Finally, a tripod to see over people parking in my line of sight!
Prototype arrived today, haven't had a chance to test it properly yet, feels rigid though, testing will tell, was easy enough to level, level bottom section first, then raise, then adjust upper stays to level top. Might need to make some kind of adapter to push into the dirt, feet are good for concrete at least. Black anodized aluminium and carbon fibre.
wow!
Are you going to wear stilts while sighting through the scope?
If it is rigid enough I can certainly see uses for it. You might be on to something.
That's a hell of a lot taller than the elevator tripods I have used in the past with the SX series, and even those gave me a big advantage on certain sites. I'm curious to hear how testing goes.
Are you going to wear stilts while sighting through the scope?
No need, there's no eyepiece on that one!
Only thing I would want for that setup is a dedicated battery connection so I can leave it up there as long as possible.
That is nice. It is almost a mini Bilby Tower. Man something like that would be nice on a construction site as well. Just set up the robot resect and stake until your heart is content.
I just looked up Bilby Tower, I hadn't heard of it, but what an impressive achievement!
That guy on stilts cracks me up, practise makes perfect as they say! 🤣
If you ever get on the east coast and go out to the NGS Training Center. One of the advisers there started his career building those. He is the adviser for this region. Great guy. His wife is amazing as well if you like history and want a first hand account about life on the road traveling for long level runs and geodetic work across this country she is a walking history book on that. Her dad was on crews and she lived the life.
The key feature of the Bilby tower was that it was two concentric tripods, with the instrument mounted on the inner one while the crew moved around on the outer one without shaking the instrument.
Jasper Bilby worked on a triangulation crew for the US C&GS, and realized they needed something more easily erected, torn down, and moved from site to site. He worked with a windmill company to create the design.
What is probably the only surviving complete Bilby tower was restored and erected in Jasper Bilby's home town of Osgood, Indiana by the Surveyors Historical Society a few years back. I was able to connect them to someone who had seen one still standing, and they carried on.
Great info. Thanks Bill.
All optics in those days, I can imagine how careful you'd have to be not to wobble the tower while your co-workers looking through the eye piece, lining up his target. Genius using two towers like that.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, no matter how much we learn, there's always more interesting things left to learn about.
In Australia, I haven't been to the US yet, something worth considering when I do, my daughter's our surveyor, she has an appreciation for history, has one of those cylindrical mechanical calculators. I got her the star alimac, looking forward to trying that out. I'm a field mech engineer, mostly practical application, optical metrology background, took me a while to learn not everyone wants their problems solved lol.
I am considering incorporating a nodal prism in an aluminimum bracket beneath the head, on top of the 70mm shaft. This might assist to transfer levels over water using total stations on both sides measuring synchronously. Most refraction occurs within the first 3m, so it will be above most of the refraction. The shaft has a threads at either end, it would be a simple machined aluminium bracket , threads each end, a 30mm offset 62 mm dia prism, with a lockring on the top thread to allow it to be pointed between the legs. Not sure whether it's worth doing this or not.
Was thinking of calling it "Baby Bilby" what do you think?
Will have a chance to test it this weekend.
Cheers,
Peter.
Had to find this in Streetview. I would have a tough time turning the angles on this crew 😮
For elevating a SX station to scan, it doesn’t need to be level. But it does need to be stable. If it isn’t stable enough, it will give you an error and won’t scan.
Going to test it this weekend. So far, when scanning with the SX12, we've only been able to use quality timber tripods, even brand name fiberglass moves and sets off the alarm, which is set at 8 arcseconds, got my fingers crossed. All the joints are adjustable to remove clearance and it feels solid, but we just won't know until we test it.
For fun read the NGS pub or see if they might have the class online now. River and valley crossings. It was for optical leveling to transfer geodetic leveling across rivers and valleys. It is a bunch of hidden information in how they do what they do curvature and refraction especially.
Billl. That guy I mentioned above who is still at NGS helped build that one. If I remember the story correctly he had his son there as well. His son is a PE now. He was much younger then lol. He is a great guy him and his wife both. He said he enjoyed being part of that very much.
At the dedication.ceremony there was a Mr. Jones who worked on the crews back when they were still moving towers around for triangulation. I think that pretty much ended in the early 1970's.
This old guy in his 80's climbed the tower unaided and with no gear the day of the ceremony. (OSHA, what's that?)