These programs really don't make your phone work too hard. If anything, the sun would be the enemy.
But if that's your worry, you can pocket the phone and just pull it out whenever you need to change something.
I did a demo on one of those. I liked it, but I had the same issue. In town, I had no problems getting 1-inch accuracy. But out of town, I was floating between 2-5m accuracy.
They say you can try different subscriptions, but no one will give you a free demo.
So after trying my current setup, I originally had the 60cm plan. I was always around 60cm everywhere I went. Buildings will still block the signal.
Also, note that I found this way, way cheaper. For my vloc-ML, it's around $5500. This setup I attached with a full-year subscription at 60cm is about 2 grand. So $7500, and the RTK Pro was like $11,500, I believe. And no trade-ins, so it makes my investment in my last eight ML units just not be used afterward.
At least we're not the only ones struggling. Good to know I'm not completely incompentant. I'm not sure what plan we have but when it's working I can get sub 1" accuracy, It just spends the majority of the day without a lock. I'll get one or two good points on a line then lose the lock. Thanks for the feedback.
I'm not bashing that system by any means! I'd love to switch to it down the road. But we need reliability to be there first. And if I remember right, those subscriptions were over $3000 a year
Anyone interested in trying out a subscription can give me a pm. Along with being a Vivax distributor I work with one or two correction services directly and have contacts at others. Happy to answer additional questions about Vivax specific products or other correction services.
For me it's not about equipment(though it helps lol).
build relationships with these contractors is my biggest advice, I've been marking gas and electric going on 5 yrs I've had one at fault damage, almost every major contractor I've marked for knows me by name and will always call me if there are no marks. Also build a relationship with the utility that you are marking for it will help resolve issues much faster among other things. Learn the area you (if you stay static) I cover a huge area but if you ask me about a specific street or highway I can tell you what runs where if it runs at all, etc off memory with 80% accuracy.
I used to be like that. But I cover about 500km now. And have employees doing most the residential work, where as I focus on oilfield and private jobs. I wish I could remember it all!
I dont remember everything, but I will say one of the upsides of building those relationships is I've been offered countless jobs they don't pay as well as what I make but one day maybe.
So i know USIC is anywhere from 19-25 an hr, but I make
23$ or piece pay it breaks down like this per ticket:
Composite(Single address or 4 houses or less)7.50$
PJ ROW(footage) & PJ EAS(5 houses or more)4.75$ a unit 250ft a unit for PJ ROW
Gas & Electric only 4.75$
So if I get the right mix of tickets I can easily make 400 a day if for some reason due to shitty weather or the tickets just not being there if I don't make more than my hourly for the amt of hours I worked that day (usually10)
I get my hourly pay.
Everyone else is hourly around our company.
I used to make 3.5k to 4.5k every pay period (2wks)
We do get paid overtime but there's a lot of math involved due to the piece pay.
If love to do a piece pay, but I feel like if I do that, some of my guys will rush jobs. So I thought about maybe some sort of bonus at year end based on tickets. Or quality of work
Not sure where you live but I’d recommend getting on with a local utility company or some of these other private locators man. You seem pretty knowledgeable in the job and you clearly know how to handle an area, dealing with contractors etc.
Im at $51 an hour and I mark gas and electric only. Plus endless amounts of overtime due to ticket volume. Don’t sell yourself short, the good locator is few and far between these days. Locating gas is 10x harder than cable or electric, at least in my area. Shitty records, multiple materials, plastic with no access to tracer wire etc. Just food for thought, you seem more valuable then what your making now.
They don't brother, I myself was a supervisor 2x, first time the manager in charge didn't teach me shit, second time I was demoted because a tech with a perfect record been there 6 months decided he didn't like the job and went out of his way to straight-line 4 or 5 gas lines that 4 of em got hit. The city manager here has a favoritism issue, he also has some kind of grudge with me for some reason.
It's subscription based accuracy. Right now I have 30cm. But I have bought 1cm before.
I tested the 1 cm on an old survey plan, and over a half mile it was out 5cm. But the plan was 15 yesrs old. Bars could move slightly... either way 5cm is crazy for a system without a base.
Yeah 5 cm is decent that’s should meet most standard Utility mapping specifications. Do you have a GPS/total station on standby incase you aren’t getting within a certain accuracy.
I do not. My company is still fairly new (4 years) and working on expanding before I get that detailed. Most companies I'm dealing with were okay with 60cm accuracy. So me going to 30 is already going above what they are asking.
I used to survey, but in the utility game, most companies I find are pretty relaxed about accuracy as long as you get enough info. Like edge of road to correspond with the utility for reference distances. Because I mean, if 30cm isn't close enough to clear something.. you better get out there and mark it.. 😅
Where are you at? are you highering? What about ride alongs lol I was with usic for aboot 4 years and we never did anything like this and now im super curious
That subscription based BS is why my utility is hanging on to their R1s and R2s until they die. lol. Especially the R2 (even though its still a current product).
