User Guide

• About
• Preparation
• Installation
• Data Collection
  • Legs
  • Stations
• Map
• Data and Export
• Language
• Get in Touch and Resolving Problems

About

CaveSurvey helps you collect surveying data underground with your Android device. A demo video is available here and presentations here and here.

Installation

The easiest way to get CaveSurvey will be at Google Play. Older builds and Releases history are available at the project page.

If you have Android 2.1-4.0 device, please use .apk from one of the older releases like 1.43.

Note that since v2.0 Android 11 scoped storage requires the user to manually select writable folder for CaveSurvey. If you are updating, you can select the existing CaveSurvey folder or move you data files to the new home.

Preparation

CaveSurvey uses the classic survey approach with consecutive legs and measurement stations. All you need to do is to perform the measurements and fill them in. Depending on the measurement devices you can either:

• Enter data manually with the keyboard
• Leverage the build-in sensors
• Leverage Bluetooth enabled devices

For manual data entry there is nothing to prepare or configure. Take your tape and geological compass and just record the measurements with the keyboard (no need to use paper). All the data will be in sync, ready to preview and export.

Android sensors greatly vary from device to device but can be used to read azimuth and inclination. Please keep in mind possible low precision especially regarding orientation. You can select the orientation sensor, independent or simultaneous reading and targeting time. When the targeting time is over, the current or the averaged sensor value will be automatically populated. Averaging is based on a configurable number of readings within the 'same' direction and it is explained here.

Note that the sensor settings are global for the application:

Furthermore you can play with the sensors on your device and decide which of them works for you.

Once configured you can use them to read data simultaneously:

or independently:

+

Measurements can be read from supported devices, configured to work in meters and degrees, and paired. Classic Bluetooth devices require a Bluetooth SPP profile (but will work with older devices) while Bluetooth LE devices require Android 4.3 or higher. You will see them in the list of all available compatible devices and a small system tray icon will notify you about the connection state. Note that some devices can measure only distance while others (like the DistoX, BRIC, LTI and Trimble) all three vector components needed. You can manually enable Notifications permission if your device does not ask you about it. You will be notified on device connection state change.

|

From the Measurements configuration screen an offset for Bluetoot received distances can be configured. It is intended to compensate the few extra centimeters caused by device protection case or distantioner. A warning is displayed upon connection with a Bluetooth device if an offset is configured.

Now you are ready to create a survey project. Note you can change the input devices later but changing the units is not yet supported. Note about using feets.

Please use simple survey names to avoid later problems. Survey can also be imported from an existing Excel file (see below).

|

Legs

Once a survey project is created, try adding data.

Note each action is performed for the current leg, so there is an option to change it. Each leg can be followed by another one (A0->A1->A2), you can start another gallery (A, B, C ...) or you can split it adding intermediate stations.

The legs are visualized in a table, the last column of which shows extra attributes of the leg (e.g. photos, drawings, notes, vectors, gps locations ...).

Stations

The minimum station attributes are length and azimuth (for horizontal galleries). First, select a field and then, if present and configured, instead of manual typing you can use:

• your Bluetooth device for all distance related fields
• either Bluetooth device or build-in sensor for all angle related fields

If there is a value already present in the field, press twice to update it. Perform the measurement and the result will be populated in the selected field(s).

To use the build-in sensors point to the target and hold still for 3 seconds, keeping in mind the precision displayed.

There is much more that can be added:

|

Beside the usual up/down/left/right distances for each station you can also:

• Add a free text note
• Take photos
• Add simple sketches

• Add GPS location at any entrance station, stored WGS84 Lat/Lon decimal degrees with altitude and current accuracy
• Add measurements in any direction (vectors). For easier collection of multiple vectors since v1.51 there are 3 modes:
  • Single
  • Save on receive (same as "Save + New" button when last component is received; can be used to load multiple shots for the station from DistoX)
  • Scan (turns the Bluetooth device into scanning mode if available(BRIC4))

• Reverse a leg in case you measure back and forth from a station

• Delete the last leg of a gallery

Once you are ready adding or editing a station you have to save it for the changes to take place.

Map

We have created simple 2D map in plan and section to let you do on-site error checking.

|

It is simple but we have tried to:

• visualize the legs, stations, side measurements and vectors
• use the same gallery colors and station names as in the table
• allow plan/section switch
• allow zoom and translation
• keep the grid in sync with the map scale

We keep the grid and the scale if you decide to add some annotations over the map:

Data And Export

Data processing starts with some statistics on the Data page:

From there you can export:

• to Microsoft Excel
• with the embedded OpensTopo to Therion, AutoCad, Google Earth and other formats. Note there are currently some unresolved issues
• to Visual Topo and later on a Desktop visualize, process and further export to AutoDesk, PCX5, GPX, KML, SHP and SVG.
• directly preview collected data in CaveAR in 3D

|

All exported files are located under your project's folder and there is also a handy shortcut to browse them if you have compatible files manager installed.

Survey project files can be directly uploaded to Grottocenter as one big archive. The user credentials and the cave identifier should be provided for that: |

The project files will be located on the SD card if you have one. There is bigger probability that your SD card might survive if you drop your device. To further minimize the risk of losing a lot of data, enable the automated backups from the Settings screen. It will export your active project to the SD card every five minutes if there are changes.

Language

CaveSurvey is has several translations

Get in Touch and Resolving Problems

We will be happy to get feedback and new ideas. Use our email [email protected] and project site https://github.com/lz1asl/CaveSurvey to contact us.

Good luck surveying!