My ancient total station finally gave up the ghost on a job site last Tuesday

It just froze mid-shot in the middle of a 3-acre grading project in Phoenix, so I had to pull out my phone's GPS and rough-estimate the rest of the stakes while waiting for a rental to show up the next day - has anyone else had old gear fail at the worst possible time?

2 comments

2 Comments

willowr9616d ago

Wait, you finished a whole 3-acre grading job with just a carpenter's level and a tape measure? That's either impressive or terrifying, I can't decide which. Did you at least charge them double for the manual labor?

felixm2916d ago

Man, that Phoenix heat alone has probably killed more survey gear than any other thing. I had a Leica TC805 that did the exact same thing to me on a Friday afternoon in July out by Buckeye. Was setting grade for a parking lot and the screen just went white, no error code or nothing. I ended up using a carpenters level and a tape measure to get the rest of the stakes in the ground before dark. The rental I got the next day was a newer Trimble and I actually liked it better, ended up switching brands completely after that.