I noticed that someone started a thread asking for advice on a new robot. One person mentioned the Topcon PS and how good its tracking was. I have had a Topcon PS for about 6 months and I can say that I have not been very impressed with its tracking. My 20 year old Topcon AP-L1 tracked better. I have noticed that it tracks well at a distance, but up close not so well. Also, I notice that it looses lock often when I am walking toward it going to a position near the instrument. I can understand it loosing me when I'm real close, but it will loose me before I really get close enough for the angular motion of the prism to be that great. If it weren't for the RC unit, it would be a difficult instrument to use.
I was wondering if it was the robot or am I using some sub-optimal settings that cause it not to track well.
10 years ago I had a Topcon 8200 series, and I thought it's tracking was terrible compared to the older Geodimeter units we had. I don't think Topcon focuses as much as they should on tracking performance since they have the "quick lock".
Your dealer can help you optimize tracking. Thats part of their normal delivery and setup (I assume)
There should be no comparison of the tracking of a 800 or even an 8200 and the PS. The PS should be 100% better.
Al least thats my opinion after seeing both in action
We have a Topcon PS and I remember when we first got it you could get up close to the instrument and it would track you even if you were moving quickly. With our older 9000 series robot it would always lose lock unless you walked by very slowly.
At one point something happened and the lock was not as impressive as it was prior, as you are saying it seemed to lose lock a lot. Damn if I can remember now but I thought we had updated the software on the instrument and it once again holds lock very well. Not that you would, but we can actually almost run past it and it maintains lock.
Hopefully it is just a setting or a software/firmware update that needs to be applied.
> Hopefully it is just a setting or a software/firmware update that needs to be applied.
It may be a setting problem. I believe the firmware is current. TS Shield lets you know when an update is available and I have had to update the firmware once since I have had it.
I posted a thread recently about it. I noticed yours and I was feeling that maybe someone figured it out. Since that thread, I've actually been doing some precise monitoring with it as a conventional gun. However, I noticed the lame tracking as well when moving even 15 feet around the gun and walking real slow. It's not a very impressive robot. My main question still is how to tighten its trig shot in robotic. Too sloppy for me.
One word, Trimble AT360 active tracking - okay 4 words;-)
jsw