New ultra small Laser Measure from Bosch

[Aaron Addison]

The laser range finders are no easier than a tape for measuring distance between stations.

Sometimes it is not a matter of whether or not something is "easy". Consider the following scenarios.

1. Surveying through a delicate formation area where you would not want to drag a tape.

2. Surveying in deep water where a tape sinks out of sight never to be seen again.

3. Surveying across (or down) pits where safety is a concern.

4. Working in very muddy passage where the tape is unreadable without effort at every station.

5. The two person survey team

AA

[Jeff Bartlett]

Consider the following scenarios.

There are arguments for both methods, and situations which call for one or the other; I don't think I'd be willing to risk a disto in deep water passage, and I prefer a tape for the main survey line because the physical presence of the tape is a boon to sketching (being able to count not only distances between stations but also distance from the center line). That said, this is another debate for another thread, and I think the best plan is to just have both since a tape is small and a disto is being used for other things anyway.

Lynn is right about your sketcher(s) becoming addicted to a laser rangefinder. Not only do they facilitate the easy shooting of radials one might not otherwise shoot (including radials to walls/leads unreachable by tape and to major features in the passage), they also take the "best guess" factor out of LRUDs (especially the U) and provide real data instead of estimations.

I had the chance to use Lynn's DLR165K twice over the Fourth of July holiday, and I just barely made it two weeks after returning home before I broke down and bought a rangefinder of my own.

[JP McLendon]

I know most of the info on this thread is several years old, but as an update: I've been using a Bosch GLM 80 for about a year now with great results. This model includes an inclonometer and has performed flawlessly. Still need a suunto compass for azimuths, but I love using it. Biggest downsides to this model are the fact that the inclination is not stored when the button is pushed to take a reading. It has to be read "live" while holding the lazer on the station. There is one trigometric function where the inclination is saved, but all angles are read as positive angles so it souldn't be used where +/- inclination isn't obvious. The unit isn't as waterproof as I would like but a layer of clear packaging tape adds a lot of protection from mud and splashes without much scattering of the laser.

[Martin Sluka]

I know most of the info on this thread is several years old, but as an update: I've been using a Bosch GLM 80 for about a year now with great results. This model includes an inclonometer and has performed flawlessly. Still need a suunto compass for azimuths, but I love using it. Biggest downsides to this model are the fact that the inclination is not stored when the button is pushed to take a reading. It has to be read "live" while holding the lazer on the station. There is one trigometric function where the inclination is saved, but all angles are read as positive angles so it souldn't be used where +/- inclination isn't obvious. The unit isn't as waterproof as I would like but a layer of clear packaging tape adds a lot of protection from mud and splashes without much scattering of the laser.

There is the Leica DISTO™ X310 http://www.leica-geosystems.com/en/Leica-DISTO-X310_98484.htm. Maybe not so small and cheap. But - dimensions: 122 × 55 × 31 mm, weight with batteries: 155 g, memory: 20 Displays, protection class: IP65 – water jet protection and dust-tight, range: up to 80 m, inclinometer: 360° tilt sensor, drop tests: from up to 2 m height.

And the most important: as I know, Beat is working on the compass module for it.