California Surveyors Forums

I am with you on this one. We have a Geod 440 sitting in the basement. Not used mostly due to the cost of the batteries. One of the best instruments I have ever used. Turns great angles, simple to use and will measure from mountain top to mountain top, literaly.

"We have a Geod 440 sitting in the basement. Not used mostly due to the cost of the batteries."

Doesn't the 440 have an external battery port below the alidade, like the 600 (though maybe with a 9-pin Dsub connector rather than a 4-pin Hirose)? It'd be pretty easy to run it with a relatively low-cost SLA battery that way. It'd involve more cabling and stuff to carry, but that's the way I run my Geodimeter 640.

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yes and we do have an exteral battery, but the true issue is updates to our data collection software, cables etc. We have also upgraded to a S6 and RTK R6 and running one person crews. But the point is we have an excellant instrument collected dust which is not supported by the advancement of electronics.

And Yes I do know how to chain.

Sokkia told me their vendor no longer supplies the boards. I replied you mean you told your vendor to quit making them. Silence.

I have the same issue. Everything I have is obsolete and if one items goes I am looking at new edm, data coll, desktop software, etc not to mention try to teach a old dog new software which is usually worse than the old stuff, and none of it is 20 years old.

I understand the need to make money, but product replacement cost is killing the small one crew firms. $6k/year/seat for autocad and it's a POS compared to say acad2000. And their new trick is you can't save backward anymore.

Woodcutter - that was not my experience recently. My 10-year old 1103 went out, and I had to replace the board on it in January of last year. It was costly of course, but I have been working with it just fine since.

Thanks for the heads up about the 1103. Mine is 7 1/2 years old. Hopefully my motherboard will be all right for a while.

Yes I love these Leica total stations. I do use a Topcon for robotic work, but these Leicas are what I prefer to use for my traversing/basic measuring.

I can tolerate my machine being obsolete because a newer, better more fancy model has replaced it, I can not tolerate being obsolete simply because the manufacturer no longer provides replacement parts for things that break or simply wear out,yet they want you to buy their new model. That is crazy! The lifetime and longevity of a purchased product is a big influence to most customers when deciding which manufacturer to make their next purchase from.

A motherboard is specific to one or a few models, and would not be manufactured after the gun is discontinued.

Replacement parts are likely much more profitable than new guns, so why wouldn't they sell them if they could? They might have thrown them away though - only Vulcans are governed by logic.

I don't think that it is so much planned obsolesence as it is that new, more efficient technology continues to be produced at an increasingly faster rate. In order to achieve the new levels of efficiency, significant aspects of old electronic technology must be abandoned.

Continuing to produce the electronic parts for the older instruments becomes increasingly expensive because the components are no longer in demand and are therefore harder to find. So at some point, the manufacturer must make a decision on the practicality of continuing to provide those parts. When it gets to the point that the parts for anything but the most routine maintenance approaches the value of the instrument, the point has been reached and probably surpassed to discontinue the parts.

As you pointed out, those instruments which are entirely mechanical in their operation will continue to work as designed as long as they receive good care.

T-16 and wrap a few extra angles, can not be beat. And Yes I can still throw a chain, just need to teach someone to hold the other end. But truthfully, for topo and stake in open areas you can not beat the robot and thank you GPS for not have to run a big loop to close or shoot long shots to get around the mountain.