Using my PM2's on a project.

UNDER very open skies, I got 2 reports of lock loss, which I basically ignored and worked through, although I did repeat shots on points from before the lock-losses.

The data appears to be just fine, so now I'm wondering if I actually had a loss of lock or a phantom warning, and in reality, never lost lock.

Has this happened to anyone else?

John,

Would you like to be added to my PM2 e-mailing list where we exchange ideas and troubleshoot each others' issues? If so send your e-mail address to me at okpepls@cox.net

As for your loss of lock; yes, your data should be fine. You say you repeated some pre-loss shots, had you tagged them as 'control' shots and then did you 'reinitialize' on a 'known' point? If so you should be great. ALSO as long as you had collected about 20 minutes worth of data prior to your loss, the unit should be capable of reinitializing itself.

As for the loss message, it's not just trees, buildings, and other obstructions that can cause you to lose lock. A couple of other ways to lose lock are to lean your pole and antenna over more than say 30deg or so from vertical. BUT the most likely reason you lost lock in a clear-to-sky survey is that you were surveying during a part of the day in your area where you had a BAD satellite arrangement or too few satellites. So as long as when you lose lock, you return to a known point or to your base initialization bar to reinitialize you'll be very pleased with your PM2s - I am.

You can avoid surveying during this dips in your PDOP if you use the almanac file and the Mission Planning software to plan what time to start surveying, when to take your lunch, and when to call it a day.

The only false error message I'm aware of is the "Antenna Short Announcement" that occurs once in a blue moon. There is a report on the ftp site that basically says to hit the ESC key and forget about it.

Hope this helps.
Mark

I didn't re-initialize after the "LOCK-LOSS", since I was only getting "token" information for a client . . . I just hit the ESC button and ignored the "LOCK-LOSS" message, thinking I'd like to see if there actually was a problem.

I was thinking that I might've bumped the antenna cable to the PM2, so I was very careful after the first incident, then had a second.

after all was said and done . . . there appears to have not been a problem with the data and my "repeat shots"(just checks, nothing more), all came out looking good.

this has happened with the antenna connection. very intermittent