Leica MS50

From what I saw it is a full-fledged robot from the word go...

Yeah, the data sheet even lists ATR accuracies and Power search ability. What made you think it's not robotic? We had a demo, and I could think of a thousand uses for it. It is definitely not for entire scene scanning though.

StLSurveyor,

The Leica MS50 is a Robotic Total Station, Imagining Total Station and Scanner all in one. This is what makes the unit so convenient. We have a ton of customers that can use the scanning capability just not all the time. For them, purchasing a full-fledge scanner would be a waste since it would sit in a corner must of the time. However, combined with the Robotic functionality you can now use it on a daily basis and always have the option for scanning when needed.

I urge you to give your local dealer a call and get a demo. At the very least it will get you thinking about everything you can do if you had it.

We have one.

It is the most accurate and fastest robot we have ever used (we have a 1205+ and a 1203+). The speed at which it flops angles is pretty amazing. IF you are buying it to do large or complex scans with it forget it. It is a fine scanner, it produces very nice point clouds but it is very slow. That said we use the scanning portion a lot. We use it to topo brownfield areas, to topo other dangerous or inaccessible areas, we used it in a dark tunnel, we used it for the underside of a bridge, and a few more things. We also use the imaging fairly often to take pictures of shots taken.

We don't use all the tools on it all day but when we need to scan something quickly, it's nice to have!

And it's really heavy...the case is nice with good back straps though so it's not to big of a deal through the woods.

Tom

Well I am not really sure why I didn't think it had robotic capabilities. I guess it was because I didn't see the classical antenna on the front.

I agree with most of the suggestions. We do have a need for a scanner at times. Usually we sub the scanning out, but the scans are not full blown scan jobs. Mostly bridge clearance, substation footings, etc.

I have a demo scheduled for next month - and I can't wait!

For those that have one I assume when you add a scan to the topo file the registration is a non-issue?

What about the office software? How big is the learning curve?

Yes the scan is automatically registered.

The software has been my biggest issue. I am disappointed with the MicroCAD option. I find it hard to use and does not do what I want.

C3D and AutoCAD (especially 2015) have a lot of point cloud stuff built in now and I want to play with that to see if it will handle the basic small scans I am doing. The only problem is that I need the newest Leica Infinity Software to convert the file formats to do this which I do not own yet (I think it's $3,500). So I'm still playing with the best software option.

Tom

We are actually getting one delivered to us Monday 🙂 so I'll have to get you a true answer in about a month.

But we did have a demo unit for almost three weeks over the winter and my thoughts are.... amazing. We had Topcon come in and demo their latest IS robot, no comparision. Borrowed a S8 off of Trimble for a couple weeks... great gun, great software and quick.

The Leica robotic function on this could find a prism in on one pass with no search window like the Topcon. 10/10 times this thing found the prism. Even if you were 1m away. Also nice to have scans regisitered and coordinatlly (sp?) correct once imported into CADD. Whats even better is it was about -30c so we set the backsight and did a scan without even getting outta the truck(except setting up the gun and BS) The combo of the viva and MS50 work together pretty good. Without a doubt the nicest gun I've used in my 12 years surveying. Suspossed to play with Cylone well also but haven't tried yet.

The only drawbacks I had was the all predefined prism types(constants) and rod heights and the software is almost too in depth. For a simple minded or old school surveyor it may take some getting used to. Outta the three competitors this is the one I could see getting back un-fixable garbage from one of the crew chiefs. Might be a-lil overwhelming to someone using a trimble to switch over. Love Trimble for the simplicity of their software but also love Lieca for how I can customize my crews data collectors... almost like setting up a template in C3d.

Can't wait to put our GPT-9003a to rest.

Sounds good. I would really like to hear about your experiences. We have a S8 and everyone likes it - especially with the construction staking. But we need to change the overall plan and move into some new markets and these seems like a very practical approach. I have used the VX from Trimble and didn't like it, mostly the office software.