New to LS - Many Questions

[Nate The Surveyor]

Due to all the other stuff going on, My base did not get set out until 1:30 PM.
I SET the base ON the JOB site. I set it autonomous.
Then, DROVE 3 miles to OLD base site, Hiked up on hill, through fence, and USED Stake to FIND my old base station. (Got in within about 2 ft) Shot the old base. Then, used REVERSE SHIFT, and backed my base coordinates in. Drove to another old base site. Shot it too.
Drove back to my job, and shot some 50 shots. In ROUGH and steep country. Shot roads, and all. Found alot of old markers, all within a foot or so, of my prelim coords. Shot all.
I got SO MUCH done, and with HIGH CONFIDENCE. I mean, there is NO wondering, if one shot is bad.
Loaded the base, and it was ON SITE, which means short base lines. And, my base was not at risk. If I'd set the base on the old site, It has to have an electric fence, and there are several gates to drive through, TWICE. Once setting up, and once taking down. And, with the base on site, I could monitor, against theft.
I cannot say enough about how fine a piece of SURVEYING GEAR this is.

N

 

[Phil]

Aaron....I am in the sticks and have to have base, rover and 35 watt radio, so I think my prices are somewhat accurate for Trimble set up to match mine. I was out yesterday with another surveyor who was using a Top brand. It was cumbersome for him to remove from the cab of truck all the time as we traveled around and yes I know you can magnetic hold them to outside of truck, but he had to buy his own equipment and he was not going to take that chance of accident of falling off or whatever might happen to it outside the truck driving in and out of ravines, trees, etc.. After about 5 hours we had to go switch batteries at the base. I told him I get 20 hours. I told him a little bit more about my unit, but then I thought I do not know if I really want my competition to have it, but I want to help out Javad and Shawn and the guys because the more they sell, the better it will be for all of us. Phil

 

[John Thompson]

After about 5 hours we had to go switch batteries at the base. I told him I get 20 hours.Phil

I remember the days of base battery changes...Always happened when you were at the far end of the project...just had one more shot to get, had to drive back to the base, change batteries, then drive back to get that one shot...through all the gates each way...I'd forgotten about those days. Thanks for the memories.

I'm spoiled by this equipment. Thanks.

 

[Aaron S]

The battery life is a huge benefit of the LS. With the "other" guys' gear, I was lucky to get through a day on 2 receiver batteries. Or, you end up with a pile of batteries of varying life expediencies, hoping you don't grab a bad one, so you end up carrying 4 batteries because you don't want to buy new ones at $125 a piece. Even if this gear got me through one full work day on a charge I would be pleased - let alone 3 days I get now! When I look back to the Trimble setup and think of how much time and money was wasted being screwed over by battery issues (not to mention controller batteries - separate charger and batteries), it's just one more plus for the LS.

 

[Jim Frame]

Most of us are probably still a long ways from having to replace the batteries in our Triumph units, but it looks like replacement involves a trip back to the factory. Anyone have an idea of the cost of battery replacement for the LS and T2?

 

[Matt Johnson]

It is possible for customers to install replacement batteries.

Battery replacement kits are sold on the website:

http://www.javad.com/dynamic/Shop/Product/4066
http://www.javad.com/dynamic/Shop/Product/3882

 

[Shawn Billings]

The Triumph-2 battery can be changed out fairly easily also. Set the receiver upside down. Remove the six screws along the bottom of the receiver. Remove the top plate which exposes the battery pack and jumper to the circuit board. Unplug the jumper from the board, install new battery.

The Triumph-LS battery pack is currently priced at $250 and the Triumph-2 battery pack is currently priced at $125 and is available on the Javad website under Accessories.

 

[Jim Frame]

Nice!

 

[Aaron S]

When I move the cursor around on the map and there are, say, 3 points close together, it will say "cluster" on the top of the screen. Is there any way to get it to list just those 3 points so you can see what's what, without zooming way in?

I often shoot sign posts under canopy where I don't need an exact position (of course it would be nice) but just within 2'. How would I set up a preset action to do this?

What setup with the LS would be the equivalent of a "fast-static" observation? The Trimble units have an actual fast static preset, but I'm not sure what that exactly means in the Javad software. I'm waiting anxiously for my Triumph 2 base, so I plan on doing a lot of DPOS in canopy situations.

 

[Adam]

Tap the second button from the top on left. It looks like an eye with crosshairs. This will bring up a list of the points.

