ChrisA - Hear me out before getting offended by the following post:
It's been said before and it's worth saying again (and again):
?ÿ It's false economy to attempt to work with unreliable equipment.
?ÿ And in a for-profit environment - it's false economy to do those things that you can't do well.
Ultimately you will waste money and your client will have their project delayed. You may even be sued when you miss-locate or forget some critical item that impacts construction and cost. It's possible that you'll come out ahead on a few projects or you might not have any successful surveys with this gear; but in the long run, this will
almostcertainly be viewed as a poor strategy.If the survey is small then you can do it with a tape, a plumb bob, right angle prism, and a level (or hand level) - do it by setting up a baseline and measuring station/offset.
Station/Offset methods will take longer than an expert crew surveying the same area with a robot but less additional time than you'll spend debugging bluetooth or radios or data export formats or bad backsights or bad HIs or forgotten measure ups or data corruption or miss-coded points or a host of other issues that people who work with the gear every day are trained to deal with.
If you can't do it by station and offset, use the survey company that you had good luck with in a prior post.
No client appreciates seeing the architect on-site bumbling around with survey equipment and then returning a few days later to resurvey things that didn't work out. They view that as wasting their money and delaying their project.
Not trying to rain on your parade but you need to be REAL about this. It's in your best interest to invest your time and dollars improving your professional skills as an Architectural Technologist. If you want to be a surveyor (which would be the logical thing to do given the shortage of surveyors in your area as well as your interest in doing the work), go to work for a survey company and get some solid knowledge so that you can succeed.
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Hi JKinAK,
Firstly, I'm incredibly grateful for saying as much as you had, all points are valid and there's no denying the local, as well as no doubt many many years experience.?ÿ
I've taken everything you've said on-board, it's definitely something I would still like to do - in part because sitting in front of computer screens designing things, gets a bit tedious after a while and I'm naturally an outdoors person. Not to say I go hiking in the hills, but physical labour the family I was born into and it's only coincidence that has gotten me to where I am. I had seen a local course that would help incredibly, but I'm conflicted about enrolling before I have equipment. There again, the course may help me pick a better choice of hardware. Any further comments very welcome, but rest assured JkinAK, no offence has been taking, only terrific advice given voluntarily. You're a star ????ÿ
Some more thing to check when buying used stuff.
Did you receive the serial nr of the ?ÿinstrument? ASK for o picture.
forward it to topconeurope to see if it wasn??t stolen, check it??s calibration and maintenance history.
check if you can get new batteries at topcon, does the instrument have an internal backup battery, it probably needs to be replaced.
if it connects to the dc with cables be sure the contacts and cables are as new, communication problems are a pita when doing fieldwork.
Chr.
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Thank you Christ, I didn't get the serial Nos, but I should have.
Can certainly forward it to topconeurope - terrific advice, thank you.
Again, re battery, I'll certainly do that.
Cable related issues is definitely something else I would check.
Pass up this instrument Buy new and don't look back Like you said it is a tax write off and could be leveraged into a great asset considering all of the changes that have come in the past 5 yrs That technology is too old
Thank you Ed, wise words that'll certainly take, it's looking likely that I'll give it a miss.
The reason some of us here in the U.S. are saying to PASS on it is that these are high theft items and as it is missing some of the critical components for operating it may be stolen but ALSO look these things are used and sometimes (frequently) abused and unless you buy it from a dealer that has serviced it and has provided you with at least a minimum of assurance that it operates you risk buying a lemon.........Caveat Emptor.
I have bought many used items from reputable surveyors and engineers all across America and other countries thru EBay and have been pleased to do business with them.
We also communicated before the purchases and was able to review videos of some items in action.
I stay away from other vendors and pawn shops that do business there unless I can justify the loss if I get a boat anchor.
Having a any TS that works perfectly is worth more to me than the hope for something more that needs twice that amount of extra gear to be up and running.
If the unit is close for you, go and see it in action and take your data collector or whatever and see if it will work with what you have.
good luck
The reason some of us here in the U.S. are saying to PASS on it is that these are high theft items and as it is missing some of the critical components for operating it may be stolen but ALSO look these things are used and sometimes (frequently) abused and unless you buy it from a dealer that has serviced it and has provided you with at least a minimum of assurance that it operates you risk buying a lemon.........Caveat Emptor.
Thank you Steven, yes I believe there are theft concerns in the UK as well - it is a very steal'able item after all. Very fair point about the parts missing, thank you.
