trimble S6 life time?

Howdy Daniel, glad you found the site.........

There are many options and other factors that can make a 10yr old instrument to land anywhere between good as gold to boat anchor.

Find out what other surveyors have and ask to spend part of a day with there crew and watch what happens.

I have a Sokkia Set 4 that is practically brand new that most surveyors would not ever think of because it was made in the early 90s and for gettin' as close as I can I still perfer the Sokkia SDM3E and it is nearly new from the 1980s.

A robot can be that way too, hope it is close enough to have a road test.

Thank you so much for your answer. This contact is three hours drive from me. He was asking for $ 15,500 US and after trading $ 12,000 US. it includes the robot S6 + TSC 3 + MT1000 + all batteries and chargers. He is willing to guarantee it on paper because I wanted to go for a complete examination of the robot at local supplier.
.
If a robot is checked by local supplier and calibrated, will I have to worry about its age?

Yes. I worry about the age of the components in my 1998 Leica robot every day. I am also grateful for her continuous operation every day. $12k seems high for a 10 year old machine. Have you done some price comparisons on the world wide interweb?

I believe I got my S6 in 2005, still use it about every day, no problems.

Does the S6 have the 'vision' option? - you are really going to want it

jim.cox, post: 454148, member: 93 wrote: Does the S6 have the 'vision' option? - you are really going to want it

You REALLY want the vision option. I can't imagine a robot without. All of my robot experience is with vision S6s.

Vision wasn't offered in 2007 so it's not going to have it.

My only real concern with the age of the instrument would be its service history - is it still running 2007 firmware? How about Access on the TSC3?

$12K is a little high, but you're getting the MT1000... that package would have been about $50K brand new. Is the tripod (needs to be Tri-Max) and prism pole included? At $12K my expectation would be that I don't need to spend another dime on it, whether it's for accessories, calibration, firmware, whatever.

BTW I'm assuming that it IS Trimble Access on the TSC3, not Survey Pro... I wouldn't want SP with an S6.

Thank you very much for your answers. You really help me make a choice.

The kit contains the S6 station (R.12.5.44 firmware?), the TSC3 notebook with trimble 2014.20, the MT1000 + battery and charger.

I spoke to him this morning and told me that the survey company offered him $ 11,500 for the exchange.

The seller to buy a new machine. Its last calibration date is 1 year. So I would have to pay for a new calibration.

Daniel Boucher, post: 454233, member: 13154 wrote: I spoke to him this morning and told me that the survey company offered him $ 11,500 for the exchange.

That doesn't tell you much about the value of the system. The dealer can make the trade-in value look good by jacking up the price of the new system.

very good deduction jim.

He must have someone here who knows the resale values.

I think Lee's comment is salient. Hopefully that MT1000 is in good shape. It's a few grand to replace one and, you'd be amazed where that S6 will wander to without it.

I have personally not heard of any S6 instruments failing because of age, though not to say it cannot happen. If the instrument has been serviced properly it could easily last many more years.
One genius of the S6 is the mag drive system. With no servos or gears, the instrument eliminates the parts that are first to fail in a robot.

Perceived value and actual value can also be two separate things, especially if If this is the only used S6 in your area available.
The instrument is worth what you are willing to pay.

I'm my area, an S6 in that price point would sell very quick.