Can I Build My Own Land Surveying Total Station at Home?

[A-A]

I have 2 questions:

1- how tough is building an electronic distance measurement device (a rather small one such as the one's used in land surveying total stations) which for instance can indicate distance of a particular point 1 km away? (our device should fire a laser beam towards the point that is already highlighted by a refelector and calculate the travel time of the beam).

2- how tough is building an electronic angle measurement device (a rather small one such as the one's used in land surveying total stations)?

is it practical to build the above at home with off shelf tools.

To summarize, I want to know how practical is building the electronics of a simple land surveying total station at home, given that one possesses relevant electronic knowledge.

tq.

 

[dingpud]

You might want to look into modifying the basic "sportsman's" range finder...

I don't know if you are going to get the accuracy out of the home brew version as you would a professional land surveying machine.

As for angle measurement, electronics background coupled with some mechanical intuition and machining skills should venture a neat tool.

If you decide to take on this project please post what you've come up with...

-pud-

...success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan...