The company I was working for acquired a 10" Topcon in 87 or 88. It was a true total station, forget the model number but its toughness was legendary, all electronic with coaxial EDM and ability to communicate with a DC.
@larry-scott Larry have you had a chance to take the 3805A to a base line yet?
I did take it to a 1km, 4 monument, NGS CBL. Proper temp/pressure ppm correction it has 5-6 ppm scale factor. There is about 5 mm of noise, I hit the button 20x, and roughly 2-3 mm std dev.
In the manual the max range is cited as 1500m on one page, 1600 m on another page. Also an odd note “the EDM will not work correctly near or above 2 km”.
In the case there was a type written instruction sheet: it can measure above 2Km. Distances above 2000.000 m subtract 22 cm. Distance above 4Km subtract 44 cm. Not prorated, but 22 cm per 2Km. That really caught my attention
I then tested the HP against my GTS3B. And sure enough, at 2300 m it was 22 cm long, independent of the 6 ppm. Max return (on one occasion) was 3100 m to 3 Wild GDR-11 stacked, 9 glass array. But it was hazy, and only 150m MSL. I’m suspect it’ll reach 4Km to 9 glass in higher altitudes. The Topcon GTS3B maxed out at 2300 m to the 9 glass.
I’ve compared the Topcon and HP to gps (phase differential baseline) many times. The 3805A is as good as the day it was delivered. There is a factory cal sticker 1977. I believe this instrument sat for 20 yrs just abandoned. I paid very little for it. And it still the short range attenuator filter.
Note: the HP has 28 mm offset hard coded. The GDR-11 is 70 mm. I do have a nice AGA 28 mm triple.
I had used top mounts on Deitzen transit and Nikon-Gurley 10" enclosed transit.
Moved to a Topcon GTS3B that was probably the first that could be called a total station.
Worked with a company that used a Pentax and HP48GX SMI and learned that the instrument would move off of its site 10"-20" by hanging the data collector on the leg and pushing the buttons.
Then a Sokkia SDM3E
Sokkia Set 4 was the first that I used a wired data collector with and still had to manually set to zero.
What I considered the first complete Electronic Total station was the Sokkia Set 330R. All that was needed wast to site the gun and everything else was totally controlled by the data collector, wired or Bluetooth or could use the onboard data collection with a keypad that I never had.
In Australia we call them "jiggers". I have no idea why.
In Germany, the locals call a Total Station a "Tachymeter". I'm yet to figure out why, because the official term in German is "Totalstation". I think Tachymeter is just something that stuck at some point.
@micheal-daubyn-2
in my experience it’s always been called a gun. “Take a shot”
@larry-scott Yes, we still say "to take a shot". Like I said, I have no idea where the word "jigger" comes from. It doesn't seem to fit.
@micheal-daubyn-2
to the newbie it is a “thinga majigger”
@micheal-daubyn-2
the etymology of slang is rarely clear.
Total Station, Gun, Instrument.
Probably use the word Total Station more now, just to differentiate between that and the GPS gear.
@micheal-daubyn-2 jigger always seemed to be the computer password in the old days
We use walkie talkies carried in chest holsters, so that hands are free. A couple of years ago we were doing robotic TS urban road topo. Demanding stuff, mostly I was at the TS keeping an eye on things and occasionally I'd look through the scope and see the rodperson talking to herself - nothing wrong with that, I assumed she was prepping about the details of the topo. Late one afternoon however, she inadvertently got her body shape in a position that squeezed the talk button open, and I caught a 30 second burst of her private musings from about 200m away. In summary, in very colorful language, I learnt that she didn't like the job, nor me.
Being away from people and alone is when most venting should be done.
Thru the years, I've seen and heard many crew members talking while they thought nobody was watching or listening.
I've done the same myself if not for any other reason to keep me awake on some of those endless days of 7 days a week topos, staking transmission lines and to let the boogers, and crawling and slithering critters in the woods know that I was passing thru.
My thoughts are that they are trying to stay sane and they not of my face and that is good.
0.02
