 series.
- Posted by: @gregg-gaffney
@leegreen Lee – hope that works out for you and you do not run into these same issues. Seems to work perfectly, then not so much.
Crossing my fingers ????
Hi all,
Just thought I’d chime in on this one. I’ve used robots from each of the big three manufacturers, with the company I work for purchasing a GT in the last few months. I have heard of the motor drive issues in the GT instruments, but Topcon robots aren’t as common here in Australia so I don’t hear much about them locally.
I’ve been using a GT-1003 for engineering survey work, setting control and setting out civil works, it’s been working pretty much trouble free for me since we purchased it. I currently have it being used for machine control and the tracking seems near impeccable for this use, I was actually a bit worried about this but it’s actually tracking a mast mounted prism just as well as an SPS730 would for a Trimble wired machine. Since it’s been assigned to our grader I’ve fallen back on our old Trimble S6 in the mean time and I’ve found that when using the control and checking the set out which was set by the GT, there is little to no variation in the readings and results, this is a bit of a confidence builder considering the amount of negative reviews I’ve heard about Topcon robotics.
The GT still isn’t perfect though, I’ve noticed the following issues:
– The battery issues that Lee stated seem to be a consistent hangover from previous Topcon products, I’ve seen this in data collectors from as far back as 15-16 years back. I usually just remove all the batteries at the end of the working day, with a single RC5 battery lasting well over a week on a single charge.
– The predictive tracking on the GT’s doesn’t seem to be as good as the Trimble’s or Leica’s, I’ve got mine set to 3 seconds but on a busy construction site it can struggle a little more than the others, but at least the target search routine is pretty reliable. The RC5 is WAY better than the joystick and GPS search in the Trimble system, but I think that Leica’s power search is still the best target acquisition routine.
– Vertical error seems to be comparable with previous Leica instruments I’ve used, I’ve had one dicky resection, but that was easy to identify. As far as vertical consistency is concerned I’m hard pressed to rate anything higher than the Trimble robots I’ve used.
– Magnet has a few upside down concepts in there, such as procedures for set collection, and when you can/can’t use a TIN model for vertical reference. As a whole though I actually have found Magnet to be a pretty refreshing experience. Alot like Lee has said, a bit of training goes a long way, I’ve found that Magnet actually doesn’t feel all too different to Trimble Access as a whole but in some cases more powerful and presented better on screen. We replaced a Trimble GPS rover with a Topcon one for one of our foreman and he’s commented on how much easier he’s found Magnet to navigate.
Like Lee I’m not a Topcon rep, so this is all based solely off of my own experiences. If I had to purchase a setup and work for myself tomorrow I’d probably buy a second hand Trimble setup as I’m probably most comfortable and confident still with this gear and it’s results, but if you were to ask me 5 years ago I would have said the same things about the Leica 1200+ series. Don’t write off the GT as a prospective purchase, my suggestion would be to hire before you buy to get a feel for it, and I would actually recommend doing this for all of them, not just the Topcon.
The Magnet set collections is weird, and it gets more strange when you look into the raw data, and have it write the note files with the raw data (which are much more accessible than the raw data in the xml).
Had a bit of a kerfuffle getting it to work with Star*Net (if you need this, talk to the Star*Net tech phone line…they have some answers).
What was most interesting was the revelation that the set collection of Magnet reduces sets to accumulated angles. Think of using an old Topcon with the lower motion and how we used to accumulate sets…well, a manual on how to do field traverse was written, and that same manual still rules the engineering at Topcon (from what I was told). Getting info directly from Topcon is VERY difficult. So, Magnet is not “trash”, but like all our software is essentially “bespoke”, meaning that each manufacture is extremely unique, although they all do the same thing.
Make sure you use the Topcon tribrachs rated for the robot!
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@zammo “can’t use a TIN model for vertical reference”
You can import a surface model (XML, TN3, TTM) into Magnet for vertical reference. TIN format specifically is not supported. TIN files formats are either from GeoPAK or Carlson. They should be converted to XML.
Yeah I should re-phrase that, I have been using terrain models I’ve brought in from TN3 files which work well, I guess the term is different depending on who you’re speaking to, I actually call them DTM’s.
The specific issue I’m having is when staking 2D linework I’d like to be able to get the cut/fill values shown in relation to the terrain model at the same time. For the life of me I can’t find this setting anywhere, even in the top left Magnet symbol which seems to be the magical go to when all hope is lost.
The only other issue I have with Magnet is constantly having to shoot a back sight for doing a set collection. Most of my work I do using resections to tape targets I’ve set, and I’m on average hitting less than 2mm misclose over 4-5 two faced readings. I can’t understand why I need to resign to a single back sight point for reference when I have more than enough redundancy in the resection, almost feels like your going backwards from a accuracy point of view. Do you have any idea how to turn off the need for a back sight check for each set?
Sorry about all the questions, Topcon robots aren’t commonly used amongst surveyors down here in oz so knowledge on little things like this is far a few between, even tech support has struggled a bit because they haven’t had many people down here asking enough to keep them sharp. Other than those couple of issues I’m pretty happy with Magnet Field, after using Topcon office software for the last 15 years it’s been nice to use field software which talks the same language.
The set collection routines have been different for all the instruments I’ve used, I’ve probably found the easiest routine is in Trimble Access. Magnet Fields routine feels a bit convoluted but I can work through it, hey it’s not as complicated as what I remember with the Leica 1200 jiggers.
I also made the mistake with the tribrachs, I intended to use the Leica robotic tribrachs which have the required torsional stiffness for that kind of work, only to find that the GT jigger doesn’t actually fit in the tribrach!! First time I’ve ever encountered this in over 17 years in the game.
You are suggesting a routine exclusive to Pocket3D software where you can stake a 2D line and reference the elevation from a design surface. Unfortunately, I’ve long looked for this in Magnet, and can’t find it.
The definition of set collection is to measure the backsight at each set. Sounds like you want just Face1/Face2 angle at each measure point. This is done in Survey >Topo with Survey Settings >Meas. Method Direct/Reverse. This will allow you to measure each side shot, without returning to the backsight.
Log in to reply.