Nate The Surveyor
Well-Known Member
This is meant as a little tutorial on wires, and batteries. Feel free to add to it.
Check voltage of battery. An expanded scale volt meter is needed. I use both digital, and analog, (analog has needle).
A fully charged battery has 13.2 volts.
A discharged one is around 11.5 volts. I like one that is above 12 volts.
Watch for early voltage drop. If range is diminished, towards the end of a day of work, check voltage.
The best time to check voltage, is after a day of work, WHILE ITS STILL BROADCASTING. In fact, if you have radio troubles, always check at the beginning of a session. Check it both before it's turned on, and after.
A GPS radio broadcasts every second. This means it will cycle every second.
13.1v - 12.8v
The 13.1 volts is the "no load" voltage.
The 12.7 is the "under load" voltage. This under load voltage is what you are after.
A return to base at noon, and check should yield something like:
12.7v - 12.5v
At the end of the day, it should read something like:
12.2v - 11.9v
If you have a large capacity battery, it will show less drop, (overall, over 8 hrs) and maybe less difference, (no load vs load).
Be sure to check voltage at the closest connection to the radio. A bad wire, or corroded fuse will drop you by a volt or two.
If your battery is dropping below 12.0 v, at the end of the day, you have a weak battery.
If you want to be a modern, GPS surveyor, you must learn to use a volt meter proficiently.
Keep a watch on your wires, connectors, and if you have a wind whipping your wires around. Sometimes it is necessary to tape up the connections, to keep them from wiggling and flopping in the wind.
Also, keep a small wire brush handy and a spray bottle of silicone spray lubricant.
The key here is to eliminate all issues, and to feed your radio clean power, at a voltage of 12.5 or more, with no intermittency.
Also, your battery charger needs to be looked at. I use a 2 amp charger. I've burned out maybe 3 or 4 through the years. I recommend 2 charger plan. So that if after charging, your voltage is not above 13v, you can put it on another charger, to see if your charger, or the wires between charger and battery have bad connection.
There are many things that can poke a hole in your surveying schedule, and one that you must manage is your power problems. They never fully disappear. They just fail at odd times, or when you are not looking.
Keep a watch on things, and you will have an overall better experience with your surveying gear.
Thank you,
Nate
Check voltage of battery. An expanded scale volt meter is needed. I use both digital, and analog, (analog has needle).
A fully charged battery has 13.2 volts.
A discharged one is around 11.5 volts. I like one that is above 12 volts.
Watch for early voltage drop. If range is diminished, towards the end of a day of work, check voltage.
The best time to check voltage, is after a day of work, WHILE ITS STILL BROADCASTING. In fact, if you have radio troubles, always check at the beginning of a session. Check it both before it's turned on, and after.
A GPS radio broadcasts every second. This means it will cycle every second.
13.1v - 12.8v
The 13.1 volts is the "no load" voltage.
The 12.7 is the "under load" voltage. This under load voltage is what you are after.
A return to base at noon, and check should yield something like:
12.7v - 12.5v
At the end of the day, it should read something like:
12.2v - 11.9v
If you have a large capacity battery, it will show less drop, (overall, over 8 hrs) and maybe less difference, (no load vs load).
Be sure to check voltage at the closest connection to the radio. A bad wire, or corroded fuse will drop you by a volt or two.
If your battery is dropping below 12.0 v, at the end of the day, you have a weak battery.
If you want to be a modern, GPS surveyor, you must learn to use a volt meter proficiently.
Keep a watch on your wires, connectors, and if you have a wind whipping your wires around. Sometimes it is necessary to tape up the connections, to keep them from wiggling and flopping in the wind.
Also, keep a small wire brush handy and a spray bottle of silicone spray lubricant.
The key here is to eliminate all issues, and to feed your radio clean power, at a voltage of 12.5 or more, with no intermittency.
Also, your battery charger needs to be looked at. I use a 2 amp charger. I've burned out maybe 3 or 4 through the years. I recommend 2 charger plan. So that if after charging, your voltage is not above 13v, you can put it on another charger, to see if your charger, or the wires between charger and battery have bad connection.
There are many things that can poke a hole in your surveying schedule, and one that you must manage is your power problems. They never fully disappear. They just fail at odd times, or when you are not looking.
Keep a watch on things, and you will have an overall better experience with your surveying gear.
Thank you,
Nate