Hi,
I am back from China after selling my Leica gear to the local chinese company, which has 1000 employees in its workforce.
Anyway I get back here and the company says, hey lets get you some new gear for this stadium project landscape work, I could have sold them my Leica stuff, ha ha.Anyway I got all my money back that I spent due to Leica new prices in China.
While I loved the Leica optics for the internal low light conditions, I dont like there system as much. I did read that tds is built into one of the other brands. Does it operate the same simple ways as tds cogo on my hp 48. I didnt have any faith in the reflectorless so this isnt required.
So if someone can tell me which brand to look at, thanks.
How do I upload photos from the project I did to post with my next forum remarks.
Cheers
David
David,
I looked at a Nikon total station that had on board TDS software. It was the newer version of TDS. I liked the small form of the instrument, and thought that it might be really good for work where you had to hike in and out, without the use of ATV's. It was small and light weight, and the optics looked like they were okay.
Keep in mind that I was looking at this during our annual surveyor's conference, so it wasn't a real world situation.
Hope this helps.
Jimmy
Leica 1100 series runs TDS quite well, and as long as Earl Dudley still exists, tech support (whether official or not) and servicing is not a problem. Parts are a different matter, particularly motherboards. The folks at Florida Level and Transit are now the official Leica repair techs and have heard great things about them as well, although I have no personal experience.
I'm running TDS onboard with robotics and is seamless on a 2nd gen TCA 1103. I'm running GSI firmware v. 2.21.
Check the 'bay for used TCA and TCRA equipment, lots of stuff still out there and the occasional steal does come along, saw a complete robotic setup with (abeit limited) reflectorless go for under 7k, including the hen's teeth RCA 1100. IMOHO the best remote controller out there. Small, light, durable and simple, basically a modem and slave unit on a stick. Data is stored on the flash card on the instrument, so no dangers of losing data from dead batteries or worse yet, a dead controller.
For backup I have the Hayes Bantam radios and a TDS Ranger 300, works great but a bit cumbersome.
Shameless plug alert, the Bantams and Ranger are available for sale, at a 1200 loss for what I paid for them. Obviously the tone of your post is an effort to avoid that scenario, not sayin', just sayin'.
hi
thanks all, I just need a new non robotic station, the company will pay, I was wondering if the nikon had the tds system onboard that is the same as the tds card logic.
The china stuff was critcal work, invar levels,internal control lines to half a mm etc, this new work will be concrete works, foundations, all external podium work with pre existing control set, basically layout work to about 5mm tolerance. Still a 2 sec unit is easier to sell, but a 5 does the trick.
I did use a nikon in fiji years ago.
No knock on Nikon, some of the best optics and edm capability for the money out there. I used a 522 for a while, great topo gun.
I was using a Recon with cable on that unit, zero problems as far as I can recall.
Still, it ain't a Leica. For my experience, go with the best, and that is Leica. The pleasure of low cost is quickly outweighed by the bitterness of lowered performance.
I did a reivew a couple of years ago of the Nivo. I thought it was pretty slick. The optics were like my kung-fu. Only so-so. But it is a very capable total station in a very small package, and in a lot of ways felt like using a European instrument.
> How do I upload photos from the project I did to post with my next forum remarks.
>
> Cheers
> David
When you make the post, pick the box that says upload, to the right, and follow the instructions.
Radar
you really want on baord collection???
You will have to hit the the #7 4 times, pause, the four more times, then a #6, then, #4 twice... all that just to get SSMH.
on-board data collection is NOT for me.
you really want on baord collection???
My old Nikons with on-board collection kept a library and a stack of the last twelve codes used. 3 buttons is all it took to code SANITARY SEWER MANHOLE if you wished.
And nobody ever made it to the job site without the DC.
you really want on baord collection???
> nobody ever made it to the job site without the DC.
^this^
you really want on baord collection???
Nikon Nivo C's and Spectra Focus 6. They are the only new instruments with onboard Survey Pro. (it isn't TDS anymore, its Spectra...same thing).
