I was reading an article the other day about the Topcon GLS1500 Laser Scanner, and in the Specs it says the maximum range of the scanner is 500m. I couldent beleive this when I read it, as most scanners scan at a range of a much smaller distance, has anyone any experience using this Topcon Scanner? if so would they recommend using it from a user friendly point of view? Thanks in Advance
Monmos, unbelievable as it sounds, Topcon quote a maximum scanning range of 2000 metres for their IS-3 imaging robotic total station. To me it sounds like a more attractive option for a surveyor than a laser scanner which can only, well, laser scan!
Except that its not a scanner either
It might see that far, the question is the quality of the data at that distance.
Typically scanner data quality varies with distance.
Also consider the angle of incidence at that distance and what the beam dispersion is when it hits the target.
I rented a Topcon GLS-1500 to an engineering company last year who was scanning the upstream face of Wolf Creek Dam in Kentucky. We were able to scan all of the northern end of the dam from a single setup shooting a minimum distance of around 700 feet.
But to get the southern end of the earthen portion of the dam where it turns into to concrete portion, they had to scan from the south side of the river. The distance from where they had to set up the scanner to the face of the dam was around 2,100 feet. They got about 70,000 points on that face that they validated with RTK shots along the top edge. Granted, shooting to the limestone rip-rap face of the dam was probably near ideal conditions but it did work and gave acceptable data from which to build their model of the upstream face of the earthen portion of the dam.
I wasn't crazy about the method but there was simply no other place where you could put a scanner and get the data they needed.
Thank you JerryS for your reply, how did you find the GLS1500 like to work with? Is it user friendly or is it difficult to use?