Welcome
Saturday, June 3rd, 2023
Previously there was a glitch where the prism mode of the mt1000 would switch to passive everytime you used "check backsight". That bug was fixed and hadn't had that particular issue in a long time.
Today in active mode with the prism turned on the robot kept getting locked on a shiny bit of tape at the bottom of a window.
Anyone else experience this recently? I haven't gotten any update in months, so not sure why it would change.
Yes, I have had this happen a few times. I have even had it take a shot and store it. For my particular situation, I found it was tracking the reflection of the LED's in the windows behind me at Renton Tech.
Do you always use active mode? I have been told by our Trimble dealer to always use Semi-Active.
Active or semi-active mode uses the ID-unique IR wavelength from the prism LEDs for tracking, so it shouldn't be getting locked on anything else shiny unless it is indeed flipping back to passive mode.
That being said, as @johnh2005 mentioned, it can track the reflection of the prism, but I can count on one hand how many times I have seen it happen since I started using the multitrack about 7-8 years ago.
@johnh2005 semi-active is indeed the way to go for more precise work. But both Active and Semi-Active track the same way; semi-active just turns it off and locks onto the prism when a measurement is initiated.
I could see if there was a window behind me but no possible way for there to be a reflection of the prism in this case...see attached pics.
Yeah I started off using semi active but the 10 seconds measure time was killing me (Leica took 1-2) so I tried active which takes 4-5 seconds to measure. I haven't found it to be noticeably less accurate so I use it other than for really critical shots, but sometimes then I just use a tripod and round prism.
People tried to tell me it was a setting or something before, but I've been through everything and it's both of our s5, and the s7 all take 8-10 seconds in semi active mode. You can change the "number of observations" I believe it was in settings from the minimum to any other number and nothing will make these robots shoot faster.
In this case we verified twice in a row it was in active mode. Still it remained locked on the window.
I would use semi active more if it wasn't so ridiculously slow.
If that piece is shiny enough, it probably is reflecting the IR from the prism in the distance between the houses.
I guess it's possible, but it was not very sunny. Just got done waiting out the rain. No glare or anything I could see looking at it with my eyes or through the scope. I know anything is possible but with the sokkia and the RC unit it happened a couple of times with a window right near me, sun obviously reflected off it...the Leica only happened early morning or late day with sun glaring off a clean window.
1.2m minimum setback (less than 4ft). This is why I moved to the country.
1.2m minimum setback (less than 4ft). This is why I moved to the country.
Google Marshall Fire.
2 billion and rising...
not so great that planners want to cram them so close together
@350rocketmike I don't think the sun is a factor at all. I think the infrared being emitted by the prism reflected off the shiny thing under the window on the house and the gun picked up that infrared source and locked on it.
Extremely scary. I watched that movie about the wildfires where the hotspots all got melted to death trying to save people's lives and homes. I have a ton of respect for firefighters everywhere.
We have some houses in our area that are 0.6m (less than 2 feet) sidelines. I assume the builder paid a minor variance on these. Houses are way to close together.
This is my paradise when I come home every night. (When I'm not on the roof trimming branches of doing yardwork). I grew up on 33 acres so it's hard to imagine going back to the city.
beautiful.
thanks for rubbing it in...I live on the first floor of a fancy schmancy over priced apt, but it's all I can do to have a garage and safety for my gear and the bosses gear.
So it could potentially happen anywhere if that is the case. I wouldn't say it's impossible but it was quite a distance from the window that it locked on...to the prism which was behind the property. It was at least 30 feet between the prism and the shiny window frame. Then at least 40 feet to the robot out front. I would have thought it would have to be closer for the led's to reflect off it that far away.
I moved from a guy's basement (in the country at least) to my wife's townhouse in the city, which was a tiny lot right next to the neighbors, but at least had a nice little backyard with a garden, to here in the country. But I lived in some pretty crappy apartments over the years and for a while I thought I'd never get to live somewhere nice.
