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Yes,the instrument was very stout by design for sure. Maybe that was a plus for some.
Besides the sluggish edm, the motion along with the optics was not as refined as other instruments of the same class along with the optics.
Maybe, I caught this instrument at the end of it’s life cycle but it was not a joy to have on the crew.
I saw another lietz/sokkisha electronic theodolite from this era and it did not look like it had much quality also.> David White….
‘Nuff said.
Yep, I believe that’s it. That’s the optical plumb on the back of it.
One good thing, some third party designers do come up with fairly good designs for the virtual keyboard on that device. Big letters, big numbers. Easy to key in.
It helps a lot and makes using the RECON a more pleasant experience by being able to by-pass its standard virtual keyboard.
I am not a Topcon fan but the 300 series is one of he best instruments ever made.
Worst instrument: Topcon GPT-3000 Series. WAY TOO MANY ISSUES.
> I also used a Lietz SET2C that had great optics, but would toss in a bad distance just often enough to make it untrustworthy.
I was going to nominate the Lietz SET2C also, I am no expert on crappy instruments but his was the worst one I have used, my biggest complaint was measurement time boy was it sloowwww.
that’s funny, my GPT3005LW is a great instrument. I have had no problem with it.
Maybe I just go lucky.
“that’s funny, my GPT3005LW is a great instrument. I have had no problem with it.
Maybe I just go lucky.”
Naw! I’m on my second GPT3005. The first was the GPT3005W for 3 years on a lease. I now own a GPT3005LW for 3 and a 1/2 years. Both have been good guns.
Yeah, you’re lucky. The gun was so bad that Topcon soon after replaed it with e 3100 series. It was so bad hat hey replaced hat too, by quickly.
Jiberish
Mr. Lawley,
I am not the grammar police, but you have typed jiberish. I had a gpt3005w in 05-06 that had the EDM go bad twice and it clicked when shooting distance. I concur that the gpt seris lacked quality.
Love my Set 3 too. I still use it, mainly in heavy woods where the Robot is terrible. If I can see any piece of the prism the Set will get it.
Jiberish
Those damn little buttons on the iPhone are just to small.
But thanks for calling me out.
We had a big yellow total station called the MK-III, made in USA in CO if memory serves me right. Constant problems with big u shaped battery. Had all kinds of workarounds to keep it working. PITA. I bitched at my boss about it, and we bought a Topcon GTS-225. Probably the single best investment of my surveying career, though it wasn’t my money.
Hilger & Watts SL60-2 Auto Level. The compensator was sticky almost from day one. I had to tap it with a pencil or something before every shot to be sure. It was sent in for repairs a couple of times but never got fixed. There were three or four of them in the office and they all had the same problem to varying degrees.
This guy wants $1000 for one. I might take it off his hands if he paid me $1000.
I remember in 1979 was issued one of Leitz manufactured optical plumb transit to layout a modernized woodyard in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
The vernier was chipped, the horizontal and vertical circles were chipped and their was no paint on any of the pitted and sand blasted scales.
All the glass covering the verniers and the lens on the scope looked frosted as half the metal of the transit did.
Wound up six 90°s at every setup
Suffered with that boat anchor for a month.
I can remember telling the Chief of Parities that if he expected better results, he had to come up with something made this century.
The next morning he came in the work shack with a “mint” K&E mountain transit.“sweet”
We have a Hilger Watts Level in the equipment cabnet that we use as a backup and loaner instrument. It does not have a problem with sticking. Even the young engineers can use it.
I have several worst Instruments.
#1 Geodimeter 620: I used this instrument for 4 years and it made 3 expensive trips to the repair shop. Always a replacement internal battery and some other part. They only let me go to the field a few times a year back then so it probably only had 20 weeks of use on it before we converted it to other uses.
#2 Sokkia Set IIB Total Station: We got this instrument from another office as a backup instrument. When we had to put it into service, it was a night mare. Or Instrument Man had a nack for accidently putting it into Angle Left Mode during the middele of a bunch of TOPO Shots. This casued lots of head aches. We converted it to other uses.
#3 K & E Vectron: I was working for a company in 1983 that bought one of these, with an Auto Ranger top mount EDM. I packed it over a mile back into the woods to a clearing to take a solar observation for a power line project we were working on. We used the Hour Angle technique, and I prefered to project the image on a card. Something slipped in the optics, and when you moved the scope with the hotizontal tangent screw, it looked like you were turning the vertical tangent screw. We boxed that one up and too it back to the dealer. Our boss purchased a Leitz TM 6 in place of it and it worked fine. I sure wish he had waited a few weeks, and purchased a Leitz SDM 3E.
BEST INSTRUMENT!!!!!The Best Money Maker I have used is our Leica NA2000 Digital followed closely by the Leica DNA10 Digital level. The NA2000 is number 1 becasue we used it for so many years. The DNA10 will soon be #1.
The best total Stations have been Geodimeter 140, Leitz Set II, Leica TCRP 1201+ R 1000. The Leica is the current work horse.
In the catagory of GPS, it is the Leica SR530 followed by the Ashtech Z12, and Ashtech LXII. The Ashtech Z12 were purchased in 1995, and are still going strong. We are using them and or Leica GPS to do a large Static GPS network that I am going to run through OPUS Projects.
the STINGER edm
what a piece of @%$$%@@%$!@%&%#$@#@#^%$#@@&^$#$%#&&%@$#%$
I tried 2 or 3 of them and each time, I set it on a tripod aimed at a prism. I remember that at one time I actually had 2 units together(just got a replacement and was getting ready to send the first one back).
The STINGER was so inconsistent that when I moved the prism back 0.01 the measurement came back to be about 0.02′ shorter. This “fun”, continued through different movements of the prism back and forth. The two of them almost never agreed, and the readings(compared to the direction of the prism movement), almost never made any sense.
I found the inconsistencies so unreal that I actually spent almost half a day playing with these units. It was fun . . . real “fun”, but boy was it aggravating.
I still have the notes . . . somewhere.
Steve,
I would reverse the order on the levels. The NA2000 was great if your in the open with no shadows or high grass. I don’t know how many times we had trouble running high order levels across open ground and ran into problems with waving grass. The DNA03 kicks its ass, the only real problem I have had is using it in a tunnel.
John
The worst I ever used was Topcon 8200 series robot. It’s probably not a bad instrument, but after using a Geodimeter 600 series for year, switching to that was a big step backwards.
Worst data collector was a Compaq Ipaq with TDS survey pro.
@steve-corley Would you happen to have an Ashtech Model z-12 owner’s manual?
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