This past Tuesday I had a senior moment out in the field. I entered the backsight height in the occupied field, and the occupied height in the backsight field in the data collector. When I pressed the CHECK button, the VD error was 0.90'. So, instead of checking my numbers, we assumed the control point elevations were faulty, got out the level, and wasted thirty minutes trying to resolve the problem. Ever had one of those days?
Or swapping the gps base receiver file with gps rover file. And 3-4 people staring at it for 2+ hrs not understanding why everything is mirror image.
Or getting the wrong static file for a base and wondering how RTK data could be SOOO bad...
Or, getting the township plat wrong by one digit, and cannot for the life of me figure out how things look so bad. (Had the wrong t'ship plat)
N
Found a recorded plat from 1981 by a long-deceased surveyor today. The index reported it was for the very section I needed. Thought I had hit the jackpot. Then I notice the label indicates one township further to the east. which would be in a different county. So, I look closer. I see notes about work done by the DOT. No way. The nearest highway is at least six miles distant. Closer inspection finds some corners labeled as being two townships to the west of my section. One corner is labeled as being my section. So, there are three different ranges shown for a single section. Turns out it was two ranges to the west and adjacent to a significant US highway. The darned thing had been misfiled for 35 years. The surveyor who created it normally had exceptionally well done plats. This one must have been wrapped up on Friday afternoon of a major holiday weekend.
You got off easy. Had my gunner transpose the occupy and back sight points in the DC at the beginning of a traverse. Back sight check was perfect when I moved up to the next station. Wasn't until the end of the traverse when I tried to close that I knew something was hosed up. After trying to fix it using the raw data ended up re-running the entire traverse just to be on the safe side. Cost an entire day.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Williwaw, post: 405541, member: 7066 wrote: Back sight check was perfect when I moved up to the next station.
This is exactly why I'm an advocate of a third point check, when possible.
Mine was last week. Was putting points into my cad file and had it set up as PENZD. Had my north and east flipped. I did it 3 times wondering what in the heck did the field crew do. It had me confused. I looked over the text file, raw files and even called the field crew asking questions of what they did out there. I went to my cad techs and had him insert the same points and they came in right. It was a WTF moment for me.
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Williwaw, post: 405541, member: 7066 wrote: You got off easy. Had my gunner transpose the occupy and back sight points in the DC at the beginning of a traverse. Back sight check was perfect when I moved up to the next station. Wasn't until the end of the traverse when I tried to close that I knew something was hosed up. After trying to fix it using the raw data ended up re-running the entire traverse just to be on the safe side. Cost an entire day.
That is a simple translate and rotate 180å¡. You print out your actual raw data and mark it up in red ink. The translate and rotate gets done in CAD or in the data collector. Do not ask why I know.
Paul in PA
ran a loop through a couple benchmarks i'd set. few dozen legs, mile or so down a road. closed to .01. call comes from GC's surveyor a few weeks later that "sumpin ain't right." all i had to do was open the book and there it was: plusses where minuses should be, minuses where plusses usually hang out.
i chalked that up to what happens when you don't run a level loop but every couple years. all it took was that first incorrect entry and it was thoughtless and automatic after that.
Last week we developed a GPS box for an upcoming project. Tried to develop a coordinate system two days ago (we're a Leica shop FTR) and the DC blew up twice. So, tried a third time but setting the initial project coordinate system prior to creation, to "NONE" which seemed to help. Attempted to ground-truth it by staking out a mon nearby, and the unit told me it was over 3000 feet down the road. HMMM... what went wrong here? It turned out that my co-worker mislabeled the monument in our spreadsheet which we used for project datum conversion, thereby pointing us to another mon down the road. Once the CORRECT coordinates were entered we were within 0.03 feet with the GPS pole. Good to go.
We all mess up once in a while... my co-worker is in fact a truly outstanding employee.
The only superior evidence is that which you haven't yet found.
Field Dog, post: 405512, member: 9186 wrote: This past Tuesday I had a senior moment out in the field. I entered the backsight height in the occupied field, and the occupied height in the backsight field in the data collector. When I pressed the CHECK button, the VD error was 0.90'. So, instead of checking my numbers, we assumed the control point elevations were faulty, got out the level, and wasted thirty minutes trying to resolve the problem. Ever had one of those days?
[SARCASM]I can't remember if I ever did, NOW GET OFF MY LAWN![/SARCASM]
Well I just made mine this morning, I sent Richard from Australia to Austria. LOL
Ed
Flew out of town on an ALTA Job, did it and flew back. 8:00 am, next day, processed the data, and found out that I only surveyed half the site. The other half was the open field in the back, with a different fence around it. 10:00am, back on a plane to do the other half.
Nothing to add! I'm perfect :). Merry Christmas to all, Jp
Slight hijack, when I was a solo firm, we had a dumb a$$ of the day award. Guess who usually got it! I fired myself several times, but had to hire myself back.
I cannot think of anything right off the top of myt head, but I've pulled many bonehead mistakes over the years. Learning from them is what makes us better.
Field Dog, post: 405512, member: 9186 wrote: This past Tuesday I had a senior moment out in the field. I entered the backsight height in the occupied field, and the occupied height in the backsight field in the data collector. When I pressed the CHECK button, the VD error was 0.90'. So, instead of checking my numbers, we assumed the control point elevations were faulty, got out the level, and wasted thirty minutes trying to resolve the problem. Ever had one of those days?
Hang in there, as you get older and older you forget all those little incidents, now I'm almost at the point where I never made a mistake.
I'm visiting relatives for 3 days. Today I braved light sleet to get a couple GPS sessions on interesting points. Went to download to the laptop and found that I had the serial to USB adapter I've used before, but not the serial extension cable I used with it. The adapter has the right connector but is shaped (permanent screw studs) so it won't fit directly into the Office Support Module. Duh.
So I have to wait until I get home to see if the data looks usable.
Bill93, post: 405723, member: 87 wrote: I'm visiting relatives for 3 days. Today I braved light sleet to get a couple GPS sessions on interesting points.
In my world, I'd rewrite this as "I'm visiting relatives I'd really rather not hang around with for 3 days, so I found something to do that gets me away from them."
Late last week I double entered site IDs and they totally disappeared on my map screen.
TG thst GNSS by Asthech catches thst on download allowing for rename choice.