What the Javad Triumph-LS enables me to do...

[Shawn Billings]

This is an example of a survey I recently completed. I collected 900 points with the LS and about 90 points with a reflectorless total station. This is actually about the ratio of RTK points to total station shots that I've collected since going solo a couple of months ago. I've completed 9 jobs so far, all boundary surveys of varying complexity. I've used a total station on 3 of them, and the total station shots made up 10% or less of the total points collected. I would not be able to do the things I've done solo without the LS. For this land title survey, I completed the field work, from scratch, in 2 very long field days. I collected all precise boundary points twice and used post processing to verify. The end result was well within my error budget. This was a Texas Society of Professional Surveyors Category IA, Condition 2, Land Title Survey, which is similar to an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey.

Because I know many of the people behind the scenes developing the software we use every day, I often think of them when I'm working in the field. Even though I'm working solo, I'm not exactly alone. Each one of the developers have poured a little of themselves and their knowledge into this product to simplify my work. I'm still in control of my survey, but they help me achieve my goals, making sure I deliver a quality product in a short timeframe. This is actually consistent with my business model: provide a quality professional service in a short amount of time. It's amazing to me that I can do this very competitively, by myself, with hard work and these great tools.

 

[Sean Joyce]

Shawn;
Two thumbs up!! Ex cell ent!!

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

It seems to me that Javad is the only mfr that has gone to the trouble, to design, engineer, and produce a GPS system, that you can have 100% confidence in Its answers, when used with the proper settings.
I meet up with other rtk practitioners, who use theirs "wherever it will show fixed" without checking the answers.
I have used rtk GPS for years, in the woods, WITH CHECKS FOR THOSE BAD FIXES, it takes lots of time. Javad reduces the time, for 100% confidence, by an enormous margin.
It is the land surveyors dream tool.
N

 

[Wes Cole]

I've been intending to add to this post for a while that shows some of the abilities of the LS/J-field in addition to the impressive boundary/location surveys Shawn and others are killing it on. A lot of our work is comprised of design surveys, from civil/water/sewer to stream enhancement/floodplain mapping, elevations are often critical. The ability to know the data you're getting is quality values, in real-time, is a real-time saver.

On a recent project for a stream restoration on the Catawba River we started our survey with the NC RTN. I kept having troubles staying on the network, I chalked it up to spotty cell service. I set the base on the RTN point, three 200 epoch shots cluster averaged, and then set some additional control for my crew to get started on. The next day I DPOS'd with base shift and had about 0.2' difference in the elevation from RTN to DPOS. One of my guys got wrapped up on another project early a few days later and I sent him back with an Epoch 50 (he's not been trained on J-Field yet) to re-observe on the RTN. Again he had trouble staying on the network and the results were less than impressive...about 0.4' different than my first observation on the RTN.

This design project is in a FEMA regulated floodplain so I needed to solidify my elevations. I decided to occupy a height mod station with the base and re-observe my benchmark.

Luckily I found not 1 but 2 NCGS passive marks, both heigh-mod stations, and fairly equidistant to my site (7200' & 5800'). NCGS "BRAE" and "LAKEY TOWN". This would prove to be a good test for the LS/T1M and also see how bad my initial RTN observation really was.

Here's the published coords. for the two stations:

Point Northing(Y) Easting(X) Elev(Z)
Lackey Town 696448.43 1054832.63 1422.5
Brae 694166.24 1041995.16 1565.0

And the initial RTN observation for Control Point 1 (site benchmark)

Point. Northing(Y) Easting(X) Elev(Z) Description
1 695481.44 1049118.39 1456.75 CP (RBS)

I set the base on Lackey Town, had a guy keep eyes on it, and went about observations at Brae and CP 1 using TCP/2 jetpacks. Here's the observed coordinates on Brae with base @ Lakey Town:

Point Northing(Y) Easting(X) Elev(Z) Description
LS13 694166.26 1041995.16 1564.98 BRAE OBSERVED

Then I observed Control Point 1 with base @ Lakey Town. Next I moved the base to Brae and re-observed Control Point 1 for another check; here's the values:

Point Northing(Y) Easting(X) Elev(Z) Description
LS12 695481.51 1049118.27 1456.71 CP 1-5 (BASE @ LACKEY)
LS15 695481.52 1049118.25 1456.73 CP 1-6 (BASE @ BRAE)

All points were observed for 300 seconds and a boat-load of epochs.

The difference between the observed points with the base @ the passive marks and the RTN weren't staggering, the elevations were actually really tight. However I didn't have much confidence in the RTN since it was jumping fix/float and giving me such fits.

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

Shawn, thats a very nice plat.
I don't know how to do a number of things, that show on your plat.
It's nicer than mine.
Nate