I would like to walk off a distance measurement using MM from time to time, but can't see how to do it via receiver (nav screens or log screen) or manual. It only needs to be within +/- couple meters usually. Surely there's a way w/MM? What am I missing here?!

tag your starting point as a "way point", then set the unit to "goto" that starting way point. I think it will do what you want. We have used all our handhelds over the years like this to get approximate distances.

JD

Hold down the LOG until you can create a waypoint on your starting point, then select it as the go to point.

You have about 5 nav screens you can toggle through after that in which you can get bearing/distance to the point, latitudes/departures and practically any output that you need.

One thing to keep in mind, is that you will have double your error budget doing it this way. It might cancel, it might be twice as bad..No way to really know.

Having a known point first entered as a waypoint gets you down to the meter or so level if you let the MM cook at bit using WAAS when you get to the final destination.

I'll mention something that we haved used lately doing some preliminary routing for a 9 mile sewer line. You can get waypoints on each end of a proposed line (we got ours by post-processing to get a better set of waypoints) and then you can walk the line between them to find obstructions that might impact your route. The screens will tell you which side of the line your are one and stuff.

Works great.

Deral Paulk, PLS OK

Great insights as usual. Makes sense and also puts my situation into an apparent less accurate than my hope for 2 meters or so. Here's what I run into from time to time, and normally I'm quite close with a 'pace off' but figured might as well try using MM for it: I'm in the field flagging wetland lines and have an aerial w/proposed right-of-way (ROW) line paralleling the new road improvement corridor. Occasionally a significant wetland feature will be close to the proposed ROW but if it's a meandering creek then I like to pace off the distance from edge of pavement to proposed ROW (which I can measure on aerial) to really see where that particular stretch of creek is in relation to the need to capture flagging points and the surrounding upland. Again, I should be using technology for this solution.

But now that you've put it into more of a probable distance error much greater than 2 meters (which I now understand better after having it explained above) it would make more sense to review the corridor prior to field and then have a CAD staff generate a coordinate where the wetland comes too close for comfort, and I do the waypoint and let MM cook for a few minutes at the waypoint.

I couldn't talk my company into purchasing ArcView 9 yet, so I'm stuck with having access to ArcView 9 via a Citrix server in another office location which I'm not really interested in dealing with. So, I'm enjoying the MM but not generating map product yet. OK, I'll get a coordinate generated and create waypoint next time I'm out there and it'll be a good field tutorial. As mentioned above, it seems like there should be plenty of applications as well for linear type projects.
Tom

another really nice tool we just started using is a Leica Disto for those shorter ties. It's really hard to steady by hand only at over 100 feet or so, but if you can brace it, 200 foot shots and leap-frogging those longer distances gives really tight mapping grade measurements. Actually, the distances we've compared below 200 feet have been well within a couple of tenths, and that was due to relatively unbraced conditions.

We are mainly using our Mobile Mapper for a recon tool, and a recovery tool. Tomorrow we are going to restake a cell tower site which includes the tower center, 4 "lease corner" (100'x100' around tower), the 3 guy anchor points, and several access easement points. All these were staked last February in a mostly open pasture full of yearling heifers (about 200). There will be absolutely no remaining above ground evidence of any of these points. I took our original cad drawing and copied only the layers I needed into a new drawing. I then scaled, rotated and translated it back to SPC (the drawing was intentionally submitted in geodetic and surface with local coordinateds so as not to confuse the "engineeres"). Then, I assigned points and descriptors to the necessary points to be recovered. Next, export a shape file (from Carlson Survey) to MM Office and upload to the MM. We then navigate to within Schoenstadt reach the vast majority of the time. We have never had to set up a TS to do our "re-stakes", since the iron is found and new lumber is all that's required.

There are lots of uses for the MM, and a whole lot of tricks you will begin to pick up on your own. When you do, be sure and share them with the rest of us.

JD


sorry for the ramble. I know I've mentioned this more than once, and you've probably already passed this point. I just can't get over how cool it is to have this capability.

Modified By J.D. Billings on 3/17/2005 at 12:05 AM