JAVAD GNSS :: Question/Answers Series

Yesterday I finished a 48 lot subdivision. I used the LS on this project from start to finish. It made me unbelievably efficient. I was able to finish this project in almost half the time.

I am amazed at the accuracy of the LS under canopy. About 20 of the back lot corners of the above mentioned subdivision were in the woods. When the LS would lose fix it would quickly retain within 2 minutes and allow me to stake. I am very pleased with the unit but I do have a few issues.

I want to warn other users not to just accept a fixed solution and go when dealing with multi-path. There were two corners that the LS gave me a bad solution. In both instances only one rtk engine was running. The solution would tell me to go to 10' North and then 7' West and so on. To resolve this I would reset the solution, wait for fix and then stake to the corner. When the LS would stake to the same position three times I felt confident. I decided to survey into these trouble corners with my total station to check the accuracy. Each corner checked out less than a tenth!

A Javad:

In our next advertisement we are challenging with a $10,000 reward if one can show one bad fix with TRIUMPH-LS, provided they use the auto-verify feature that we are just releasing. Please see the attached document.

When I set my base up for the first time on a random point and use auto position I want to be able to save that point.

A Shawn Billings:
You can do this now after you survey a point. You can go to “Points”, highlight a surveyed point, hit “Edit”, “More” and you will see base position. Select it and store. You can also change the base coordinates and all surveyed points will be changed as well. (So if you submit to OPUS, you can update the base position after the fact to your OPUS derived coordinates).

When I stake a point and accept it I can go to points and edit to see the n,e,el differences between actual and target. I need to know how to get that data in paper form for my records.

A Shawn Billings:
Justin, check out the export features in the “Data Exchange”. Use the + and – keys to add and remove items you want. Press “Presets” to save and recall export formats you commonly use. In the export utility you can export N Surveyed, E Surveyed, H Surveyed. You can also export N Design, E Design and H Design. Any stakes that you have set and then stored a surveyed position will have both Surveyed coordinates and Design coordinates. I have a particular preset that includes both Surveyed and Design coordinates - it won’t import into any CAD package, but I can view it in an excel spreadsheet. For importing into CAD, I make two ASCII files, one that is Name, N Surveyed, E Surveyed, H Surveyed, Comment and one that is Name, N Design, E Design, H Design, Comment.

I would also like to be able to inverse between any two points and get differences in n,e,el.

A Shawn Billings:
If you are talking about seeing the difference between Design and Surveyed coordinates for a particular stake you’ve set, go to “Points”, and highlight the point you are interested in and hit “Edit”. There you will see both Target and Actual coordinates and the difference between them.

When I am staking I will use the guide screen. However my target is not at the end of the displayed line. The distance to the target is correct.

The LS and its pole are lite weight and balanced. The batteries in the triumph 2 and the LS last all day. Even my radio's internal battery lasts all day. (My radio only had a 1.5 mile range. I think it would be best to upgrade for longer ranges.)

The support staff at Javad is always there for me to teach and resolve issues. I want to thank Michael Glutting for his technical support. I also want to thank Shawn Billings, PLS for his help, support and insight.

After several weeks of practicing with the LS and then employing it on a paying job I describe it as: efficient, ergonomic, accurate and economical. The bottom line is: it's a money maker.