Recently aquired an old Topcon GTS-4B to carry out survey of our ground and found in user manual that there is an Interface manual describing the data format for communication etc. I did a search and found on this site a few years ago (2014) that someone had similar question but posts ended.
I have written a program using Labview that reads the serial coms port of the 4B and I get data in the following format?ÿ?ÿ<0922000+0794440-0016d090 repeated around 8 or 9 times, similar results to the chap a few years ago. He suggested that a command needs to be sent to the station to stop any further data being sent once valid data was recognised, which makes sense.
The data being read at the moment is then formated in my program to?ÿ ?ÿ 092 20' 00"?ÿ ?ÿ 079 44' 40"?ÿ ?ÿ 0016d090 before being saved as a text file. Because I am new to this subject I assume the last block of data is the distance but will confirm when set up outside with prisim etc.
Guess that I could just write the values down and do any calcs later manually but it seems as shame because its not to difficult to put formulas into the program I have written to perform any calculations etc.
Any help would be appreciated although I appreciate its really quite an old unit now.
?ÿ
That is excellent Bill, many thanks all the info I need is in your document, If anyone ever needs the program written for 'Labview' (National Instruments) I would be would happy to share it.
Thanks again,
John
Question is WHY? I have run Topcons, from 3Bs to 3001 and a lot of numbers in between and all used the same interface. Therefore any data collector from day 1 till now should connect. Very early 3Bs had a different connection, never used one, and do not know the interface parameters.
Paul in PA
Question is WHY?
Obviously because he is not going to buy a data collector, but is going to use a computer to store the data.?ÿ He has the ability to write the program for it.
This appears to be a personal project and not a production situation.?ÿ More time than money allocated.
Unfortunatly have no software to accept the data and assume it has to be purchaased so makes more sense to do it myself.
Sorry Paul, my reply occured after yours.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head.
Its only for my own personel use from which I get satisaction from.
Thanks, John
I remember when we used "KERMIT" to transfer data to a computer in ascii?ÿform.
Have many versions of transfer programming on CD.
Now I use SMI Transfer v7 or Carlson XPort or CarlsonCES to transfer, manipulate and manage data.
What device do you use to store the data?
Yes I remember Kermit for serial data transfer from my dim and distant past in engineering.
When the program is completed it will be loaded onto a Panasonic rugged tablet CF-D1 which is fine to use outside so I can transfer data as I go into a text file format.
The serial coms side is handled by the Labview program I am putting together. That side of it is fine for me because I do it for a living when designing rigs for engine testing and production process's.