DIsto X2s are great in a cave when they are calibrated. I have modified 6 units so far with 2 more on the bench. One of those I suspect has a bad daughterboard. I found out the other Disto had an issue before I took it apart. It helps to calibrate the units before going into a cave. At Stanton we have found bad calibrations both during a survey or afterwards. Ditto for Bruntons & Suuntos. So you need to be able to calibrate the DIsto X2 in the cave, which means you need to carry in your Android phone or tablet. (The Brunton is more rugged than those smart devices, and may be a worthy backup unit.)
All of the Suuntos I have bought have only lasted for 3-4 years before you have to replace the clouded up “smart part”, at just slightly less cost than a brand new Suunto. The Suuntos can also have compass & inclination errors (like Disto & Bruntons) but few people bother to check calibration. At least the Suuntos are waterproof. Suuntos & Bruntons work well in the daylight, not so much the Distos. For the Disto units where the laser does not align with the sides of the unit, you certainly need to carefully run a calibration that rotates the unit on all 4 sides. Some of the calibration videos out there don’t do that. I started off with a used tripod-mounted quadrant Brunton using the Shadow Method. We ran the closure data in Carlsbad against Tom Rohr’s theodolite and precision level survey using the Hardy-Corcoran Fortran program on an IBM 360. Overkill for your smaller caves, but we made pretty good FS/BS measurements out to ~ 100 feet. Over the last 15+ years the Fort Stanton Snowy River surveys have used all of these devices and our sketching techniques have improved 200%, partially because it is so easy to use the Disto to accurately shoot in the key sketched items. The Suuntos apparently introduced blunders, and perhaps lazy FS/BS techniques, because some of those older surveys appear to show that water runs uphill. Our new trick is an Arduino controlled data logging barometer that we hope will help sort out these past elevation errors. I am hoping we can kill off some of our 20 foot elevation closure errors from old Suunto surveys with the baro units quickly checking the route. When your 12 mile long stream passage has an average inclination of ~0.2 degrees, careful backsights become very important. It might even help to mount your Disto-X2 on a tripod and take instrument height / light height data like we were doing 50 years ago with the lowly Brunton. Hand-held 200 foot Disto shots usually have quite a bit of “wiggle” if you are trying for 0.5 degree precision. - Pete On Jul 23, 2019, at 8:07 AM, John Brooks <john.brooks.archit...@gmail.com> wrote: IMO - the Brunton can stay on the collection shelves....I remember numerous survey trips with Pete using his favorite Brunton....one trip he called a string of alien sounding numbers and quadrants.....after scratching my head for a few minutes....I asked him to translate it into “English”. I think he converted every shot afterwards.....after the trip I politely suggested that a suntos compass might be easier....I don’t think Pete ever agreed and just kept using The Brunton. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 22, 2019, at 6:18 PM, JamesJasek <caver...@hot.rr.com <mailto:caver...@hot.rr.com>> wrote: > Sure would be good to go back to those days > > Sent from my iPhoneX > > On Jul 22, 2019, at 5:53 PM, Charles Loving <lovingi...@gmail.com > <mailto:lovingi...@gmail.com>> wrote: > > Tape and Brunton survey by...... I recall those in early days before Bockbeer > and his telenovela. > > On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 12:12 AM Pete Lindsley <caverp...@gmail.com > <mailto:caverp...@gmail.com>> wrote: > Logan, I bought a Brass Brunton several years ago off eBay, and the seller > claimed it was an authentic antique. NOT! It is a lower precision “look > alike”, made in India along with similar artsy transits and the like. As I > recall, comparing it to the other 3-4 “real” Bruntons I have, I noted around > 30 differences with an authentic Brunton. Nice to look at, but not a > precision instrument. It took about a month to get my money back (~$30-40). > > - Pete > > On Jul 21, 2019, at 11:00 PM, Logan <lmcn...@austin.rr.com > <mailto:lmcn...@austin.rr.com>> wrote: > > I'm interrupting the TexasLockLearList to discuss something that actually has > relevance to caving, and to Lee Jay Graves RIP. > > The caving connection is the Brunton Pocket Transit, aka the Brunton Compass. > Except for the old-timers, most of you probably have never used one, so here > is some background from Wikipedia. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunton_compass > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunton_compass> > It was commonly used by cavers when I started in Fall 1968. > > But over the next several years it had been largely replaced (at least among > the American cavers I knew) by the Suunto compass made in Finland, which are > still popular today. > https://www.suunto.com/en-us/About-Suunto/History-Timeline/ > <https://www.suunto.com/en-us/About-Suunto/History-Timeline/> > In fact for quite a few years a set of the compass and clinometer has been > donated by TSS to the winner of the TCR Survey Contest. > > Now the Lee Jay connection: His storage shed needs to be empty by July 31, so > Justin Shaw assembled a team with Galen Falgot, Drew Thompson, Eric Flint & > Meg, and Logan McNatt to go over there Friday July 19th evening. Gil Ediger > loaned his wonderful Isuzu dump truck and we spent several hours loading over > half the contents of the shed. Early the next morning we unloaded everything > onto tables in Gil's front yard for an "Everything Must Go Fire Sale". > > As we emptied the tubs and bags, I noticed something I had never seen before: > a Brass Brunton Pocket Transit, in pristine never-used condition! So I > removed it from the sale items thinking it can go in the Texas Speleological > Center Museum whenever that is transferred from the old TSS office at the > Pickle Research Campus. A Google search showed the image below which is > identical except Lee Jay's is stamped with INDIA rather than STANLEY LONDON. > It appears to be functional and probably modern. At least it doesn't say > "Made in China"! > > Comments and more information on this item are most welcome. Please forward > to other cavers who might have insight. > Thanks, > Logan McNatt > > > > > > > END OF INTERRUPTION; RESUME "USUAL" PROGRAMING ON TEXASLOCKLEARLIST > > > > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com <http://texascavers.com/> > Texascavers@texascavers.com <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > <http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/> > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers > <http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers> > > > -- > Charlie Loving > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com <http://texascavers.com/> > Texascavers@texascavers.com <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > <http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/> > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers > <http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers> > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com <http://texascavers.com/> > Texascavers@texascavers.com <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > <http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/> > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers > <http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers> _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
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