OMNI American Made Survey Instruments

This might be what you are thinking of - but they're in CA, not CO.

http://www.omnisurvey.com/default.htm

And I just picked up a T2000 with a DI1000 and it is indeed a sweet instrument. Wild did make some fine equipment over the years.

There is an 'OMNI Optical Products' [ website ] in California.

These guys are very dishonest, having stolen new equipment from us (iGage Mapping Corporation) and several other Eastern and Western dealers (Total Stations, Robots...) In our case, they purchased a ProMark 3 receiver for resale to one of their customers and just never paid us for it.

At first they claimed the check was in the mail, then they refused to answer any calls from us. To this day, they will not take or a return a simple telephone call.

I tried to send the invoice out for collection and two collection agencies nearest to them refused to even try. They claimed it was not worth our time or their efforts.

John from our office stopped by, in person, a couple of years ago. They would not let him in the building.

For fun, I just called them again and am waiting for a call from the comptroller. (I actually feel sorry for the nice person who answers the phone.)

Normally, I would not air this in a public forum, however I have heard so many similar stories from other vendors that I have a responsibility to warn others. The survey business in the United States is a small world. In over a decade I have never been blatantly screwed like I have been by these guys.

This is a pretty toned down description. (And our counsel will probably make me pull it if they find it.) Call me if you need more information, my number is in the profile.

Mark

They are not the ones. This company was not a distributor but a manufacturer.

I believe Omni is long gone, their product was a kind of early TS, it was along the lines of the first HP TS, non transiting, big box looking scope arrangement.

There was a surveyor in eastern Oregon still using one of those in the mid-late 1990's, I think he had a spare or two for parts too. I think he told me he was also still using a Survey31 surveying computer too.

SHG

I used one briefly at my first place of employment out of school. The year was 1990, I believe....

If I remember correctly, it would record all raw data except a point code, which you had to book. I don't believe there was a display, so you had to assume the data was recorded into memory correctly and just store a backsight check every so often and analyze later. A little quirky to run, but did the job.

Matt

I have to second Mark's description. I have several Omni Prisms, and wanted to purchase some additional ones so everything would match. I was told that my normal vendor did not deal with them anymore because they had experienced something very similar to what Mark experienced.

I ended up not buying any more prisms, so I did not think very much about it. After hearing Mark's story, I will not buy another Omni product as long as I am a surveyor.

Good dealers and support are very hard to find, and Mark has helped me with some Promark questions over the years. Omni has wronged two very good dealers that I know of, and they won't get a penny of my hard earned money ever again.

Matt,

That's it. A big yellow box. One of my colleagues said it was great to sit on.

I'm guessing that was the only American made TS.

How about the Hewlitt-Packard 3820A?

Article on the HP3820A

At the bottom of the article in the specs:

MANUFACTURING DIVISION: CIVIL ENGINEERING DIVISION
615 Fourteenth Street, S W
Loveland Colorado 80537 u SA

> I used one briefly at my first place of employment out of school. The year was 1990, I believe....
>
>
>
> If I remember correctly, it would record all raw data except a point code, which you had to book. I don't believe there was a display, so you had to assume the data was recorded into memory correctly and just store a backsight check every so often and analyze later. A little quirky to run, but did the job.
>
> Matt

We used one for years. It was made by Alpha Electronics in Englewood, CO (long gone now). The guy's name was David, but can't remember his last name. The TS would do stakeout, but wouldn't give you the cut or fill. ugghh

> In the latest copy of American Surveyor there is an article about an American Theodolite. After reading the article I was reminded of a company in Colorado that was building total stations. We had one in our office but I used it sparingly - I had a soft spot for the T-2000's.
>
> I think they were called the OMNI and were profiled in one of the trade mags (POB, etc.). Does anyone know if they still exist? I can't even find a picture of one of their instruments.

The only thing I know about them is that, one time at a seminar, a surveyor who was licensed in several states, indicated that he had used one in North Carolina. This particular total station had, what he described as, two filters. For shots UNDER 5 miles, two filters were needed. For shots from five miles to 15 miles, one filter was needed and anything over that was no filters. He said they aired it out on a "mountain top to mountain top" survey one time at 25 miles with a bank of cue-beams behind a wall of prisms to get the distance and then they dropped down and set a post on line. He said that they had to make the shot at night. He also said it was big and heavy and ugly.

Tom,
I completely forgot about the HP's. While I never used a 3810 or 3820, we did have a 3800 we used when the distances were short or the Model 8 Geodimeter was being used elsewhere.

A company here in St. Louis used them back in the early 1990's....they were ok for stakeout and topo...but boundary surveys, or measurements that mattered....not so much.