We had an open house last Friday for Public Works week. I set up one of our old Gurley transits for my fellow employees' kids to look through and marvel at the vernier and compass. I also had a Gunter's chain alongside.
Life cycle:
1.) Hold breath, cannot wait, new gear!!!
2.) UPS comes, unpack, get it all going, call tech support 3x.
3.) Hit jobs. Runs great for 1-3 yrs.
4.) Get's old hat, take it for granted. Start looking at other brands, gear, and solutions.
5.) HEY there is a new system from Trimble Topcon Leica Javad, and some funky brand I ain't never seen.
6.) Hmmm it's 34 grand, maybe we need it.
7.) Borrowed 25k, and bought it.
1.)..... Start over.
🙂
N
One important rule about new technology purchases, "BUY NOW, BEFORE THE PRICE GOES DOWN."
Paul in PA
Lee D, post: 430488, member: 7971 wrote: Truth be told, my son expressed an interest in pulling out my old T16 and turning some angles with it, so we'll be doing that this weekend. The old girl hasn't been used in years will be interested to see how the calibration is on it.
A Wild T-anything can sit for decades and be just a good as the day it was made. Except if the plate fogs. I have a T1 sat for decades, and Mils T16 that looks like it's been around. Both still wrap up to near 1" (3 rounds, 6 wraps). It'll come out the cupboard like it was just yesterday.
Completely electronic TS, in the cabinet for 10 yrs, not so much, if the CMOS has died.
Brad Ott, post: 430424, member: 197 wrote: 20+ years
Good luck getting GPS to last that long. We had an R8 Model 2 lay down last week. We bought it in December 2008. You can't get parts for them any more.
What's the life cycle of an instrument?
Is eternal too long?
06-jun-2017
Nice T3, but you need a matching (bigger) tripod.
🙂
Loyal
Loyal, post: 431792, member: 228 wrote: Nice T3, but you need a matching (bigger) tripod.
🙂
Loyal
Sometimes you have go with what you have.
As for life cycle, it's 62 yrs old and I'm pretty sure it works as well as the day it was delivered. I don't know of too many electronic instruments that can really do what a 1955 T3 can. (Except of course a T3000.)
I usually figure anything that takes batteries, such as radios, data collectors, computers, GPS, Total Station etc will last about 10 years.
There's always going to be obsolescence, whether or not it's planned who knows. But anything computer based is going to become obsolete at some point because of advances in hardware, operating systems, etc. Microsoft doesn't care if your twenty year old data collector and software won't work in Windows 10.
zammo, post: 430454, member: 9087 wrote: You need to also consider the availability of spare parts as well. We've been caught out with scenario's where the manufacturer has stopped making parts after a certain date, making it impossible to repair if you can't source a secondhand instrument to salvage parts from. I think Leica have set in place 7 years of support after an instrument model is discontinued or superseded.
This.
I emailed my Leica rep to let him know my new contact info and got the push to trade in our old robot on a new imaging gun because parts are no longer available for it. My guys rarely used the imaging when I was working in DC, out here in the sticks today my crew is running a boundary here:
@39.4963765,-77.1218638,3a,60y,113.34h,78.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj-SeZn33ky5POl1Vq-Z8yg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en"> https://www.google.com/maps/ @39.4963765,-77.1218638,3a,60y,113.34h,78.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj-SeZn33ky5POl1Vq-Z8yg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
The only use for imaging is for landscape photography 🙂
James Fleming, post: 431845, member: 136 wrote: This.
I emailed my Leica rep to let him know my new contact info and got the push to trade in our old robot on a new imaging gun because parts are no longer available for it. My guys rarely used the imaging when I was working in DC, out here in the sticks today my crew is running a boundary here:
@39.4963765,-77.1218638,3a,60y,113.34h,78.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj-SeZn33ky5POl1Vq-Z8yg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en"> https://www.google.com/maps/ @39.4963765,-77.1218638,3a,60y,113.34h,78.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj-SeZn33ky5POl1Vq-Z8yg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
The only use for imaging is for landscape photography 🙂
Out in the sticks?
WOW, you Eastern guys have a different conception of "out in the sticks."
Round these parts that would be "just out of town in the suburbs."
;)Loyal
Loyal, post: 431848, member: 228 wrote: Out in the sticks?
WOW, you Eastern guys have a different conception of "out in the sticks."
Round these parts that would be "just out of town in the suburbs.";)Loyal
Does Evanston even have "suburbs". I though once you were out of town you were in "the rocks"
In 1987 I filled up at a gas station between Evanston and Little America where the stations tank was almost empty...think I got 2/3 gas & 1/3 sediment. Replaced fuel filters on a Volkswagen Scirocco in Rock Springs, Laramie, and North Platte before all the crap was flushed out of the system. And Volkswagen fuel filters were't parts commonly stocked in town at that time.
James Fleming, post: 431850, member: 136 wrote: Does Evanston even have "suburbs". I though once you were out of town you were in "the rocks"
In 1987 I filled up at a gas station between Evanston and Little America where the stations tank was almost empty...think I got 2/3 gas & 1/3 sediment. Replaced fuel filters on a Volkswagen Scirocco in Rock Springs, Laramie, and North Platte before all the crap was flushed out of the system. And Volkswagen fuel filters were't parts commonly stocked in town at that time.
That must have been the one up on Bigelow Bench, I think that it's been closed for decades now.
Out here in the west, any local with another dwelling within a mile could be considered the "burbs."
The REAL "sticks" doesn't have a dwelling within 30 miles, and I have spent many years where it's more like 70+ miles. Of course times ARE changing, and I get lost in all of the new McMansions going up is what used to be semi-virgin Forests around Park City (the Billionaires are running out the Millionaires).
🙁
Loyal
James Fleming, post: 431845, member: 136 wrote: This., out here in the sticks today my crew is running a boundary here:
🙂
Many of my projects begin well beyond the dead end of a dirt road.
