GPS Static Sessions in the Rain

cover the receivers if you want, but the antennas should be sealed well enough to resist rain

People in Oregon & Washington are having a chuckle at your expense right now. Put a bag on it if it makes you more comfortable. There won't be a problem.

I've done that as insurance. Stopped in a grocery store, got plenty of fried chicken and plenty of plastic bags. It helps to already have a supply of large rubber bands to secure them. I do both the antenna and the receivers as insurance. Make sure your antenna to receiver cable is long enough to hang below the receiver so that water on the bag drips past the connections. You will really appreciate having fairly dry antennas and receivers when packing the units away for the ride home. Typically you can read your screen and see your buttons through a white plastic bag. if you are moving a receiver it helps to have dry bags for the next setup. In a driving rain the drop connection under an antenna can easily get saturated. As to receivers I have some that I have taken apart to replace internal batteries and some where the battery door provides an invite for rain, neither get my trust.

BTW keep the greasy fired chicken bag separate from the rest and have some sani-wipes available also..

The plastic bag and water add nothing to the atmospheric delay you already have from the weather.

Paul in PA

Thanks guys.

I'll bet they are Norman, but these are my personal units. I had my robot get water logged a few years ago, and it did not turn on for a few days. I was pretty scared. When the purchase price comes out of your pocket, it really makes you want to take every precaution.

Two of my units are older Topcon Hiper Lite (base/rover setup) units with the antennas on top, and the base unit has been opened by me to have new batteries put in. My other two units are the newer OPUS X90 units.

Thankfully these units are kinda all in one, so I just have to set them up, and push a button to collect data, no cables, collectors, etc.. Pretty straight forward operation.

I try to set the wet units on the floor of the truck and let the heater blow on them to dry them on the way back to the office. Much better than putting them back in their sealed containers! I once saw a AGA distance meter ruined overnight when it was put away wet, in the sealed instrument box. And as Paul said, making sure water doesn't run down the cable, into the connection, is very important. Light rain.. you won't have a problem.

Jimmy Cleveland, post: 358241, member: 91 wrote: Thanks guys.

I'll bet they are Norman, but these are my personal units. I had my robot get water logged a few years ago, and it did not turn on for a few days. I was pretty scared. When the purchase price comes out of your pocket, it really makes you want to take every precaution.

Two of my units are older Topcon Hiper Lite (base/rover setup) units with the antennas on top, and the base unit has been opened by me to have new batteries put in. My other two units are the newer OPUS X90 units.

Thankfully these units are kinda all in one, so I just have to set them up, and push a button to collect data, no cables, collectors, etc.. Pretty straight forward operation.

With the HiperLites, make sure that the vent is undamaged and intact. It is a black button looking thing, with a gortex membrane.

Other than that, I can show you a pair of hipers that have sat in the rain for hundreds of hours with no ill effects.

Perfect for the hipers is some walmart large shower caps. Prefer them to plastic bags because they hug the receiver, and don't catch the wind- which usually accompanies the rain. Not really needed, but super cheap insurance.

Hmm, my experience with collecting data while it's raining is that it's pointless. I always get bad data. Maybe it's the wind.

Jimmy Cleveland, post: 358241, member: 91 wrote: ... I had my robot get water logged a few years ago, and it did not turn on for a few days ...

The key is to thoroughly dry it out immediately after use. Really thoroughly and immediately. It's not the raindrops that get you. It's the warm vapors.

Paul in PA, post: 358240, member: 236 wrote: I've done that as insurance. Stopped in a grocery store, got plenty of fried chicken and plenty of plastic bags. It helps to already have a supply of large rubber bands to secure them. I do both the antenna and the receivers as insurance. Make sure your antenna to receiver cable is long enough to hang below the receiver so that water on the bag drips past the connections. You will really appreciate having fairly dry antennas and receivers when packing the units away for the ride home. Typically you can read your screen and see your buttons through a white plastic bag. if you are moving a receiver it helps to have dry bags for the next setup. In a driving rain the drop connection under an antenna can easily get saturated. As to receivers I have some that I have taken apart to replace internal batteries and some where the battery door provides an invite for rain, neither get my trust.

BTW keep the greasy fired chicken bag separate from the rest and have some sani-wipes available also..

The plastic bag and water add nothing to the atmospheric delay you already have from the weather.

Paul in PA

I thought the chicken grease helped the water bead up and roll off...

Jim in AZ, post: 358422, member: 249 wrote: I thought the chicken grease helped the water bead up and roll off...

:good:Now that there is funny....I don't care you ya are.

Wet leaves tend to wobble the data some. So... in a bad environment, rtk in the rain, is not soo good!
(Go Javad!)

Nate

I have worked with dozens of instruments, and when added up, they have been in rain of all sorts for tens of thousands of hours. There has been a problem once or twice, and you just dry the thing out. I am completely confused at all this worry about a little rain. I mean, if you were underwater...

Rain is not a problem. Lighting anywhere around the area is another story,

Using plastic bags in light rain would not be a problem. Been done many times here in rainy Louisiana with different receivers.

Also I did find from experience that the early Hipers were not as weather proof/resistant as professed to be.

But I have seen pictures and posts here with Hipers in various weather conditions with no bad effects.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" - Silence Dogood

We have issues with data collectors in the rain. Raindrops hitting the screen make it behave very badly, as if each drop was a touch by a finger or stylus. Anyone else have this problem?

I've never had a problem with the PM3s out in the rain.
The antennas are uncovered and the collector is in a plastic bag and the 12v extra battery is in a waterproof box.

Norman Oklahoma, post: 358236, member: 9981 wrote: People in Oregon & Washington are having a chuckle at your expense right now. Put a bag on it if it makes you more comfortable. There won't be a problem.

Reminiscent of when I first started using a GPS receiver. (4000SST). We were all so paranoid that we would do something wrong, we would make sure an spread the cable out so that it had no coil, triple-check the setup, check the HI multiple times for both Meters and feet, make sure it was turned on about a dozen times. It was such a big scary machine. (Kind of like us guys in dry air having to actually deal with rain for the first time.)

Jim in AZ, post: 358468, member: 249 wrote: We have issues with data collectors in the rain. Raindrops hitting the screen make it behave very badly, as if each drop was a touch by a finger or stylus. Anyone else have this problem?

I'm writing this while sitting in the truck waiting for track time (3+ hour wait so far). It has been a nice soaking rain for most of the day and as normal our gun and GPS units are sitting out there tacking in the Oregon sunshine. I've only had one incident of an instrument getting wet inside and that was a bad factory seal. Just dry them out at night and don't forget to dry the case.

As for the rain drops on a data collector, I just turn the touch screen off.