Yes, yours is probably out of adjustment. It's just like a fish eye vial on the prism pole. You go through the routine of the plumb bob string in the doorway to the mark on the floor, or fit the pole in the corner of a cabinet and adjust every 90 degress, the same routine as a prism pole.
But not no more brother! As a result of shear boredom, and perhaps divine intervention I have seen the light (or how to adjust your bubble the easy way).
Take one of your known to be good tribrachs and adapter off one of your static units, set it on your coffee table, level up the tribrach, then place the level vial assembly across the top of the adapter, and with your small allen wrench go to town.
Why didn't I think of this before?

Dave,

Are you removing the point from the bottom section of a 2 meter rod and attaching it by threads to the tribrach center? Didn't understand the part where you said "place the level vial assembly across the top of the adapter".

After your method, will the bubble stay in center by rotating in the "cabinet corner"? I doubt mine would, I think the lower section of my pole may have a slight bend from shipping. el cheepo model.

J.D.

J.D.

What I did was place the aluminum housing that contains the level vial and the compass across the top of the tribrach adapter once the tribrach itself was leveled up.
In the "corner test", the bubble did not center exactly as I thought it should have. But it was real close. I think maybe my carbon fiber pole may be not quite so straight either. Hard to believe this stuff could warp. I think it is more due to the fact that the machining on the aluminum housing is not at an exact right angle, and once it is tightened to the pole that is where the discrepency is.
But then again we are looking for 12mm minimum in the kinematic mode, so I think "real close" should suffice.
I got your link, thanks, will check it out.
Best Regards,
Dave

Dave,

I removed the (plastic) level vial from my el cheepo 2 meter pole and tried your procedure. The first tribrach and rotating center I used worked perfectly. Rotating the center with the level vial in place showed the bubble on the vial assembly to stay fairly well centered (after some minor adjustments). Then I decided to try on another tribrach and center. I assumed this tribrach to be in proper adjustment. When rotating the center with the same adjusted level vial in place, the level bubble (from the pole) danced all over the place. I next placed a short, flat bottom string level on the rotating center, after checking it on the previous tribrach assembly. It appeared only a minor adjustment would be in order, if any. I mounted a total station on the tribrach, leveled with the instrument tubes, and made a small unnecessary adjustment to the tribrach.

To make a long story short, I found that the rotating center on tribrach No. 2 does not rotate in a perfect plane. I tried No. 3 and it was somewhere inbetween No. 1 and 2.

You might look out for the "outa square" rotating centers.

Also, I was going to try the adjustment method with prism pole vial. Nope, the protruding adjustment screws won't allow.

Have a Good One

J.D.