S6 vs S3

Both are great guns , I've had an s6 for 5 years and an s3 for 6 months running access. I do mainly stakeout and engineering topos, and the production out of them both is brilliant.

As far as stake out and topo they are both as good, but the s3 has a few bells and whistles missing , which once you have had them , you miss them fast when they are not there.

The biggest difference is the reflectorless mode, the s3 uses phase shift as opposed the the s6 which uses time of flight. The s6 will bounce back off almost any surface, the s3 will not bounce back off any dark surface, weather its close by or far away, and its very finicky in getting a reading, sometimes it will get the shot, other times not. I sent mine back for testing after a month as i thought it was faulty, but it was not. So not as good for reflectorless as the s6. An example , we can use the s6 to shoot busy road intersections, but not the s3 , unless there is a white line to bounce off.

In stake out or prism mode the s3 is as good as an s6 , i rarely shoot more than 200m , so have never found a problem with the s3 radio range, but it is lower than an s6 i am told.

The s3 is also slower to find you using gps search, as it spins a lot slower than the s6, so it takes a few seconds longer to find you.

I miss autofocus on an s3, you get used to having the backsights already in focus with an s6, its a little thing, but when you get used to not having to focus on a long distant backsight, hunting back and forth with the focus knob to get it feels like a waste if time.

No lcd screen on the s3 means you cant see the units radio channel and network, so you need to memorize it change frequencies on the controllers, or connect a controller to it to change them.

Its a production work horse , can topo and stake out just as well as an s6, i miss the little extras, but did i mention it cost me almost half what i paid for the s6 ! Same production for half the capital cost =:-) so guess i will just shut up.

I agree with PDOP, the S3 is an excellent gun. Unless your workflow requires the additional S6 features, you won't go wrong with it.

The S6 also has the ability to run with an active prism but just about everyone I know doesn't use one on it (too heavy). I'd go with the S3. If you aren't married to Trimble and like TDS software then the Spectra Precision Focus 30 runs as fast as the 3 and almost the 6 but is even less expensive than either.

S6 vs S3? S6 for me.

When I demoed the S3 and the S6 the S3 was locking and shooting distances at my safety vest. Since we wear them always we went with the S6 and the 360° active prism, never regretted that decision.

Christof.

Don't buy a trimble you are stuck with there products (service) which should be a open system.

I had a Geo 650 aka trimble 5600 with the same bugs what a piece of junk thank you trimble

If I would do it again I would go Topcon SR GPS with Carlson on a surveyor plus
and a Leica TS 12.

People talk about the tracking of the S6 big deal my leica TS12 will do the same
I had a rental S6 nothing special chit why if its good robot its better High performance gps conditions so go GPS.

Bottom line get the best GPS = Topcon SR and a leica TS 12 robot and say goodby to
trimble.

Trying to save you the but agony. after 14 years of robots

Setch Equipment List

DC

2 New Carlson Surveyor Plus
Carlson SurvCE Ver 3.02
Carlson SurvCE Ver 3.02

Robot

Leica TS12
Type TS12 P 2" R400
S.N. 269895
Art No. 791307
Equipment No. 4944492

GPS

Sokkia Gsr1700Csx RTK L1 Two rovers, One base
post process soft Spectrum Ver 4.21 L1 dongle
Satel 3ASd 1 watt, Stubby, 15cm, 30 cm GainFlex.

Computer

Xi Computer S/N: 037019
Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHZ
Mem 16.0 GB
Win 7 64.0 Bit

Autodesk C3D 2013 subscription Service pack 1

AVG Antivirus

HP 111 Roll feed 24" plotter.

I have an S6 with the MT1000 prism and it awesome. If money isn't an issue, get the S6!

I agree with Peter. Stay away from the evil empire of Trimble. Their service is the absolute worst, and trust me, you will have service issues.

I appreciate the feedback. I do understand your emphasis on staying away from Trimble or the likes. But I have to say we have a good services with our Trimble Rep. Long story short, we once were Lieca users and switched to Trimble. From the start, Trimble took care of us and has kept it up over the years. Now we own several piece of equipment and that is why I would like to try to stay with Trimble.

Leica hands down. I'm just field crew and don't make decisions, from what i've seen in the field Leica products have a number of advantages.

I'm also a leica fan, but thats nor the question. You have a good relationship worth you're dealer and that's most important in my opinion.

Better the S3 and the S6 I'd go worth the S6. I'm not a fan of buying the watered down version of anything. I mean the whole e of the idea is to be cheaper than the S6.

That being said I'd youre thinking the s3 is the way you'll go, you need to look at Focus30. The same dealer can service it stone Trimble does make it. You also won't find thay much of a performance difference and will save another 4k on it.

Whichever you get, I strongly suggest the active prism. I believe that the newer generation S3 will use an active prism, but I'm not 100% on that. The other thing to keep in mind is that Trimble Vision is not available on the S3. I am running an S6 with Vision. I don't use Vision as much as I expected for measuring points, but I use it all the time for location the prism pole.

I use an S6 with a passive prism (a Leica 360). It would be nice to have an active prism but we have what we have. It is a hand-me-down from Caltrans.

It is light years ahead of the Leica 1200 I was using.

I'm running Access on a TCU which is a nice backwoods DC because it can be attached onto the instrument.

Passive works okay in the wide open but hard to use without help in the brush.

> It is light years ahead of the Leica 1200 I was using.

Which 1200 config were you using, and what do you find better (e.g., speed, accuracy, search, weight) about the S6?

I'm not in the market (still using a TCRA1102+), but always interested in real-world evaluations of what's out there.

It is a Leica TCRA1203+.

I never used it as a robot or to track a prism so I can't speak to that.

The S6 is smoother and faster. It'll take shots as fast as you can press the store button.

It has a lot less vibration when turning which makes a difference on steep soft set ups.

The Leica is better about distinguishing close together targets. If you put the cross hairs on the glass it will find the correct target. The S6 tends to grab the target it likes better. This isn't a problem very often. The new ones may be better.

Other than that I find the S6 to be faster and smoother and less inexplicable pauses, etc.

There's no way to compare a conventionally used total station with an S6.

To me it's different philosophies and it really ends up being which do you attract more. Trimble's philosophy is "Don't ever lose lock," while Leicas is "if you lose the prism use powersearch to get me back on you.

In my opinion, i wouldn't want to be cautious of how i hold/move with the prism. I just want to move and be able type press a button that gets it back on me. Thay being said, if I'm using machine control or staking only, the speed of the trimble may be more what id need.

Does the S6 prism pole have to be held vertical at all times for it to stay locked?

Does it really take a lot longer and/or more button pushes to get an S6 back locked if it is lost?

Could you please explain the advantages the Leica has over the Trimble?

No it doesn't have to be held vertically to stay locked. When walking through vegetation I some times hold it horizontally or even almost upside down.

Can't speak to anything other than the S6, and it can be very east to regain lock or difficult depending upon how far away from the instrument you are and how good your vision is.

I've never found it to be a problem, but know some who have.

If it loses the prism which is almost never in the open I just push escape once then measure and it searches. That is if it's close.

If it is not close then I turn on the tracking lights (push the instrument icon then the track light button) then the joystick to turn it to me. The joystick has a search button.