Total Station Precision
When purchasing a total station, I assume one considers the precision requirements of the type of work typically performed. There is a lot of discussion at work on this subject. A particular concern is setting property corners. Assuming your requirements are to the nearest 0.01’, what would be your choice of a total station based on precision?
1", 1mm +/- 1 ppm
For setting property corners a 5" gun is more than sufficient. Also, remember that to come close to the guns performance you will need top quality tripod, tribrach, target rod, and glass in top condition.
@ Norman_Oklahoma
I did mention ancillary equipment during the discussion and using sound methodology. One guy is concerned about the possibility of going to court over setting a property corner that wasn’t set right because we only use a 5” instrument. This guy wants to buy a 2” or a 1” instrument.
Whether you use a 5" or 1" gun, do you really think the next guy is going to come up to the same location within 0.01 or less?
@ chris-bouffard
Absolutely not.
Field Dog you can turn enough sets of angles with a 5sec gun to get the same results as a 1sec gun. He can alleviate his proprty corner concern without the need to purchase a new instrument.
@ lurker
Like I said, it’s how you set it too. Eventually we’re going to buy a new total station. I think we should buy one that meets our job requirements. We normally only use ours to locate property corners when our GNSS rover can’t get fixed. It’s very rare for us to set property corners. This is the first time in the eight years I’ve been with the county that we’ve done a deformation study.
I would expect any survey grade total station would be able to meet the state's accuracy requirements for boundary surveys assuming it's used correctly.
IMO the sweet spot between precision and cost is the 3" model. They don't cost much more than the 5" model and you aren't going to get much extra out of the 1" model with going to extraordinary procedural lengths.
One outfit I worked for bought a single 1" gun so they could say in their marketing material that they had that capability.
