SOUTH NTS 355r shooting incorrect distances

Have you checked to see if the prism offset and PPM settings are correct?

only if the trash can is in the corner.

Tie a rope or chain to the handle and use it for an anchor for your boat.

Many repair shops, even the best, are overwhelmed and things get overlooked.

If it don't work, keep sending it back until it does work.

Took three round trips cross country for my last major repair.

Sweeter than ever now.

B-)

>I found a setting for feet and it's settable, but upon power up, it always defaults to meters.

I found a manual here, and it's almost readable.
http://www.surveytechtrading.com/Downloads/Manual/Operation%20Manual%20(Total%20Station%20NTS-350R%20Series).pdf

Section 15 of the manual is for settings that are to be recalled through power cycling, and says:
"Turn on the instrument while pressing the F4 key, then the following settings are available."
The list includes meters/feet/feet-inch and US or Int'l feet.
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8 tenths in 800 is 99.9% or 1000 ppm, not 99.5%

That list of remembered sttings also includes an option to use a grid factor. The distance error sounds a lot like a grid scale factor has been set and needs to be undone.

That has some chance of fixing the problem.

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If that doesn't fix the problem, you might be able to bandaid the problem by putting in whatever grid factor it takes to make it measure true distances. But I wouldn't trust that approach for serious work. If it isn't a setting, that large an error indicates a hardware problem, and not just a drift of the calibration, and it could be very unstable.
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If you can't get it fixed, sell it cheap to somebody who only does rough measurements, or give it to somebody to use as a telescope, or someone who is learning and wants to practice using a similar instrument and will not be making serious measurements.

prism correction

not all prisms work wih the same prism's constant

is important know 3 things(first where is located the true mechanical center of your prism)

1.-check using a control mesured line..3 points 10-50-10 or 500 mts.
2.-do a test using (as south is a copy of topcon)a topcon prism and then the prism that you are using with the instrument
3.- do all your shots using ONLY a tribach set. on each point...check levels on tribach and plummet(also on total station)

3.1.- do a correction on PPM pressure temps and others indicated in user's manual

Good luck with it!

He said the error is proportional to distance. That is not a tribrach or prism problem, which would tend to give errors around 0.1 ft at any distance.

It is either a setting as I suggested above or the reference oscillator is broken.

hhmm...0.1ft is very close to a 30mm prism offset...

"it shoots 8-tenth short at 800 feet and 6-tenth short at 600 feet"

that is not a prism constant problem
it is not a prism assembly problem

EDMs normally shoot the same error at 10 feet or at 1,000 feet or 5,000 feet.

This sounds like an incorrect setting applied for a correction factor.

Both calculate -0.001 correction factor

It would seem possible that value was intended for the setting of tolerance for a fine distance measurement.

Check every manual setting against default values or against the ones that you use.

0.02

Had a Brand new Spectra Precision 600 series do the same thing. Random bad shots. Had to listen to salesmen and reps explain how I probably had another prism in the line of sight. Took me a month of correspondence to convince them that they owed me a replacement. They sent me a reconditioned gun which also had problems.

3 months later I had a brand new 5600 series. Wasted a lot of my time. Wouldn't wish it on anybody.

Have you checked the grid factor setting?

Bump - I see John checked in today. I'm really curious whether the grid factor idea mentioned above checked out.