"Total Station" instrument at Convention

[George Dasher]

During Convention...

Who had the military "total station" instrument at the Mammoth Cave map area on Wed or Thurs?

The instrument "shot" distance and inclination, and had a compass attachment.

You couldn't get near the thing, as there were just too many people around it.

I think it was Aaron Addison, but I am not sure. It is not that I don't know Aaron, it is just that my memory of Convention has become just a sea of faces...

[Eric Wright]

George, I wasn't at the convention, but was this instrument smaller than a true total station? Small enough to take caving? I'd be interested in hearing more about it too. I'd especially like to know how data logging works with it (bluetooth, serial, etc). Sounds interesting.

[Bob Thrun]

I did not see the instrument on display in the gym. Aaron Addison mentioned that Laser Technology Inc. just introduced a low-priced model, compared to earlier instruments by other companies. The company and its one press release can be found at http://www.lasertech.com The new model is the TruPulse 360. Good luck finding a price or even a picture. (There is a Flash presention that I did not view. I refuse to load Macromedia Flash. It makes bigger downloads with pictures that jump around.)

Older instruments are (were?) made by Laser Atlanta and MDL (Scotland). These were over $4000 a few years ago when I checked.

[Rick Brinkman]

Here's a link to more info on the TruPulse 360 and a price.

http://rangefinder.jadaproductions.net/ ... dnumber=13

$1600 is still kinda pricey for caving, and it still won't speed up the sketch.

[lleblanc]

George, I wasn't at the convention, but was this instrument smaller than a true total station? Small enough to take caving? I'd be interested in hearing more about it too. I'd especially like to know how data logging works with it (bluetooth, serial, etc). Sounds interesting.

I contacted LaserTech soon after Aaro Addison's presentation; I already received the data protocol and plan to implement serial/Bluetooth support for the TruPulse 360 in Auriga (http://www.speleo.qc.ca/Auriga) as soon as I can get my hands on one. Given that the unit sends the distance, the heading and the inclination all at once, the software should be able to detect retries (common with rangefinders) as well as breaches in the input sequence (main shot + LRUD) that occur when a measurement is irrelevant because the survey station lies against the wall, making the whole process smarter than working with a simple Disto and regular compass and clino.


Luc Le Blanc

[Marbry]

It is a bit pricy for electronics to to drag into a cave, but certainly within reason now.

It would be awesome for solo surveying though.

Just need to incorporate a 6MP digital camera so you can automatically have a photo of each shot. ;-)