I don't often post but as there had been some mention of LiDAR and the Caveatron on these boards, I thought a few of you might be interested.

During Lockdown part 1 last year I, like many others, found I had some spare time with reduced shifts at work. Having dabbled with surveying over a few years, I thought I could use the time to build Joe Mitchell's Caveatron. The project was more time consuming, complex and more expensive than I thought it might be, but with some assistance, I managed to put one together.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I took the Caveatron underground in October to scan a section of Grebe Swallet and I'm reasonably pleased with the first attempt's results below.

Wow - that's really nice - thanks for sharing. How much money did it come to altogether? From memory from a few months ago it wasn't that much - did you have to pay more for components in the end?

Thanks PW. Yes, I spent just over ?500, which is more than I thought that it would cost. Unfortunately the only LRF I found was from a shop in South Africa and with customs charges, it cost ?120, for something which was previously available elsewhere for ?60. I believe Joe has found alternatives for the harder to get parts, such as the screen and the LRF which should help for future builds.

The other difficulty I found was having to buy multiple components where I wasn?t able to purchase items individually. Having to order bits from multiple different suppliers resulted in multiple postage costs. I now have a number of spares of small components, things like threaded inserts, so if anyone wants any then feel free to send a PM.