Bric4 Survey Tool

[Rob]

[This has been available for about a year already, surprised it hasn't appeared yet on UKC]

Interested to know if anyone in the UK has yet bought or used a Bric4?
https://www.caveexploration.org/gear/bric4
If so, how is it? Does it integrate with TopoDroid well? Were you stung with high shipping and import tax? etc...

On the face of it the device looks like an excellent DistoX replacement. I like the ruggedness and simplicity of normal use with just one button available normally. However for $850 it seems to unfortunately have priced itself out of most caver's reach. But i suppose if it lasts very well and isn't replaced by better tech soon, then maybe it's worth it?!?  :-\

There's a quite good review of it here by Aaron Bird, although mostly concentrating on accuracy rather than usability or functionality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCi35qMwDQI

 

[Tseralo]

There was a post on FB asking similar questions recently https://www.facebook.com/groups/caversgroup/posts/10158554213238639/

Derek Bristol also has been using one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raa7WnEhaeI and is working on a review.

With the demise of the Disto and the SAP being somewhat unreliable with battery life and availability I'm seriously considering biting the bullet. It ain't cheap though especially if you get hit with import duty.

 

[Rob]

Thanks, that's becoming a good post. Answers a few of my concerns. Slow shooting, shorter distance, and not robust button certainly are downsides for what i do (mixture of filthy Derbyshire and massive Mulu!).

Doesn't look like anyone's bought one from the UK yet, which surprises me.

 

[Tseralo]

Yeah as a fellow Derbyshire mud dweller that also concerns me. The other things I'm doing are beyond sump stuff so generally a bit damp. I do like the idea of how weather sealed it is, I currently transport my sap in one of those cases and it seems to work well.

If I do get one ill let you know and you are welcome to come to have a play with it.

 

[Rob]

I think that's the main issue with the concept. The peli case housing is bound to be very rugged, but it'll still want protecting when moving through a cave, such as in a darren drum. Whereas i put my DistoX1 inside a similarly sized pelicase which i happily clip onto my harness/belt, knowing if it gets totally trashed i've got ?30 to replace eventually, rather than the whole thing....

The more i think & learn about it the less interested i am.

 

[Tseralo]

I think that's the main issue with the concept. The peli case housing is bound to be very rugged, but it'll still want protecting when moving through a cave, such as in a darren drum. Whereas i put my DistoX1 inside a similarly sized pelicase which i happily clip onto my harness/belt, knowing if it gets totally trashed i've got ?30 to replace eventually, rather than the whole thing....

That's quite a good point id not thought of. Your almost going to want another peli for it. When I dive my SAP it goes in a little peli in a Daren drum which works well for shallow stuff (with the addition of a rock or two to stop it from sticking to the roof). Perhaps an Ortlieb drybag would be enough to keep the muck off it not sure how confident it be with ?700 of electronics in it though.

 

[nearlywhite]

There was one about at the advanced surveying weekend (just gone) - Unfortunately I got slightly too drunk at a family do on the Saturday to make it back and try it out  :-[ (Wales did beat Scotland though so it's understandable).

Hopefully bumping the thread for someone at the weekend to comment

 

[rich]

There was one about at the advanced surveying weekend (just gone) - Unfortunately I got slightly too drunk at a family do on the Saturday to make it back and try it out  :-[ (Wales did beat Scotland though so it's understandable).

Hopefully bumping the thread for someone at the weekend to comment

Yep, this was the one I brought.

If so, how is it? Does it integrate with TopoDroid well? Were you stung with high shipping and import tax? etc...

It integrates quite well with SexyTopo (my surveying app). I imagine it works tolerably well on TopoDroid 

I haven't tried it out underground so far, but it seems like a good bit of kit. It feels robust, well thought out, has a good interface, lots of features.

Sending data over BLE means you can do stuff like check the battery level remotely, and, if there's an error, tell the user what type of error it was.

Some other cool features: a display screen to see the last few readings, fast and in-depth on-board calibration, temperature measurement, built-in error checking, and quite a few configurable settings to make it work the way you want.

Yes, it is quite a lot cash. However, when you consider how easily distos get damaged, and factor that into the price of them, maybe it's not that much more expensive (assuming it turns out to be as sturdy as it feels!)

 

[Tseralo]

I have acquired a BRIC4 now. I’ve been using it a bit in Derbyshire and it’s working well so far. If anyone wants to have a look at it before you spaf basically £900 your welcome to.

 

[Chris Curry]

Louise, Rich (or anyone else)

How are you getting on with your BRIC4s? I'm also on the verge of getting one unless I can find a second hand DistoX anywhere. Any thoughts/observations/breakages/drownings/catastrophic mud-clogging so far? It would be for squalid Northern Dales use. Cheers!

 

[nearlywhite]

I used one in Mexico - it's really good

The temperature readings are a nice little bonus

It's less ergonomic than the disto - I personally think that survey 'stalks' or n'nups' or whatever people call them are worse than corners but that is almost 100% me just being a tad anal.

The only reason I don't have one is the price.

 

[aricooperdavis]

It's a shame that the BRIC is so expensive and from the US, so the shipping and import tax is a bit brutal. I don't know if it needs to be quite as expensive as it is (are the redundant sensors really necessary, for example?).

I've had a play with the SAP and it's clearly a good piece of kit, but I think the enclosure and UI need a bit of fine tuning. I particularly like that the SAP is open source, and therefore you could make your own and make those changes if you had the time and skills.

 

[nearlywhite]

It's a shame that the BRIC is so expensive and from the US, so the shipping and import tax is a bit brutal. I don't know if it needs to be quite as expensive as it is (are the redundant sensors really necessary, for example?).

I've had a play with the SAP and it's clearly a good piece of kit, but I think the enclosure and UI need a bit of fine tuning. I particularly like that the SAP is open source, and therefore you could make your own and make those changes if you had the time and skills.

Sadly the battery life is too short and the case is pretty unergonomic but yeah I agree

 

[ChrisJC]

I don't know if it needs to be quite as expensive as it is (are the redundant sensors really necessary, for example?).

The cost includes quite a few hundred hours at £50 (or more) per hour for a skilled engineer to create the product in the first place. This has to be amortised across the low number of units that will get sold.

The manufacturing cost is a small portion of the sale price!

Chris.

 

[aricooperdavis]

These devices are developed as a hobby rather than as a commercial enterprise, there's just no way they could be priced to recover the costs of development time. That being said, the SAP is an absolute bargain if you look at the BOM cost, there's really very little profit being made on those. The cave-a-tron takes this to an extreme by not even selling the device, but making instructions on how to make your own freely available.