Security of Robot or GPS Base Station?

I lock my base to my truck if I am working in shadytown.

Cable lock through the GPS base receiver and through the tripod so that an impromptu thief would have to walk off with both. Cones and warning tape around the base. In high risk areas we are fortunate here that we can hire labour for security for equivalent of USD20 per day.

Usually the robot is line of site and active. We had one run over a while back. The dingbat driver hit 3 cones before the instrument. Glad we didn't have an I man by the gun.
We protect the base by watching where we set it up. If we are away from it, it's generally in a place we have little concern. I suppose we will worry about locking it up if we get work that demands it.

I've heard of GPS Base stations being stolen, of course. But it seems that every time it is from the side of the road. So set it up somewhere away from the side of the road. There are plenty of good technical reasons not to set up by the side of the road where every passing truck blocks out a number of satellites anyway. Find a nearby park or schoolyard.

Likewise, every total station I've ever heard of being stolen off the jobsite was swooped up very quickly. So a cable or chain attached to anything substantial at all ought to do the job. A length of heavy chain would probably do the job even if it isn't attached to anything.

We are lucky around here. Nobody takes any special precautions at all and stuff very rarely gets taken.

Adam, post: 415421, member: 8900 wrote: I lock my base to my truck if I am working in shadytown.

I'd fear forgetting and driving away with the receiver tied to the truck. I don't like to lean the shovel on the truck . If I do, I lean it on the driver's door.

Mark Mayer, post: 415429, member: 424 wrote: I'd fear forgetting and driving away with the receiver tied to the truck. I don't like to lean the shovel on the truck . If I do, I lean it on the driver's door.

I left a new data collector on the rear bumper once .

Tripod if need to be over existing point, tripod/antenna is only exposure, receiver, battery, memory, etc. are safe inside trailer. Wheel boot on trailer wheel. If super paranoid, I will chain the tripod to the trailer, been thinking of adding a security camera system with ability to monitor over the web, but this is usually deployed in remote areas often with no cell coverage.

If I just need a base, I have developed a roof mount, no tripod needed. In this photo the solar panels show up as well as cell phone antenna and 900 Mhz antenna for the Intuicom bridge radio.

I have never lost a setup or had it disturbed once I started using a trailer in about 2003, prior to that I lost two setups, one with my helper 50-100 feet away and we also lost one at a prior place I worked, so that is three that I have personal knowledge of walking away. Of course these days, as often or not there might be a RTN, so the base is used less often.

SHG

I just don't set up Base in a public place.
I seek out a landowner nearby, ask them and have never been refused.
One town I asked the local police if I could use their lawn out the back of police station.
I've "base stations" dotted around the country.
In home town I use one at home or one at a mates place in town.

Yes, public places have the double-whammy of an instrument being an obstruction to the public and some see it then as their right to at least confront its presence. At one location we had no choice but to put the robot on a waterfront 3m wide footpath, because that is where the control station was. We coned it off leaving half the path open, but most people just walked through the cones and millimeters past the instrument. We couldn't rope the cones because we've had pecker-heads pull the cones/rope onto the instrument. A couple of old crows even stopped to rest and put an arm on the tripod.

Mark Mayer, post: 415429, member: 424 wrote: I'd fear forgetting and driving away with the receiver tied to the truck. I don't like to lean the shovel on the truck . If I do, I lean it on the driver's door.

It's actually mounted to my truck and locked, you can drive off with no worries.

I thought at one time they made an alarm system that was pretty loud you could attach to the legs of your tripod. Can't remember the name of it though...

I do like most and just put it somewhere "out of the way". If that's not possible, the CAD guy gets to get a sun tan that day. Lol.

Shelby H. Griggs PLS, post: 415463, member: 335 wrote: Tripod if need to be over existing point, tripod/antenna is only exposure, receiver, battery, memory, etc. are safe inside trailer. Wheel boot on trailer wheel. If super paranoid, I will chain the tripod to the trailer, been thinking of adding a security camera system with ability to monitor over the web, but this is usually deployed in remote areas often with no cell coverage.

