Excellent suggestions in terms of keeping survey/sketching gear organized . On attaching the protractor, I like to use an elastic cord which provides unlimited options on where to put the protractor and for using on a clipboard (8.5 x 11 paper) Use a rubber band on both sides of book -two total - this makes it easier to flip back and forth between plan and profile views. One can also use a portable phone charger for recharging the stens though this does add another piece of gear to keep track of and make room for - a concern on camp or very long trips. Other efficiency tips. 1. During data collection- report all of the values (distance, compass, clino, pd) in the same order every time -what order depends on sketcher preference. It helps the sketcher to stay focused on the sketch if they know what order the numbers will be given (and sketcher should repeat to assure they heard the data correctly. 2) Always identify the data for the sketcher - (from station_____ to station _________frontsite azimuth, backsite azimuth etc). Its good quality control especially if the order of the data is changed for positional reasons or when tie-ins are encountered. Though all of these suggestions might seem trivial (I have been told this many times!) they help the sketcher to stay focused on the sketch which makes the whole survey process more efficient overall.

"At my age" ha! You'll be leading the pack for another 30 years!

Great video Derek. Thanks for the tips. As Michael mentioned, I found that a previously purchased cell phone charger that was useless for an iPhone worked great on the DistoX2. It is 0.8 x 0.8 x 3.7" . Correlation of photos during survey: I am often challenged to add metadata to the photos taken on a FSC survey trip because photographers (including myself) don't take time to fully document the station nearest the photo point. The best solution I found so far is to synchronize your watches with your camera date/time setting, hopefully near the start of the trip where several cameras can be checked at the same time, or just take a photo of the same thing. Then the sketch person can document the important photos, which might also include digital pictures of the station number and part of the passage cross section, and can complete the documentation by simply adding a new arrow on the sketch along with the camera time.A big room might have 3 camera positions with three times on the sketch, along with 5-6 survey stations. The camera correlates the photo file name with the time, and the sketch matches it up to the approximate view direction in the cave. This technique has worked well even on another trip after the conventional survey where the photo team may have a good sketch map, and works well for the initial survey as well. Then days later when the photo is brought into Adobe LightRoom and organized with all the other photos from the expedition, we have an opportunity to add metadata that better defines the look direction and location of each important photo. As an example of bones discovered 10 miles back in the system, where you might take 17 photos, the survey sketch might only have one extra arrow with the approximate time noted on the sketch. With photos and scans of the survey book and sketches collected after exit from the cave, third parties (like me) can still piece together the location of the bones or other items photographed.

Where did you get the small shoulder bag/pouch from?

How did you attach the lanyard? Just drill through the end? Cellphone rechargers are also compact ways to recharge the Disto.

@DerekBristol

6 жыл бұрын

If you remove the flip-out end piece during the build of the Disto-X, this leaves a pair of holes where the hinge pin used to be. I thread small cord (~2mm) through this hole. Good suggestion about the cell phone charger. The advantage of the buck converter is that it only weighs a few grams, and it can utilize a spare battery that you might be carrying anyway, thus keeping your kit smaller and lighter.

Where did you find that compass bearing diagram? Its something I struggle with as a sketcher and would love the simplification!

@DerekBristol

4 жыл бұрын

Are you talking about the fore-sight/back-sight correction chart? I just made one in Illustrator, though I now do 99% of my surveys with two Disto-Xs and set one of them up to give corrected back-sights, so I never refer to this anymore. Send me an email (in the description) if you want me to send you a ZIP file with all of these charts and templates.

what kind of sample survey material