Hey Y'all,
My name is William (Bill). I've been Surveying for 16 years in Florida. I have recently moved to upstate South Carolina. So far my experience has been great. I don't miss the swamps and beaches of the Sunshine State. The mountains and hills around here excite me. It is also interesting to survey some different terrain. There are two new features to my job. One is I now fly solo. Working alone has its percs and draw backs. No crew means no babysitting. It also means cutting line by myself. The other is my equipment. I'm using a CHC 900+ GPS antenna with an Archer2 collector that runs Carlson. The Archer connects to the internet via a Verizon WIFI Jetpack. This set up works like a champ. I'm sure it does a whole lot more than I can even imagine. I'm still learning all the tricks! The other piece of equipment in an older Topcon 8005A. It is the one with the external Bluetooth transmitter. The problem I'm having is it keeps losing connection between the collector and the instrument. It works great most of the time but of course it acts up when I am being pressed for time or I have people waiting to work right behind me.I have spoke to two other people who have used this gun and they don't know what is wrong with it. I suspect it is the external Bluetooth transmitters. If anyone can shed some light on this problem or have any pointers for the GPS and the Archer. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
Replies
William, you are so very welcome in our community. This is where we create a collaborative story of surveying that can never be untold...
Welcome to the network William!
About your issue. I think you might find this link useful as well as Settings (Topcon 800/8000/APL1 TS)
Thank you for the link. It turns out is was not my instrument at all. It was the settings in my collector. The only thing that was correct was the prism offset. Everything else was zero or blank. The tracking mechanism uses its reflection and it wasn't set to pan at all. I would use the Topcon Quicklock that works by sending an infared signal to help the gun find its laser reflection. When I would move it would loose lock. Increasing the area it scans gave me more leeway to move the rod. It now looks for me with a wider pan. A 20 degree pan to be exact. The vertical pan is increased now to 10 degrees giving me a larger H and Z area in which it continually searches for its own refection. I can now pass behind a tree or other obstruction and it will automatically regain lock without manually doing it with the Quicklock. I am thrilled to have this under control and have a new love for robotics.
Anytime. I'm glad you found the solution for your problem and a new love for robotics!
Welcome to the community William!
Hello! Thank you for your response. I'm am pleased to be a part of the LSU community!!!