Topcon vs Leica Help!

Coming froms ome thats used them all in the last 10 yrs heres my verdict. Went from a trimble 5603 robot, great system for its age, then topcon 803 robotic, easy to use software with survey pro but the bear of the topcons were the wires and batteries. (Controller, 2 satel, gun, 4 aa's) if anyone was not charged, forget it. Then topcon qs series, great gun, but still batteries, range was issue at times. Went to allen precesion for leica training, fell in love with the hardware........software took awhile to get used to, just have to forget the simpleness of survey controller and survey pro. Once you get used to it seems you can do more with leica especially using the smart station resection with gps. ( i currently have a ts12 leica, 2x cs15 controllers, gs14, and gs08plus) so im a little partial.
Also still have trimble 5800 network rover with tsc2 running trimble access.

On another note i also used and got trained on the trimble vx series robot with imaging....great machine, great tech support, but had issues with a brand new system, lcd screen on gun worked sometime, slide plummet got stuck, then data collector failed to connect without constant reboots. When it worked it was AWESOME because you could see what the gun sees with the camera, great when you were lower than gun elevation and behind object so you can tell the gun where to turn.

If you can afford it go with the leica ts15i, just for the imagining part to have. Im debating in near future to trade mine in for the ts15i.

Just my opinion, not sponsored by anyone yet!

Get the Leica but don't get Smartworx or the CS data collector. Go with different software and data collector. That's my opinion.

I originally used Trimble robotics then Leica then Topcon for a little while, and when it was my choice after all that I picked Leica with Carlson data collection. You can run the Leica robotics slightly faster with their native software (Smartworx), but even when I got used to it I still felt like it was overly complicated while lacking in certain aspects.

Thanks for the info guys! I really am leaning toward the Leica instrument, but I'm not crazy about their data collectors. I want to use the new Panasonic Toughpad with Carlson, but the bluetooth range isn't far enough without a dongle and that is not appealing at all.

Have gone through a few Leica robots and a couple data collectors. Prior to this I was Sokkia and Topcon user. I am totally sold on the Leica robots.
Batteries last forever on new products.
Used to prefer other data collectors to Leica but the new CS15 is an excellent field product.
Leica hardware is driven better by Smartworx but I prefer to run Carlson as it makes more field sense.

Most everything Leica has except their new MS50 you can use carlson with. I'd double check to be sure though.

Also I don't know a ton about Topcon robotics, but if they try to make you use magnet, run!

Curious about your proposed use of Carlson on the Panasonic Toughpad. What Carlson software product will you be using on this? Surv-CE, Surv-PC, or Carlson Field?

Big Al,

Carlson SurvPC was demoed and should be available within the month according to Carlson rep. Just found out that magnet can be used as well if I go the Topcon direction.

I have SURV – PC on a Panasonic tough book, an older model CF – U1. Is something changing on the software, within a month? As far as I know, SURV – PC has been available for years And is designed to run on a Windows operating system.

> Big Al,
>
> Carlson SurvPC was demoed and should be available within the month according to Carlson rep. Just found out that magnet can be used as well if I go the Topcon direction.

I'd like to send you a private message. Could you send me your email address?

Al