KENT new or 2 H?
The leica 1100's are serviceable anymore but leica has been offering some awesome deals on the 1200 series..
KENT new or 2 H?
Where are these awesome deals on the 1200's?
KENT new or 2 H?
> Leica 1100 would do job, So too 1200 series.
>
> Check Leica reps for trade ins as latest model now out, but probably with too many bells and whistles,
I don't have any hangup about buying used equipment in good condition. I do plan to demo one of the new Leicas, but am leaning toward a Trimble 5603 or Focus 10 because they have such a good track record and the survey controller is interoperable with other equipment I have or am likely to buy.
I like the 5600 series
Trimble has a utility called "Trimble Ascii File Generator". It uses XML stylesheets to parse the raw data into just about any format you want. There are a lots of stylesheets available for free on Trimbles website. If a stylesheet to suit your needs doesn't exist a programmer knowledgeable in XML can create one for you. But if you are using StarNet I'd recommend just getting StarNet's $200 converter and be done.
5603's are good, high quality instruments. Lots of them are available second hand for really low cost. They are rather heavy and require lots of battery power. That is no biggie if your work is ALTA's, topos, or construction staking. It may not be so great for packing across acres of Texas ranchland.
I had a look at the Focus at the Oregon conference. The data collection software has some nice features but I was easily able to confuse it. Took me about 30 seconds in the convention hall to find a bug. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. Just make sure you really test it out before you buy.
I like the 5600 series
> 5603's are good, high quality instruments. Lots of them are available second hand for really low cost. They are rather heavy and require lots of battery power. That is no biggie if your work is ALTA's, topos, or construction staking. It may not be so great for packing across acres of Texas ranchland.
Once upon a time, I used a Zeiss Elta46R. Packing around a robotic instrument doesn't sound as if it will be that much worse than the Elta with spare batteries and tribrach was. I do like the lower power consumption of the S3 but have yet to see it at work in a cluttered environment without an active target.
> My assistant of lo these last 13 or 14 years told me today that he's decided to move to the Pacific NW.
Does this mean there is a position open in for a rookie with a robot? I have 25 years in and am starting to get the hang of things.
This looks like a brick, but I see is in your area.
http://www.martininstrument.com/trimble-5603-servoautolockrobotic-total-station-300000-trade
13 or 14 years. Did he finally have qualified experience to get a license? Is a robot worth 10 years salary? RTK GPS maybe 25 years salary?
> This looks like a brick, but I see is in your area.
>
>> http://www.martininstrument.com/trimble-5603-servoautolockrobotic-total-station-300000-tradebr >
Yes, they are our local Trimble dealer.
Color screens are terrible but they seem to be the only thing you can't get new these days. It seems like the text is getting smaller too.
BTW I haven't demoed the Leica TPS1200+ yet, but for quality of documentation, Leica is a standout winner so far. One of the more dislikeable aspects of high-tech black box technology is one is basically left guessing about what is really going on. The Leica people seem to have appreciated that most surveyors actually want to know in at least moderate detail how the unit operates.
I agree that the more data the better as to how the thing is working but sometimes the details overshadow the practical instructions as to how to perform the simple functions you need it to do. That was severely frustrating when I bought my Topcon GPS system. I went to every training session they had and since I am not a math savant by any means, I would go home asking "yeah but how do you measure how far it is from here to there?" That is not a problem now because after fairly minimal use of the system it is now sitting in the garage as electronic waste. My Topcon robot is OK but it's heavier than heck and I run a two-person crew almost all the time so the robotic and reflectorless features are not used very often. It's cool that it does all that stuff but if I had the money I'd buy a good standard TS that's much lighter and quicker and simpler to operate. I've got an old GTS3B and a GTS3C but they've decided they don't like talking to DC's, otherwise I'd be running them every day.
Robotic TS - +/-1mm ATR
So, in reading the details of the data sheet for one robotic TS, I see that the automatic target recognition is advertised as having a base uncertainty of +/-1mm (s.e.). That is, the uncertainty of pointing on the prism/target is +/-1mm s.e. That's not bad, but isn't as good as a human observer can do.
That means that an angle measured between two prisms/targets, each 100m from the instrument, is going to have an uncertainty of +/-3" from just the uncertainties of pointing.
To that, you have to add the angular uncertainty of the instrument's measurement between the pointings at 100m prisms/targets with the root-sum-of-squares results for 3" and 5" instruments as follows:
3" TS...+/-4.2" s.e.
5" TS...+/-5.8" s.e.
If the pointing uncertainty is truly random, then a surveyor is probably going to be measuring multiple sets to important shots for boundary control. I'll have to run the numbers, but a 5" TS may actually work just fine with multiple sets, which ought to be a snap with a robotic instrument.
