I'm looking for opinions on digital levels. I'm looking at a Trimble Dini 0.3mm and 0.7mm. Any thoughts on these, or Leica models? Recommendations in general?
I am a huge fan of the Trimble Dini 0.3mm and the reports you can generate using Trimble Business Center. We have been using one for years, very accurate/user friendly.
> I am a huge fan of the Trimble Dini 0.3mm and the reports your can generate using Trimble Business Center. We have been using one for years, very accurate/user friendly.
Sounds good. I just don't want to install/learn another piece of software. I've heard that I can import the Trimble .dat file into Carlson.
LSU has a couple of the geodetic-quality Dini Levels with Invar rods - one for 1st Order leveling and one for optical tooling. They do just fine. We have a legal copy of Chuck Whalen's software that will take the electronic file and re-write it for NGS's acceptance for Blue Booking. Don't know if he still sells the software, NGS would probably know.
We use a Dini 12. It works great most of the time, but does have issues with sunlight/shadows as many other levels do as well. Since it is basically taking an image of the rod, I guess that comes with the territory.
Usually it is an issue of speckled shadows on the rod (i.e. not all shadow, not all sun). Sometimes it is just inexplicable. But it does work fine most of the time. Can't complain about the results, they are excellent. Just that sometimes it won't shoot.
I used an early Leica before this, and I had to replace the fiberglass rod every year because the joints would wear and it would cause a jump between high rod/low rod that would accumulate going uphill/downhill. However, the Zeiss (Trimble) fiberglass rod has been rock solid for about 10 years now. We use a 4 m fiberglass rod, a 1 m fiberglass rod (one piece), two 2 m invar rods (owned by a client), a 3 m invar rod (calibrated), and a 0.50 m invar strip. Both of the fiberglass rods have markings on the other side. We have done a number of bluebook leveling projects with the invar rods.
I would be interested to see a comparison of digital levels in difficult lighting conditions.
I have used a Topcon DL102C, a Sokkia SDL30, and the Leica DNA series digital levels over the past 10 years and enjoyed wonderful results from all of them. Like a lot of other digital products, the instrument will train you as to what it can do. I think range is pretty similar across the board, and you'll pick up little tricks about keeping uniform shade or sunlight on the rod, not trying to shoot through fences, etc. Just little things you would have never thought about with your trusty Ni2.
For work underground and at night I like the nedo lumi rod.
http://www.nedo.com/index.pl?Lang=ENGLISH&Page=products/vmg/klapplatten.html
I only ever used Leica DNA 03 levels, liked em well enough, pretty straight forward soft unlike some Leica gear.
The lumi rod will solve most problems caused by lack of light, lighting conditions in daylight can be more frustrating, tricks such as twisting the rod, shading the rod, shading the gun etc will come into play.
If you do not already use a turtle I would suggest it, I poo pooed them for years and then gave em a shot when I started using a digital level and find them to be very useful.
We are on our second digital level, Leica DNA10, that replaced a Leica NA2000. They have both paid for themselves many times over. If yo run levels very often, you are losing money if you don't have a digital level. We routinely get 2nd order closures on loops with the fiberglass rods.
> I'm looking for opinions on digital levels. I'm looking at a Trimble Dini 0.3mm and 0.7mm. Any thoughts on these, or Leica models? Recommendations in general?
For $1,200 to $1,500, the Leica Sprinter 150M is a good deal if your winters are mild.
Whichever brand / model you choose, plan your work for 50-60% of the distance specs, then you are motoring in your loops.
The sokkia is the best I have used for cut/fill application.
The DiNi holds its job data as a ASCII text files.
You can import them straight into Excel - no need for TBC at all...
For night work, we just shine a torch at the staff...
I know Topcon got bought out, so I assume they're are made under the Spectra Precision or Trimble name now?
I have a Leica DNA03. I like it a lot, but it's the only digital level I've used, so can't offer comparisons. As others have noted, the speckled sunlight thing can be a problem, and it's usually bit me when turning back through a point that was in full sun on the way out, but partially shaded on the return run.
For most work I use it with a 3-piece fiberglass rod, and though I haven't run into the joint problem the John mentions, I guess I'd better check that out. I do have a calibrated 2-meter invar rod for jobs that require meeting 2nd Order or better specs, but I don't do a lot of that kind of work.
Earlier this year I learned that 3-meter invar pairs are very hard to rent these days -- the regional Leica dealer used to have a pair available, but no longer. We ended up running about 20 miles of 2nd Order Class II with my lone 2-meter rod. It worked fine on the levee where most of the work was, but getting onto and off of the levees to tie into existing control was a slow process.
Jim: the problem I had was many years ago, early 90's. i would hope they came up with a better design. I noticed it first when we ran up a 400' high hill, then back down the other side. GPS showed the elevation at the top was off about 0.25 feet, even though the up/down closure was good. After that, we would check the rod whenever we were going to do a lot of up/down work, and it seemed like it would be OK for a year or so, then begin to creep. Never saw that problem with the 4 m zeiss/trimble rod. I guess they are all made by NIDO, but to the manufacturer's specs.
We use the 1 m rod a lot when leveling to water gages inside the little concrete buildings. We level to the index mark on the electric tape gizmo, and also use it to level to wire weight gages outside and to the survey pedestals. We use the 0.5 m invar strip when doing second order stuff to marks set vertical.
We only use the 2 m invar on flat lock walls, it sure is a pain to level any relief with those rods. But, they fit in the truck better!
