What is the effective range of an S6 when used with a peanut prism? Will it reliably lock on and measure at 1000 feet? Less? More?
I haven't had much luck getting the S-6 to lock on over 600 feet to a regular prism and don't go over 400 feet on a mini prism.:-/
Probably not what you were hoping to hear but that's my experience with the S-6. It will take a shot over 600' just not in auto lock.
The prism was never a limiting factor with our S6. We generally started losing radio at about 900'.
Not the exact same gun, but I've locked on a peanut prism with a VX at over 1100'. 600' - 800' with an S6 is not an unreasonable expectation, it will track the 360 at well over 1200'.
Our S6 tracks at 1200 ft (360° multitarget), but the radio link is indeed the first problem. We sometimes use an extension kit to mount the dc antenna (with cable from dc) on top of the prism to eliminate the radio problem.
Chr.
> Our S6 tracks at 1200 ft (360° multitarget)...
Is it tracking the glass or the diodes at that range? I'm interested in the performance of a diode-less setup.
If I'm well informed it tracks the glass, the only function of the diodes is to confirm that the tracked prism is the correct one. We have a number of channels for working with multiple instruments on the same site, each on a different channel. Your instrument will only track your target.
Chr.
:good:
I've hit both radio and 360 prism at 1500 feet before with good line of sight
and no traffic to interfere.
> What is the effective range of an S6 when used with a peanut prism? Will it reliably lock on and measure at 1000 feet? Less? More?
Geez. With a peanut? Really? Our longest shot was around 1300' with the 360. We had 4 lanes of traffic between us so I stayed with gun to be sure it wasn't chasing cars. We felt lucky to get that shot and the boss back at the office didn't much care for that. He said we were really pushing to get that. I was watching through the scope and couldn't see him or the prism at all. The again, the ambient temp was around 105 so the heat waves were kicking up pretty serious.
I can't imagine hitting that with a peanut - lock or no.
We only used the peanut for building corner shots at shots < 300' or so and clear line of sight. My partner then, Chris, was used to robots and working solo, but was happy to have me around to take manual or reflector-less shots "pro re nata" [as needed] or just felt more comfortable having someone around to watch his back if we got in some bad neighborhoods - which we did many times.
Completely aside and unrelated:
To interject some pharmaceutical lesson: PRN you all may have seen on a prescription from your doctor regarding pain meds. "pro re nata" = PRN. "Take as needed" is what it would say on your bottle walking away from the pharmacy.
Good luck with those long shots, Norman!
E.
I think there is an element of tracking the diodes.
For example the semi-active mode (only with multitrack target MT1000) tracks the diodes but when measuring it switches to track the prism only for more accurate VA. (for "precise elevations").
I think at distance especially the diodes come into play, that's why the max autolock distances specified are greater for the multitrack and active target ID than passive prisms.
Was this a standard trimble 360 and did it have target ID?
We have problems with our S6, in autolock, with other reflective surfaces. Sometimes the reflective vest or reflective signs when trying to shot longer distances.
> We have problems with our S6, in autolock, with other reflective surfaces. Sometimes the reflective vest or reflective signs when trying to shot longer distances.
is that with an active prism?
i know there is finelock technology on the S8 (not S6) that filters out "distraction" from adjacent prisms.