Using the Data Cable to connect a total station to a computer for controlling the total station to do a measurement by sending a command from the computer

(20240518, By GeoTECH.Work)

Suppose you are developing a robot measurement system using a total station, you will definitely need to implement an industrial computer of the robot (or robot dog) to directly control the total station loaded on the robot for automatic measurement, so that the robot can walk to a station point by itself and stops, and uses the supporting automatic leveling platform to achieve rough leveling to meet the leveling requirements of the total station, and then sends commands to control the total station to do a measurement; after the measurement at this station is completed, the robot will automatically walk to the next station point, and then control the total station again for measurement.

In such system, a data cable is used to connect the total station to the robot's industrial computer to ensure stable and reliable data communication. The commands sent by the robot's industrial computer are transmitted to the total station with the data cable. After receiving commands, the total station starts the measurement and transmits the measured data back to the industrial computer with the data cable again, thus realizing the automatic measurement of the robot measurement system.

And this is one of the main uses of data cable. It is usually implemented using the serial port of the computer, and some also use the USB port. This method is more stable and reliable than other methods such as Bluetooth.

Data cable can also be used to import and export data file for a total station. With the corresponding data communication software, the known point data file and the stakeout point data file, which will be used to do a measurement by the total station, can be imported from the computer to the total station; and the measurement data file can be exported from the total station to the computer.

In short, the data cable, matched with the total station, is still one of the useful accessories of the total station.