If I just need a base, I have developed a roof mount, no tripod needed. In this photo the solar panels show up as well as cell phone antenna and 900 Mhz antenna for the Intuicom bridge radio.

I have never lost a setup or had it disturbed once I started using a trailer in about 2003, prior to that I lost two setups, one with my helper 50-100 feet away and we also lost one at a prior place I worked, so that is three that I have personal knowledge of walking away. Of course these days, as often or not there might be a RTN, so the base is used less often.

SHG

I have been contemplating a trailer rig off and on for a while now. Can you post some pics of the inside as well as a close up of the GPS mount on the roof? I am also interested in how you work out of it versus a truck alone. Do you detach it once on the job site so the truck is free to roam? Maybe this is a different topic all together. I will start a new thread. I hope you will post pictures to it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mark Mayer, post: 415429, member: 424 wrote: I'd fear forgetting and driving away with the receiver tied to the truck. I don't like to lean the shovel on the truck . If I do, I lean it on the driver's door.

Leave the equipment boxes, ie, pelican cases, so if it gets stolen, then at least the thief has a box for it!
🙂

Jones, post: 415435, member: 10458 wrote: I left a new data collector on the rear bumper once .

So did i!!! The roof actually! Drove 4 miles to a job. Got there. Realized. Called my mother at the office in a panic. I drove back slowly following my route (up route 1, so very busy, if it fell it prolly got run over) she drove her car looking coming the other way from the office.

I got to the office...Nothing. like an idiot, still panicking, I drove all the way back to the job site looking more.

The collector was on a slippery bright blue notebook, so I couldn't believe I never even saw the notebook on either travel and neither did my mother.

Got to the job site and had the brilliant idea to look on the roof of the truck... low and behold, there it was! Still on the notebook which never slide off the truck with the collector!!!

Now once I did this with a packaged up laptop being shipped for returns.... that box didn't fare so well and wasn't ever found. Someone is using a free laptop somewhere. It had a label on it so I hoped they put it in the mail for me but no such luck.

I left one on the truck bumper once a LONG time ago. It made it several miles on a dirt road without moving. That cured me of leaving anything on the truck, ever.

Gregg

Mark Mayer, post: 415427, member: 424 wrote: I've heard of GPS Base stations being stolen, of course. But it seems that every time it is from the side of the road. So set it up somewhere away from the side of the road. There are plenty of good technical reasons not to set up by the side of the road where every passing truck blocks out a number of satellites anyway. Find a nearby park or schoolyard.

Likewise, every total station I've ever heard of being stolen off the jobsite was swooped up very quickly. So a cable or chain attached to anything substantial at all ought to do the job. A length of heavy chain would probably do the job even if it isn't attached to anything.

We are lucky around here. Nobody takes any special precautions at all and stuff very rarely gets taken.

The one time (talk about a negativity bias) I had my base stolen it was on the back side of a large apartment site with a block wall around it. I've always thought the lawn maintenance guys helped themselves to it. None of the apartment residents spoke English so they were no help. The police FAXed over a form I filled out and that was the extent of the investigation.

For years after that my wife sat with the base, or I hired a local homeless person for cash to sit there. Sad story. In a run down trailer park I gave a woman cash to watch the unit and she was so grateful: "Now I can buy food." Makes you grateful for what you have, doesn't it?

I was always concerned about the base GPS unit being messed with, or maybe the battery stolen, so I always tried to do my set-ups away from the highways, or major traveled county roads. I figured noone would steal the whole unit, I mean how many people knew what it was, right? Well, got a call from a crew one day, and yep, they had set up on side of highway, and they noticed loss of radio signal, so went and checked it out. No base left. So much for my theory. Now, I personally do not set a base up on a highway or well traveled road I cannot lay eyes on it, In the country I put a fence around it if cattle are likely, I have a flag on my antenna so I can see at a long distance if my antenna is upright, and if I am in a area of small tracts the seems shady, I have a camaflouge wrap to cover it with. We tried making a trailer to lock it in with a boot, but somehow that idea fell by the wayside...

I get on Google Earth before going to a job. I look for places that are not near any roads (at least requiring someone to walk a hundred feet or more). I like to look for churches as they generally have some open spaces around desolate parking lots.