Hi,
I'm a one man shop and do a lot of stake-outs. They are all white boards, even against walls etc.
I have received some questions to do some layout in interiors. This would mean shooting reflectorlessly. This is difficult and tedious because i have to run back and forth all the time.
Do any of you have a recommendation for an instrument or method to use as a solo guy?
Greetings
My gun (Topcon PS) puts a red laser spot on the wall when staking out reflectorless. Easy to put a target sticker or pen mark on that with out any back and forth.?ÿ?ÿ
Not necessarily reflectorless... take your peanut prism out of the housing and set the offset to zero. The point on the back of the prism is the "measured to" spot. You have to be careful to angle the prism directly back at the instrument but it works fine.
I do this all the time marking grid lines on face of concrete walls.
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And for floor layout: check this out...
With a robotic total station:
Working from the gun, I stake the points reflectorless on tracking mode, storing the shot and doing my note form, then I go out front of the gun and stake out my store shots in standard mode with the controller marking the points as they are hit by the red laser.
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If you are doing reflectorless staking on walls keep in mind that the measured distance starts to get bad after about 45 degree or so.
This is because reflectorless doesnt measure the distance exactly from the red dott but slightly off it. This is not an issue when shooting perpendicular.
If you want an accurate grid line stake on the wall with reflectorless you have to shoot it both faces and mark the mid point of those shots.
Ive experienced this effect to be worse with Trimble instruments. Leica reflectorless distance measuring point is smaller and more accurate.
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Anyway, nowadays im using ball prism with a magnetic base?ÿ for staking on walls
@grads&meters
how does turning both faces help this problem?
the problem being the incorrect distance being measured when measuring to a wall non-perpendicular.
i find it always measures short.
If i understand you correctly you want to do layout on the floor either reflectorlessly or using a "self-supporting" prism/retro target?
I did a lot of this before I had a robotic and the key is to set up plenty of control (retro targets) so you can move often, keeping close to the action.
All TS methods of collecting distance on modern instruments have a ± correcting setting.
I think you may have misunderstood me - I find that when the laser is at an acute angle to the wall or floor it measures distance to the near end of the ellipse projected by the laser. Rather than the middle where the crosshair is pointing. This is on a Leica.
I wouldn't like to try and adjust it out, its not consistent, just worth being aware of.
I have noticed it when pointing roughly to a setout point on a floor. Then when setting down a prism etc on the middle of the laser ellipse the final setout point ends up being closer to the instrument. Somewhere near the closest part of the ellipse to the instrument.
This is correct. If you shoot angled wall shots the distance reading is taken slightly off from the center of the red dott.
Same is true for reflectorless floor shots. It works fine when your working inside 2-5 meters depending on instrument.
For example: Face 1 the distance is measured top left of the red dott. Face 2 the distance is taken bottom right. Average is the correct.
The effect magnitudes when the angle gets steeper.
Same is true for angled sticker target shots. Gets even worse if you fix a sticker into a round light post/traffic light post etc. Distance reading varies depending on the angle of shot.
Not to diss trimble, but leica reflectorless distance reading point seems to be closer to the centre thus making it a bit easier to use with angled shots.
As i said ball prism with a magnetic fixture is a handy tool for surface layouts. Distance reading is allways correct.
Thanks for all the replies.
Reflectorless isn't an option as the laser light beam is not a perfect circle and the exact angle point isn't the middle of the light.
I'll be checking out "Bohnenstingl GmbH" for their solutions.
It depends on what you are staking and what tolerances you have. The Trimble RPT600 is an indoor layout tool option.
A quick follow up on my initial post.
I purchased a Klimax system from Bohnenstingl. 1 prism to be used with a variety of mounts and marking tools.
I do like 95% of my staking jobs with this system. The only time a peanut comes out is when i cannot see because of obstacles.
I can highly recommend this, all personal opinion.
https://goecke.de/Produkte/Gleisvermessung/KLIMAX-System-293/