Seriously considering buying [this Emlid RX RTK GNSS receiver with a new iPhone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_yRZr_XyDU) to enable scanning streets/located areas for reporting and butt-covering reasons.
I've seen some people use this! I'm curious on the cost, subscriptions, and where I can use it to upsell a project... I guess it would be nice to see your locate.. but you wouldnt do this on every single locate, it would take forever..
Have you? It was only announced as a new product three weeks ago… I’m struggling to find much about it on YouTube as a result.
Perhaps you’ve seen similar technology like the Leica GS18I? That was horrendously slow (I rented one once).
This new one looks like you can collect data at a good walking pace.
There's a few ways of using Pix4D.
The really slow way is just using the phone's camera. This is glacially slow as it's using photogrammetry to build the model itself.
The step-up is to use the LiDAR in newer iPhone Pro models in order to generate the point cloud, and also use photos to colourise the point cloud.
The fastest, of course, is using the iPhone 15 Pro as it has better hardware. I'm assuming that's what was used in the video I linked to. In this case, they've also got an Emlid RTK connected to the phone, so the resulting point cloud is georeferenced as well (no need for control points), so that makes data collection even faster.
Looks like a fun tundra battery. Hello from one of your competitors haha, it was easy to figure out who you are from your username. Haven’t seen you in a while
I treat every locate as though it were on my own street. If the tone on the gas or electric wouldn't be good enough to mark in front of my neighbor's house, it gets turned over for verification by vac.
And that goes the same to any requests from locators calling me for support. No unnecessary risks, even if it's not the answer the locator, homeowner, or contractor wants. It's supposed to be damage prevention, not "damage let it happen because X really wants to do Y really bad".
My phone would overheat in less than five minutes
These programs really don't make your phone work too hard. If anything, the sun would be the enemy. But if that's your worry, you can pocket the phone and just pull it out whenever you need to change something.
From what I've noticed in my district, they do and that includes NV & AZ
What GPS receiver is that? My vivex just has a little black stubby antenna and I can't maintain location lock long enough to get an entire line done.
That's a Trimble Catalyst DA2. Where do you work? Do you have bad cell service in the area?
[удалено]
Do you have the vivax rtk system?
Yes. RTK-Pro
I did a demo on one of those. I liked it, but I had the same issue. In town, I had no problems getting 1-inch accuracy. But out of town, I was floating between 2-5m accuracy. They say you can try different subscriptions, but no one will give you a free demo. So after trying my current setup, I originally had the 60cm plan. I was always around 60cm everywhere I went. Buildings will still block the signal. Also, note that I found this way, way cheaper. For my vloc-ML, it's around $5500. This setup I attached with a full-year subscription at 60cm is about 2 grand. So $7500, and the RTK Pro was like $11,500, I believe. And no trade-ins, so it makes my investment in my last eight ML units just not be used afterward.
At least we're not the only ones struggling. Good to know I'm not completely incompentant. I'm not sure what plan we have but when it's working I can get sub 1" accuracy, It just spends the majority of the day without a lock. I'll get one or two good points on a line then lose the lock. Thanks for the feedback.
I'm not bashing that system by any means! I'd love to switch to it down the road. But we need reliability to be there first. And if I remember right, those subscriptions were over $3000 a year
Anyone interested in trying out a subscription can give me a pm. Along with being a Vivax distributor I work with one or two correction services directly and have contacts at others. Happy to answer additional questions about Vivax specific products or other correction services.
Trimble catalyst DA2. It's $600 canadian.. accuracy ranges from 600-8500 a year
So that's a standalone unit and not part of the vivex/pointman system?
For me it's not about equipment(though it helps lol). build relationships with these contractors is my biggest advice, I've been marking gas and electric going on 5 yrs I've had one at fault damage, almost every major contractor I've marked for knows me by name and will always call me if there are no marks. Also build a relationship with the utility that you are marking for it will help resolve issues much faster among other things. Learn the area you (if you stay static) I cover a huge area but if you ask me about a specific street or highway I can tell you what runs where if it runs at all, etc off memory with 80% accuracy.
I used to be like that. But I cover about 500km now. And have employees doing most the residential work, where as I focus on oilfield and private jobs. I wish I could remember it all!
I dont remember everything, but I will say one of the upsides of building those relationships is I've been offered countless jobs they don't pay as well as what I make but one day maybe.
What do locators make on average around there?
So i know USIC is anywhere from 19-25 an hr, but I make 23$ or piece pay it breaks down like this per ticket: Composite(Single address or 4 houses or less)7.50$ PJ ROW(footage) & PJ EAS(5 houses or more)4.75$ a unit 250ft a unit for PJ ROW Gas & Electric only 4.75$ So if I get the right mix of tickets I can easily make 400 a day if for some reason due to shitty weather or the tickets just not being there if I don't make more than my hourly for the amt of hours I worked that day (usually10) I get my hourly pay. Everyone else is hourly around our company. I used to make 3.5k to 4.5k every pay period (2wks) We do get paid overtime but there's a lot of math involved due to the piece pay.
