Recently I picked up a Wild T2000 electronic theodolite with a DI1000 EDM for the price of about $150. No idea if it would work or maybe I bought a boat anchor.
So I get it and of course the battery is dead and no charger. So I opened up the battery do determine the polarity of the contacts and determine that it is a 12 volt system. Hook up an external battery just to see if it powered up and it did.
Then with some help from some fellow BeerLeggers I managed to obtain manuals for a T2002, a T2000, and a DI1000. And take the battery to Batteries Plus to get it recelled and jury rigged a charger.
Then one step at a time to check the various components. Horizontal angles turn good. Vertical angles turn good. The Di1000 powers up and measures distances. Thoroughly read the manual and this is an amazing piece of electronics for the early 1980's.
Next thing is to check adjustments and find out that collimation is electronic for both horizontal & vertical. A couple of easy steps and I can easily turn sub-second angles.
One other thing I found out is that you can use the internal sensors to level the instrument to within a second or so. That is a whole lot better than you can do with the bubble. This will be useful for astro work.
Now to see if my luck holds. Yesterday I bought a GRE3 "data logger" for $50 and will await that to see how it works. Holding my breath.
So at any rate, I have a Wild electronic theodolite that is the equivalent of a T3 (a 0.1" gun) that is fully functional and works great. Sometimes you just get lucky!
Those T-2000's (1983-1987 original model and 2000s 1984-1991) were a fine piece of equipment, especially considering where all the competition was in in the early 1980's! I am not sure there is an instrument that can compete even today on angular accuracy, they were very heavy through, probably one reason the angles are nice and tight!
The DI1000 (1987-1990) on the other hand is just so so (5mm+5ppm 800m single prism [and 800m was downhill with a tail wind, LOL]), Leica had much better EDMI in that time frame, the DI5S (1987-1989) is probably the coveted scope mount DI of the day (3mm+2ppm 2500m single prism). I have blasted over 8000m with a DI5S with a big bank of glass, 4000m was easy on a single too so they were HOT!
Anyway, sounds like you did good on your purchase, the current Leica chargers have adapter cables to charge the old batteries, so you could get a proper charger too if you want.
SHG
One thing to be aware of is that the T2000 retains its calibration settings by means of volatile RAM kept alive by an internal board-mounted lithium battery. I'm told that if this battery dies, the unit can only be resurrected by means of recalibration performed by a service department equipped with proprietary software. As long as the battery is still alive it can be replaced while retaining the settings -- thus avoiding the recalibration -- so it may pay to have this done as a preventive measure.
Although I have a couple of T2000 units, I've not gone through the battery replacement procedure, so the above is anecdotal. One of my units reportedly had the battery replaced a couple of months before I got it. I haven't turned any of them on for many months, so I guess I'd better check!
The powerup code for general hardware error, including lost calibration, is Error 8c, according to my source.
I've heard that story about the onboard battery and I just don't know. I'm convinced the one I purchased had not been used in years and it started up with no problems.
And I've been through the manuals and there are no error codes that address an onboard battery issue.
And since the gun I acquired is now 25 - 30 years old I'm sure the battery would have gone bad by now. I don't know of any battery that has that kind of life.
One other thing, were lithium batteries available in the early - mid 80's for that type of application? Don't know, but I have it in mind that lithium batteries haven't been around that long.
So, I'm sure it would take an old time service tech to tell us true, but I know I don't have the answer.
A lot of personal computers used a lithium backup battery, I'm pretty sure as far back as the mid 80's. I don't remember if the very first ones in 1982 did but they might have.
> I've heard that story about the onboard battery and I just don't know. I'm convinced the one I purchased had not been used in years and it started up with no problems.
I dug around a bit and found a 2008 message from a T2002 owner who said he ran into the internal battery problem. The fix cost him $800.00.
I can verify the presence of the battery, having performed limited surgery on one of my units that's been relegated to a parts gun. I ran out of time and didn't get as far as figuring out how to remove the board on which the battery is mounted, but I saw it. I thought I recorded the part number, but a quick look didn't turn it up.
Lithium primary batteries generally have a design lifetime of 10 years, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that number go considerably higher than that. I don't know what the upper end might be, though.
Harf ... Another thing to check ...
To open my T2000 recement, the manufacturer of the famous battery reference is:
"CATALYST RESEARCH 2736"
And Google tells me (too quickly for my taste): will see on Ebay.
I recently re-opened my T2000 and I could measure the voltage at the battery terminal " CATALYST RESEARCH 2736 " : 2,77 V
... But from when it becomes critical ?
I found a piece of doc on this type of lithium battery ( this the same type for a pacemaker ;-/ ) in a Google book: " Battery_Reference_Book " section 56,11,2 :
- 460 mAh,
- Nominal voltage : 2.8 V ,
- Capacity 350 above 2V at 500k? at 25 °C
- Current capability at 25 °C: 15A
- Self discharge in 10 years at 25 °C: 0.02 Ah
- Operating temperature : -55 ° C to 125 °C
If someone already measure the voltage of the battery on a device with the very famous error " 8C " and could share it here, we will be able to know where it is in its life cycle.
In addition, I expect to be contradicted, but I think this kind of error can happen on any instruments Wild this generation ( T1000 , TC1100 ...). And it would be a shame. Here in France, dealers and the Leica's support do not want to hear about it.
