integrated survey with trimble s5 worth it?

Ran a S5 by myself and with a partner for a good while. Loved that instrument. I was amazed how well it tracked me in difficult locations.?ÿ

We are a Trimble shop - TSC3, S6 and R12 for me - a one man crew.

They are all great tools, hard working and reliable. They earn their keep day in and day out.

But we tend to use them one-at-time, switching between them is easy in Access.

We dont use the integrated surveying - no particular reason. We are productive without it, and I don't think the bosses are interested in experimenting

great combination, we have S6+R6 but don't do integrated on daily basis, I guess 5 times a year we start integrated and once the resection is done we remove the GNSS from the prism.

The Integrated combination is top heavy and the distant offsets for buildings, fences and poles are much bigger with an R6 GNSS on top of the prism.

?ÿ

The S5 is a great robot. If you can swing it, get the active track option and a MT1000 prism. Integrated Surveying is pretty useful, but it is not an everyday thing. You can switch to it at anytime during your survey, so if you need to use it, you can. There are a few good Youtube videos that explain it.

The Trimble S5, and robotics in general, is worth it assuming that you can keep it halfway busy.?ÿ It is a bit expensive to just have adorning your equipment closet.?ÿ But, yes. It is worth the money. I'd guess that you will finish your current work load in about 3/4 the man hours it currently takes with your manual unit. Maybe less.

The strong point of the Trimble is the tracking ability. It really holds onto the diodes on the target.?ÿ

Access will run both your Trimble GPS and your Trimble robot.?ÿ I have run them both on the same site visit within the same job file, but I've never tried to run both at once.?ÿ

?ÿ

Posted by: @azweig

The S5 is a great robot. If you can swing it, get the active track option and a MT1000 prism.

Have to agree with you there.

And I'm a fan of the "vision" option where you can get a video of what the instrument is looking at.

If there is one thing that lets them down is the reflectorless beam is too wide and grabs the nearest thing in the viewfinder

I used to run integrated pretty often when I was a one-man crew, for about 30-40% of my field days.

Like most other things with surveying, the task at hand and project conditions dictate whether it's worth the extra setup time.

Posted by: @jimcox

I don't think the bosses are interested in experimenting

True pretty much everywhere. If I hadn't just started doing it myself, no one would have attempted to implement it. Most bosses/PMs are clueless about advanced field methods and typically only care about budgets and workload, so they've got no personal incentive to push training. With the right project, integrated was more efficient for me in the field, so it was beneficial to me personally.?ÿ

It was best when I needed to map both open areas and wooded areas, or both natural ground and hard surfaces with tight vertical tolerances. Airports come to mind. Really nice to switch to the robot for hardscape and back to rover for ground without ending a survey, breaking down one setup and beginning another.

Posted by: @christ-lambrecht

The Integrated combination is top heavy

?ÿ

?ÿ

Just for giggles I went integrated today.

You're right, the balance is off.

It's workable, and maybe better with a lower pole.

But it is uncomfortable and I'm not sure I see any major advantage.

Anyone, to answer if it saves time or is better to have a second crew?

Maybe do our life more complicated with robot?

Also I noticed that is has digital zoom not manual like leica this is a drawback i think!

@jimcox It is a little top heavy, but the good thing is you really don't have to keep your GPS unit on the prism the entire time. I know this creates the problem of carrying the unit some other way or going back to the truck to get it.

Posted by: @azweig

@jimcox It is a little top heavy, but the good thing is you really don't have to keep your GPS unit on the prism the entire time. I know this creates the problem of carrying the unit some other way or going back to the truck to get it.

Yes, what I dont understand is why, once you have the total station up and running, you would want the GPS at all.

?ÿ

@jimcox ??n order if total station loose the prism to track it immediately. (in case you?ÿ have not active track prism ability)

@johnymal?ÿ

Or if your line of sight is blocked to something?

Seems if you lose line of sight due to urban canopy or wooded canopy issues, gps likely will not be much help?

Posted by: @jimcox

Posted by: @azweig

@jimcox It is a little top heavy, but the good thing is you really don't have to keep your GPS unit on the prism the entire time. I know this creates the problem of carrying the unit some other way or going back to the truck to get it.

Yes, what I dont understand is why, once you have the total station up and running, you would want the GPS at all.?ÿ

Going around obstructions for one. For two, GNSS can be faster on open ground (auto measure with tilt enabled). I also liked the ability to switch to the robot, pull up the video camera, and shoot reflectorless to a building face, then switch back to the rover.

For three, and perhaps most important, where there is visibility, I'm able to get immediate redundant, independent observations on any critical points by measuring with both TS and GNSS.

Posted by: @johnymal

??n order if total station loose the prism to track it immediately.

There is gps in the data collector (the smartphone type of gps) that will direct the robot to turn toward you near enough to find the prism.?ÿ But I rarely used that. Joystick until the red/green tracklight tells you that you are close, then initiate an area search and it picks you up very quickly. Like in 2 seconds.

In any case, that unit tracks the prism so well that you won't need to do searches all that often.?ÿ?ÿ