Hello, I have a Geodimeter 650S DR200+ and a similar Trimble 5601 DR200+.
I have done the collimation adjustment on both, at a distance of about 200m, including the autolock collimation.
At this distance on autolock and looking through the scope the crosshairs are about 300mm off (up and to the left) the 360 deg RMT prism for the 5601 (the 650 is about half that), and although I understand that the collimation takes care of this (I get about 2mm difference in x, y, z coordinates between autolock and manual sighting), it would seem appropriate to improve the alignment of the tracker to the scope. For the 5601 at 200m it is so far off in autolock there is no audible signal from the instrument to indicate signal reflection from the prism, but distance measurement still works.
I have been told that it is possible to mechanically adjust the tracker to get it onto the same alignment as the scope, but the Trimble service center people that we send our instruments to say they do not know how to do it. I have searched for a long time on the internet but cannot find anything.
Does anyone know how to do this mechanical adjustment?
For many of these newer instruments, the manual collimation starts with attaching the case onto the scope properly.
I've adjusted instruments all my life until this new breed of gadgets come out.
Gonna have to find the new handbook before proceeding.
I'm not aware of being able to align the autolock to be coincident with the crosshairs. The sensors for the autolock are physically separate from the line of sight through the scope. (this is NOT the case in S-series instruments)
While is tends to create some uneasiness when you look through the scope and don't see the crosshairs on the prism, it does work. The 2mm difference you describe seems to be within tolerance of the instrument.
300mm offset from autolock to standard seems like a lot. I see about 25mm max in horiz. & vert. in my 5603.
Are your residuals for collimation within spec?
For what it's worth, I think Trimble recommends a minimum of 100m for autolock collimation. You could try collimating at just over 100m and see how that affects your results at whatever the maximum distance is you work.
Thanks for your comments. The residuals are all well within spec. Both instruments were serviced recently by Trimble in New Zealand who said the instruments were fine, and when I got them back to Fiji I did the collimation again since the weather conditions here (30 deg C and 100% humidity) are different to New Zealand. A Trimble service center in USA has confirmed that mechanical adjustment of the tracker alignment to match the scope can be done and they say they do it as part of their routine package for servicing/calibrating a Geodimeter or 5600. The Geodimeter user manual shows the instrument options for where the tracker sits, i.e. battery or tracklight or tracker (which includes tracklight) and it seems to say that a tracklight unit can be installed and adjusted by the user, but if you had a standard Geodimeter and wanted to upgrade to autolock, then it would need to be sent to the service center for installation of the tracker.