Curious to know if anyone has intermittent issues with the connection between internal radios of the F35 robot and the ranger 3 (survey pro). I've had the current F35 for a year now (purchased new), and already had to have some internal radio parts in the instrument replaced @ around 11 months old (fortunately warranty covered).
What I've been noticing lately (and starting before the repair) is it is taking longer and longer for the ranger to connect to the instrument. When it was new, it would connect almost immediately. 3-5 seconds usually. Now, it will cycle thru"looking for..." then "idle..." for anywhere between 15 to 60 seconds or more before it connects most times. On occasion, it will not find it without restarting the instrument and / or ranger. Distance from the instrument doesn't seem to have any effect, and once connected everything is fine. I also had the same issues with an F30 I had a few years back... new when I got it, radio replaced a@ around 11-12 months old, and connection time seemed to degrade over time.
A second intermittent issue is when you hit search, the robot will turn very slowly thru the searching pattern (as if it was on speed 1 or 2), not find you and stop. Then hit search again and it moves quickly and finds you without issue like it did when it was new. Similar to the connection issue, it has been happening more and more as it gets older. May be related, may not...
Out of the box, it was quick and responsive, but just like the F30, these problems start to get worse around 11-12 months. Frustrating to say the least... and the wasted time accumulates, especially when you need to move quickly.?ÿ
Curious to hear any feedback. Settings are not being changed when the issues happen either. I'm mainly trying to determine if this is common with a lot of the F30's and F35's, or if I just happened to get 2 that were dropped on the head as babies when no one was looking...
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Thanks-
Have been using the spectra focus 35 for 2 years now. Radio issues started at around 18 months. Sent back for repair at that point... now 2-3 months later the same issue. At first the data collector and robot connect instantly but as time goes by the connection gets slower and slower to the point you are driving to the job site while trying to get it connected. Once the connection is made your good to go until the Robot batteries die. Then your back to square one... waiting for connection. Bluetooth connection is a second option but you can??t work more that a 100?? from the instrument and it??s a very slow/lagging connection. Or you can run it as a traditional total station with a 2 man field crew but that??s defeating the purpose of having a robot to begin with. Certainly frustrating when your doing construction stakeout and the laborers are waiting for your layout. I can??t say all negative things about the spectra focus setup because when it does work it??s very efficient and easy to use with survey pro. Love the robot hate the radio connection issues!?ÿ
