I've been looking for one of these to take apart for ages!

There is a good reason for the two control panels and the scope being able to rotate 360° in the vertical plane. To get the most accurate angular measurements, an observation is made, then the scope is flipped in both the horizontal and vertical axes and another measurement is taken, then the averages of the two measurements are calculated. This is done to cancel out any mechanical errors in the construction of the total station. This is also why there are two screens, because for the second measurement the screen would be pointing away from you. The two tangent screws in the horizontal plane are used to increase accuracy, again through the use of averages. Multiple angular measurements are mechanically summed up by alternately moving the scope and the encoder wheel. An angular measurement is taken, then the upper tangent screw is tightened to lock the telescope assembly to the encoder wheel. The the lower screw is unlocked which allows the encoder wheel to move freely. The scope is moved back to the first point being sighted, the bottom screw tightened, the top screw loosened, and another measurement is taken. Each cycle rotates the encoder wheel in one direction only. After a number of cycles, the change in angle is divided by the number of cycles to get the actual angle. This is done mechanically because it allows for measurements to be taken with a level of precision that exceeds the accuracy of the encoder. If the encoder is only accurate to 1’, 4 repeats will get you a measurement accurate to 15”. This technique is a directly analogue of the technique used to increase the accuracy of measurements taken with a traditional theodolite. Modern instruments have encoders accurate to 1 second, so they don’t have the second horizontal tangent assembly anymore.

Lucky son of a gun. As a machinist whit a bit of electronics know how i can apreciate this art piece

Great video ! useful and informative . thank you very much mr, msylvain .

Thank you for sharing this video , you doing great work

Nice to see the innards of that total station. At least those flat flex cables have pins for connectors. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

thank you for showing this

I have one in pristine condition. My dad was a civil engineer and just had one in the garage, in the same box, for years. I might list it for sale on ebay. I have no idea how to use it.

That rotary encoder is beautiful. Shame you can't get a microscope image of it

Hello I have a total station sokkia set 5f when i mesure a point it gives me either an error message "signal off" or false coordinates. How to fix this error thank you.

The first 360 degree images came from something like this? Maybe even the first laser scanned models with the range finder?

I have a similar thing only from the USSR somehow I will also open it

"One of those things" = theodolite