Hello everyone, my name is Jake. I am a farmer from southern Idaho. I’m hoping to get some advice from you experts about serving equipment and methods.
We have many basalt lava rock “blowouts” or places in our field, where the rock rises above the surrounding soil and creates an obstacle we have to farm around. In an effort to get rid of these rock piles I have obtained my ATF license to purchase and use explosives. We have done some small trenching projects with good success and now we want to tackle the rock piles.
My question is, is there some affordable older equipment and software I can get to help me -
1 - map out raised rock areas
2 - make a grid pattern for blast holes
3 - notate elevation of each hole location as I’m laying them out so I know how deep to drill
As far as accuracy goes, I think within a couple inches would be fine.
I am familiar with RTK. We use a Trimble RTK base with a 900mhz radio for the auto guidance on our tractors. I’m thinking I need to get a Trimble rover and data collector. Im not sure about software. Am I on the right track here? Thank you all in advance for your help.
I'm not familiar with Trimble equipment or software, but often if you use the same software as the manufacturer of your equipment there will be fewer compatibility issues.
One of the best bangs for your dollar on a desktop or laptop computer is Carlson Survey with the included IntelliCAD engine. (My company uses Carlson with the additional cost of an AutoCAD engine.) They also make software for data collectors to use in the field. For your application you would probably only use about 5% of Carlson's capabilities. It is a very comprehensive surveying software package with about 10,000 settings you can adjust. Carlson has training videos, a pretty good user manual and excellent support if you have questions. If a simpler construction staking program exists, you might be better off with it, though.
Also, Carlson also has good values on their branded equipment (total stations, data collectors, GPS units, etc.)
I suppose this would really depend on how much you are wanting to spend.
Since you are familiar with and own some Trimble hardware, I would maybe stick with that. Trimble offers some easy to use software and hardware packages. Trimble Access and Trimble Business Center. You can find newish Trimble base/rover set-ups on eBay with a data collector.
Trimble Business Center offers basic packages with construction layout bias.
We use Spectra Geospatial which is made by Trimble and is a cheaper yet effective solution.
It might be worth your time to go in to a local surveyors office and ask for guidance. They may be able to help you better than a forum.
That being said, I would highly recommend hiring a survey company to provide you with the services! Although I did grow up in southern Idaho (Burley/Oakley), I am currently licensed in Washington so I can't make it over. 🙂
Best of luck blowing stuff up!
I may look like an average American male, but I will surprise you.
What kind of drill hole density are you contemplating? And roughly how big are these outcroppings? I'm thinking that a bundle of 4' lath, a cloth tape, and a builders grade differential level would be sufficient for the purpose, unless I'm very much underestimating the size of these outcroppings.
If you go with Trimble. Since you are already using 900mhz radio you could probably rent a rover use your base I assume it’s broadcasting in the area if your tractor is receiving it. You would want a rover with the 900mhz of course. The data collector could be one of the two software platforms. I would probably advise to use the construction side as it will be more along the lines in terminology you are familiar with. Probably your local dealer can aid in this. Go out locate the outer area of the rock outcrops and maybe they have someone in for support that can take your data then get your grids and upload that and go back and mark where you want the blast holes. If you go with the survey software data collector it’s not difficult either just have to make sure it’s all set up correctly. I am a small farmer no row crops just hay and small herd. Have a few good friends here I help doing ROW crop work and go out and map out some for them once in a while to check the offsets to plant in different spots once in a while. Good luck.
Without getting carried away with learning CAD and a new survey software, I would reach out to a survey equipment sales company like Frontier Precision and Kuker Rankin, and see if they can guide you through data collection and point observation, in exchange for renting the equipment. The availability of support and assistance would be well worth the additional costs over old equipment.
Alternatively, I would reach out to your farm supply and see if there is a handheld rover that works with your existing farm equipment