When you get your base you can set the LS to automatically record the raw data for processing later. In DPOS you can opt to process the rover to CORS which may be what you are looking for.
I prefer to use the Base Rover processing solution if it is too thick for RTK.

For shooting the signs under canopy within 2' I would use the precise topo profile and just stop the observation and save it when I felt comfortable. Code Float can be used for rough locations but you won't get 2' accuracy in canopy.

 

[Shawn Billings]

Getting a 2' accuracy is not really easy with RTK under canopy. It's an all or nothing proposition in most cases. If you ever watch the confidence phase of collection you see multiple fixes scattered around by 5, 10, even 20 feet horizontally, depending on the canopy. A quick shot under canopy could be any one of those bad fixes that you see when you are using a confidence phase. I have found that after five minutes in bad canopy it seems like the group with the most fixes will be within a couple of feet of true, but that's a long time to wait. Generally I've noticed that even bad fixes with DPOS (which can happen with short data sets under difficult canopy) are still within a couple of feet. But again, that's a long time to wait for what you are looking for.

In those sorts of conditions, I've gone to using a profile I made that starts with the start button, with no resets, and stops with the stop button. I stay until I feel like I have a good enough solution. I also have this profile set to record raw data to process with the base in DPOS. I use this for creek meanders in canopy. I may stay for five minutes or more on point.

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

Shawn, I'm playing around with ultra high confidence settings for those same shots. They are the ones, that I DON'T care about 0.20', but I DO care about a foot.
It's a profile I have named "Flag Line". It's purpose is to flag a line. I can set the LS up, and walk back, to the last flag I tied, and project the line of flagging, until near the LS, then LOOK at the LS, and maybe it says "LEFT 0.5 foot". The confidence counter has made it to 25.... That's usually a pretty good shot. So, I hang one more flag, and move the LS, and repeat. Usually, I am not SAVING these shots. HOWEVER, it will eventually get a fully verified shot, that I can store.... If I like. These are great for a "Catch all" if the client distracts me, and the LS has 5-10 minutes, to fully verify.
Shawn is RIGHT, that it's sort of an ALL or NOTHING deal....
But, a profile with a high confidence could be helpful. Like I said, I am PLAYING with it... experimenting.
N

 

[Shawn Billings]

Like I said, I am PLAYING with it... experimenting.

Me too. It's pushing RTK outside the box a little so there isn't a well documented procedure for doing this as far as I know. What you're doing makes sense.

 

[Aaron S]

I'm not sure why the "precise topo" action doesn't auto-store the point. Is there a reason not to?

I saw where it would list the cluster points individually, but it would be nice if you could get a comparison screen showing the coordinates and descriptors of each point, kind of like the points list screen, but only those cluster points.

Also, whenever the map is visible, it would be nice to have a button that pans to your current location.

 

[Matt Johnson]

I'm not sure why the "precise topo" action doesn't auto-store the point. Is there a reason not to?

You can certainly do this if you want by turning Auto Accept in the How to Stop screen.

Also, whenever the map is visible, it would be nice to have a button that pans to your current location.

Tap the zoom button until it is in Auto Zoom mode and it will center the map on the current position if you do not have a point highlighted.

 

[John Evers]

There is the center on current position button. That is on the Collect Action Screen, and can be assigned to a white button on the stake screen. The white button also has one other feature I like, and that is once pressed, the map will smoothly "real time pan" for you as you walk the site.

 

[Aaron S]

I took a series of shots on a road centerline in the forest using the precise topo method because the sky visibility wasn't very good. Each point made it to the second phase, and I manually accepted once it had a couple dozen shots after that. Now when I review the points, each of them in the list (on the right column) is "1 FX RT AU". How can it be autonomous when it was fixed while I was shooting?

 

[Matt Johnson]

I took a series of shots on a road centerline in the forest using the precise topo method because the sky visibility wasn't very good. Each point made it to the second phase, and I manually accepted once it had a couple dozen shots after that. Now when I review the points, each of them in the list (on the right column) is "1 FX RT AU". How can it be autonomous when it was fixed while I was shooting?

It is showing a fixed (FX) solution for the rover, real time (RT) processing and an autonomous base solution (AU).

 

[Aaron S]

Well that doesn't make sense because I was using RTN (RN) and shots I took in the same area using the Boundary action show the base as being RN.

 

[Matt Johnson]

Well that doesn't make sense because I was using RTN (RN) and shots I took in the same area using the Boundary action show the base as being RN.

If you attach the project archive to this tread I can take a look.