I have bought many used items from reputable surveyors and engineers all across America and other countries thru EBay and have been pleased to do business with them.
We also communicated before the purchases and was able to review videos of some items in action.
I stay away from other vendors and pawn shops that do business there unless I can justify the loss if I get a boat anchor.
Having a any TS that works perfectly is worth more to me than the hope for something more that needs twice that amount of extra gear to be up and running.
If the unit is close for you, go and see it in action and take your data collector or whatever and see if it will work with what you have.
good luck
Thank you for that A Harris, very much appreciated.
I think so far I'm going to give it a miss, though I'm still tempted to at least visit the seller and see what true condition it's in and even test it.
You won't need a 360 degree prism to test it out, a regular one would work but you would need a data collector that would work with it and a way for it to communicate with the data collector.?ÿ?ÿ We recently purchased a Trimble S5 that I would describe as lightly used but came with everything we need to operate it, including prism pole, all new batteries, and a nice tripod, and it cost around 25k.?ÿ If my phone app is correct on converting pounds to dollars, what you are looking at cost a little less than 4k US dollars.?ÿ I would add that we paid 25k for our system but I would estimate all the other items that came with it at about $7k to $8k in US money.?ÿ Most of that being in the data collector and 360 prism.?ÿ Good luck on your search.
It's been a while since I read you other post; so forgive me if this has already been discussed.
I locate most of the improvements on my surveys with my reflectorless total station. You won't need a 360 prism or radios. I use a data collector, but the onboard data collection might be fine for you.
Thank you David for commenting, very much appreciated. That's very good information there and a good perspective regarding costs, it is a 10+ year old unit so I would hope the price was proportionate to that. Of course saying that, and as others have said - it's old and could become a paper weight at any moment. Thank you for the luck, I'll need it I think.
I spoke to a local builder about my consideration for getting a total station, he said he would have more than enough work for me...which is nice, just a shame about the equipment cost, though it's completely justified of course.
Hello Kevin, many thanks for viewing this topic and?ÿcompletely understand it's been a while since my previous post.
That's nice to know about the prism / reflectorless TS. There's still a 5% chance I at least go and see it, if it had some sort of onboard data collection that would be great. I have registered with topcon and downloaded the manual...think I'll have a bedtime read.
EVERYONE, YOU'RE ALL INVALUABLE, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Have you thought about getting a non-robotic total station??ÿ You could probably get into a complete setup, data collector and all for maybe $10k.?ÿ Not state of the art but you can still do good work with it.?ÿ You just would normally have to have a helper.?ÿ Like someone said, you can get prismless also.?ÿ
Hello Kevin, many thanks for viewing this topic and?ÿcompletely understand it's been a while since my previous post.
That's nice to know about the prism / reflectorless TS. There's still a 5% chance I at least go and see it, if it had some sort of onboard data collection that would be great. I have registered with topcon and downloaded the manual...think I'll have a bedtime read.
EVERYONE, YOU'RE ALL INVALUABLE, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Onboard data collection is no use if you are trying to do a robotic survey. You need a compatible data collector and radio.?ÿ
I would advise spending ?2-3000 on a decent reflectorless total station (2nd hand) and doing a but of "back and forth" where necessary.
OR min ?8000 for a "full robotic kit" (2nd hand) eg Leica TCRP1205 with controller.
Any robot cheaper than that is very likely to be a false economy. There's a reason why some instruments are being sold cheaply, they're no longer fit for purpose and will have you tearing your hair out.
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Hello Kevin, many thanks for viewing this topic and?ÿcompletely understand it's been a while since my previous post.
That's nice to know about the prism / reflectorless TS. There's still a 5% chance I at least go and see it, if it had some sort of onboard data collection that would be great. I have registered with topcon and downloaded the manual...think I'll have a bedtime read.
EVERYONE, YOU'RE ALL INVALUABLE, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Onboard data collection is no use if you are trying to do a robotic survey. You need a compatible data collector and radio.?ÿ
I would advise spending ?2-3000 on a decent reflectorless total station (2nd hand) and doing a but of "back and forth" where necessary.
OR min ?8000 for a "full robotic kit" (2nd hand) eg Leica TCRP1205 with controller.
Any robot cheaper than that is very likely to be a false economy. There's a reason why some instruments are being sold cheaply, they're no longer fit for purpose and will have you tearing your hair out.
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Hi David, ideally I would get a non-robotic one, but sadly I'm self-employed and would find difficulty in getting good short notice labour. It's because of this it would be better for me to do it solo.
