Hello i am thinking about Buying an two RS2 to do survey work in Canada.
I just started a small construction survey company and am starting to grow. i love my trimble gear but thinking about trying something different so i have a couple questions about the Emlid RS2.
I am wondering how durable everyone feels there GPS is if they ever break how are they to get repaired ? also have questions about what surveying app i should use.
I will be doing TOPO surveys. and a lot of staking out locations, also will be doing grading so i am wondering is any surveying apps can allow me to at DTM files or other surface files.
I have owned R8, R8M2, R8M3, Hemisphere S320 and S321⌠and I can say that the RS2 is top notch build. It is compact yet should withstand typical treatment on the job.
At this point there is very slim options for repair but for the cost you could easily have a spare and come out ahead compared to Trimble costs.
I would lean in the direction of Field Genius for Survey app. At this time it can use the NMEA stream to complete all the survey work (you will need to use ReachView to set-up base and I/O configuration for example) but a tailored driver will hopefully evolve one day. FG is Windows mobile but they have a first generation Android app being enhanced.
From my experience, the RS2 antenna is not the best out there. I have some old Sokkia & Topcon receivers and I did a comparison test when I got the RS2. The RS2 would most of the time return a float for the same time spent by the Sokkia or Topcon. I used my Sokkia as a base for the said test run of about 20 minutes static on an area less than 20m apart for the 3 units. The baseline Sokkiaâ>RS2 returned a float while the Sokkiaâ>Topcon returned a fix. I have learned to âfixâ this by having the RS2 start collecting earlier than the other units. I would set it up on a point while the other units are being readied on their points.
Not a very scientific fix but that is my experience with RS2. Itâs a good thing that I use the RS2 as sort of a redundant base in my survey setup.
Iâm Andre Verville from Kildir Technologies right in Canada. Can help you out there on sales and support as an authorized EMLID dealer. http://kildir.com The site is in French but I am fluent in English, both English and French. Select Contact area and send me your coordinates.
PS: also Beta contributor to ReachView 3 app currently in development at EMLID
I am wondering how durable everyone feels there GPS is if they ever break how are they to get repaired ?
Reach RS2 comes with a 1-year warranty. We also always ready to help here if you experience any difficulties with the devices.
also have questions about what surveying app i should use.
I will be doing TOPO surveys. and a lot of staking out locations, also will be doing grading so i am wondering is any surveying apps can allow me to at DTM files or other surface files.
There are some issues with the RS2 battery indicator and I have had not much luck with the batteries in my two RS2 units. Emlid has assured its customers they are âworkingâ on the issue. Even if it is an indicator LED that is wrong and the battery volts show good volts, we have had many many field techs get very worried about being able to complete a project because when they charged them for multiple hours then the next day take them to the field and they are reporting little to no charge and have had to invest time getting to the site just to find out the GPS units are barely charged or at least indicating they are barely charged. I have also had not so great of luck with cold environments and having batteries maintain some state of charge. This is my experience with the units.
Batteries = no problem and last all day
Charge estimator = needs a software fix
Safe rule of thumb = just charge when the units are warm (room temp)
And if, for some reason you are in the cold and canât get one to turn on, then plug in a USB power bank and that should let it power up immediately.
Not to take away from Matthewâs valid point and the fact that the charge estimator/indicator does need to be updated with a better algorithm for cold temps, but to say that we know for a fact the units themselves work fine and if you avoid the known pitfalls for now, then you should have no trouble working the units in any temp.
Maybe on your units they do but mine seem to discharge in the case off and fully charged at least the LED showed full charge in a temperature controlled environment (68f) down to 3 LEDâs in 6 days, this is not tolerable in my opinion, and I donât care if its just the LED showing, its wrong and not trustworthy or reliable, and I like reliable!
Has been wrong from pretty much day 1!!! Very untrustworthy!!! Again these are my observations with the two RS2 units I have in my possession.
It is fine to advise potential buyers of the battery indication issue. But let us stop going round and round in circles here and not blow it out of proportion.
The battery works. The RS2 works. There is no reliability issue with the performance of the Reach RS2.
There was a nice clear post made 2 weeks ago about the LED indicator issue and another related fix:
I encourage you to take Emlidâs advice. If your battery indicator is out of sync and you havenât figured for out yourself how to get it back in sync, and you also canât stop yourself from fixating on the LED indicators, then just put a piece of electrical tape over the indicator LEDs for now; get accustomed to using the battery voltage levels in the app; and relax until we all get notified that the LED indicator fix has been released.
The batteries in mine seem to have a reliability issue which in turn has caused me to not trust them as much as my trusty old RS+ units. On top of the well document LED issue, plus it seems there is something wrong with their cold discharge algorithm. Just informing folks of my issues I have seen so far. When they work they are quite wonderful! Also if you are in the US might want to think about purchasing from a US reseller to avoid some paperwork and other things if you do decide to buy.
Well, if you feel your case is special and separate to the LED indicator issue, then your system logs would prove it because they show the charge and discharge curves over time. They would be especially informative if the unit was âONâ the whole time (during charge and discharge) so the battery voltage is continuously logged.
I donât think this is a âplusâ thing. They are the same issue.
until we all get notified that the LED indicator fix has been released.