Robotic TS - +/-1mm ATR
Kent
We have a TPS1201+ and a TPS1203+ and through our testing we barely see better results with the 1201.
I really havent compared in great detail, but we do have 3 other Leica total stations (400 and 800 series), and when comparing multiple sets, we always see better closure with the robotics over the manual total station.
Smartworx has also really come a long way since we first started using it. I have been more than pleased with the VIVA products that we have bought in the last year or so.
By the way, if you do end up getting a Leica instrument. Make sure it has the pro tribrach (Leica has 3 different types). It makes a huge difference. I learned this on our first Leica instrument purchase and the added precision/stability far outweighs the extra cost.
Robotic TS - +/-1mm ATR
> We have a TPS1201+ and a TPS1203+ and through our testing we barely see better results with the 1201.
Depending upon what ranges you're measuring angles over, the +/-1mm ATR pointing uncertainty can definitely make the nominal accuracy of the instrument circle less prominent in the overall measurement uncertainty.
> By the way, if you do end up getting a Leica instrument. Make sure it has the pro tribrach (Leica has 3 different types). It makes a huge difference. I learned this on our first Leica instrument purchase and the added precision/stability far outweighs the extra cost.
Thanks for the tip. The ability to point to a normal prism with ATR seems like a pretty darn good thing. Just out of curiosity, does the power search function do an adequate job of finding the prism in cluttered environments with multiple reflective surfaces?
huh? The Leica book in my 1203 box is nearly useless and the Leica is a prima donna instrument. It's beautiful mechanically but the software thinks it is the boss. You can't zero the stupid thing without the data collector, at least no way I can figure out. And I can't figure out how to get settings to stick. My Topcon is way more friendly just for basic use. Topcon will zero in either face (too complex for Leica) and will do it without a lot of arguing (are you sure? are you sure your sure?)
But true, the Leica is a beautiful work of art mechanically and optically. It will wrap up the prettiest set of angles you ever saw at least once you get it to work. It has been buggy lately (turn it on, keyboard not working, pull battery out, turn on, now everything works-maybe it needs it's firmware reloaded, sometimes the touch screen stops working).
When you look through there the ATR will not necessarily physically point to the center of the prism, it figures the angular distance to the center from where ever it points to. I tested it one time, it works properly.
My employee keeps a medical log on me (a literary reference to the Caine Mutiny) and when I'm fighting the Leica software I can see him really scribbling fast. It's really bad when I start yelling at the G-D instrument.
If you buy Leica for Gawd's sakes get all the Leica accessories that go with it because Leica is a system. I mean the tribrachs, adapters, prisms, targets, the whole works. Leica uses a different PC offset and it is designed to work best with it's own brand of stuff. Don't just buy the 30k instrument, get the extra 5k in other stuff.
All in all, I would probably buy a Leica if money was no object because I think it is the best instrument (other than the software frustrations). Carlson seems to understand Leica better than TDS does.
1201 used exclusively for machine control
> The Leica book in my 1203 box is nearly useless and the Leica is a prima donna instrument. It's beautiful mechanically but the software thinks it is the boss. You can't zero the stupid thing without the data collector, at least no way I can figure out. And I can't figure out how to get settings to stick.
I haven't read the operating manual. I was looking at a technical paper that Leica publishes describing the operation of the EDM, the target recognition system, and the so-called "Power Search" function for target location that is supposed to be able to distinguish prism reflections from miscellaneous other reflective objects like road signes.
> I haven't read the operating manual. I was looking at a technical paper that Leica publishes describing the operation of the EDM, the target recognition system, and the so-called "Power Search" function for target location that is supposed to be able to distinguish prism reflections from miscellaneous other reflective objects like road signes.
Kent,
To the best of my knowledge the only instrument that uses active target recognition (which you want) is the Geodimeter/trimble/spectra precision line. I am currently running a robotic Geodimeter 610 and if I had to replace it, would go with the Focus 10 which is basically the same unit. In 13 years of using this model it has only locked on the wrong target once. The Focus 10 is very reasonable priced as they have been discontinued but there still are a few out there in dealers inventory. They make great instruments as they are extremely consistent in all aspects. Your big decision will be whether to use the on-board data collection software/programs or go with a handheld unit.
Respectfully,
Jim Vianna
Dave
Everyone of those issues we have never had. Of course we are running the CS15 (Viva data collector) with internal radios. Since we got it, it has always been a get out of the box and work instrument.
We stopped using Carlson with Leica about 2 years ago, and now I dont know if the new Leica VIVA units even work with Carlson anymore.