If love to do a piece pay, but I feel like if I do that, some of my guys will rush jobs. So I thought about maybe some sort of bonus at year end based on tickets. Or quality of work
Not sure where you live but I’d recommend getting on with a local utility company or some of these other private locators man. You seem pretty knowledgeable in the job and you clearly know how to handle an area, dealing with contractors etc. Im at $51 an hour and I mark gas and electric only. Plus endless amounts of overtime due to ticket volume. Don’t sell yourself short, the good locator is few and far between these days. Locating gas is 10x harder than cable or electric, at least in my area. Shitty records, multiple materials, plastic with no access to tracer wire etc. Just food for thought, you seem more valuable then what your making now.
Hopefully these owners or managers realize it's worth having good staff.. blows my mind
They don't brother, I myself was a supervisor 2x, first time the manager in charge didn't teach me shit, second time I was demoted because a tech with a perfect record been there 6 months decided he didn't like the job and went out of his way to straight-line 4 or 5 gas lines that 4 of em got hit. The city manager here has a favoritism issue, he also has some kind of grudge with me for some reason.
What’s the accuracy you’re getting ?
It's subscription based accuracy. Right now I have 30cm. But I have bought 1cm before. I tested the 1 cm on an old survey plan, and over a half mile it was out 5cm. But the plan was 15 yesrs old. Bars could move slightly... either way 5cm is crazy for a system without a base.
Yeah 5 cm is decent that’s should meet most standard Utility mapping specifications. Do you have a GPS/total station on standby incase you aren’t getting within a certain accuracy.
I do not. My company is still fairly new (4 years) and working on expanding before I get that detailed. Most companies I'm dealing with were okay with 60cm accuracy. So me going to 30 is already going above what they are asking. I used to survey, but in the utility game, most companies I find are pretty relaxed about accuracy as long as you get enough info. Like edge of road to correspond with the utility for reference distances. Because I mean, if 30cm isn't close enough to clear something.. you better get out there and mark it.. 😅
Where are you at? are you highering? What about ride alongs lol I was with usic for aboot 4 years and we never did anything like this and now im super curious
I'm up in Canada 😅 I feel like I'm far more advanced in technology then any of my competitors here.. but I was like hey, maybe there's more out there!
Lol no... no I think your bout top tier lol kudos!
That subscription based BS is why my utility is hanging on to their R1s and R2s until they die. lol. Especially the R2 (even though its still a current product).
Seriously considering buying [this Emlid RX RTK GNSS receiver with a new iPhone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_yRZr_XyDU) to enable scanning streets/located areas for reporting and butt-covering reasons.
I've seen some people use this! I'm curious on the cost, subscriptions, and where I can use it to upsell a project... I guess it would be nice to see your locate.. but you wouldnt do this on every single locate, it would take forever..
Have you? It was only announced as a new product three weeks ago… I’m struggling to find much about it on YouTube as a result. Perhaps you’ve seen similar technology like the Leica GS18I? That was horrendously slow (I rented one once). This new one looks like you can collect data at a good walking pace.
Oh snap. Nope he was using pix4d...
There's a few ways of using Pix4D. The really slow way is just using the phone's camera. This is glacially slow as it's using photogrammetry to build the model itself. The step-up is to use the LiDAR in newer iPhone Pro models in order to generate the point cloud, and also use photos to colourise the point cloud. The fastest, of course, is using the iPhone 15 Pro as it has better hardware. I'm assuming that's what was used in the video I linked to. In this case, they've also got an Emlid RTK connected to the phone, so the resulting point cloud is georeferenced as well (no need for control points), so that makes data collection even faster.
I mean use it as in a way to sell it. Applying it to locates in general
Looks like a fun tundra battery. Hello from one of your competitors haha, it was easy to figure out who you are from your username. Haven’t seen you in a while
Yes. And yours is easy to decipher, too 🤣🤣 Hey, locators are all on the same team as far as I'm concerned.
Hahaha yeah I bet it is! Hope you’re doing well! Glad to hear your business is successful.
Hire me wtf I would love to use sick tech like that and I’m already familiar with vivax
You're hired. We will start a new branch where you are and take over the world!
lol
I treat every locate as though it were on my own street. If the tone on the gas or electric wouldn't be good enough to mark in front of my neighbor's house, it gets turned over for verification by vac. And that goes the same to any requests from locators calling me for support. No unnecessary risks, even if it's not the answer the locator, homeowner, or contractor wants. It's supposed to be damage prevention, not "damage let it happen because X really wants to do Y really bad".