Leica 3D Disto - Repair Help and suggestions - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: kaz911
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2020, 08:27:40 pm
content: Hi,I have a few Leica 3D Disto's (advanced distance measurement devices) and as the name implies - the 3D Disto is specialised for "3D Measurements".In short it is a laser range finder from Leica - with a motion platform. It can be controlled via Leica's Windows software or a "Tablet" (which turned out to be an old Archos Media player in a skin... Not the best choice)....The 3D Disto is actually rather interesting construction. So it can move 360deg + rotate the laser for measurements. It is very precise so it has some pretty well done " stabilisation " built in - to make certain it is level and how the laser is pointing.So I expected some super high end position sensors inside. But was I wrong......The whole system runs on optical systems. For the laser up / down - it shoots lights through a ?Glass ring with markings and those markings are then detected by small photo sensors. I have not worked out exactly how it works but it looks impressive.But the horizontal alignment is done via another set of led's shooting down onto an image sensor (or looks like it) with no plates in between. From that it can determine its tilt...So when it turns on - it starts by doing an initial tilt measurement for the horizontal levelling. Then it spins the base around - and reads a few more "tilt" values. After a while - it completes its tilt measurements and it initialises the rest of the system - and then you are ready to make measurements.So I have one where it will not go through the initial horizontal tilt calibration. It turns on the LED but starts blinking error after that. I have tried another motherboard - and then it works fine. But that motherboard is sadly a "disposed" S/N from Leica so can never be activated with any software.So my quest is - either find a way to transfer the S/N to the working motherboard - of figure out which component is fried on the non-working main board.And measurements are a bit tricky as it is a moving platform with lots of very small SMDs on.Here is how I think it is put together:1. Main processor - has USB/Com's interface is a TI TMS320 Media Processor - it is connected to the horizontal tilt image sensor via flex and a bus-transceiver / level shifter (SN74AVC16T245) . The TMS has 4Gbit external flash and and external RAM.The Laser have a built in low res camera as well for "remembering" where you shot the laser. So that probably feeds into the TMS320 as well via another flex cable. I know nothing about TMS320's...2. There are 2 STM32's - but I think they are only used for controlling the motors - and "maybe" the Laser up down measurements.More to follow.. Incl. pictures if anyone are interested.So should I try for kicks to just try and move the flash memory chip and see if that carries the S/N? that is probably the easiest to desolder - as the TMS320 is NFBGA and the transceiver is BGA as well and I got 10 thumbs when it comes to BGA repair.Going the hard way and find a way to modify the S/N could maybe be done but it would probably take ages if it is stored in the TMS320.So any creative suggestions?

author: rolox
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 05:50:14 pm
content: Hi kaz911,I interesting about 3d Disto teardown.Have You photos or additional infos?Thank You in advance.

author: Prejoin
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 05, 2025, 07:28:27 am
content: Hello,I have a broken 3d Disto which is just out of warranty and Leica won't offer any support. Did you have any success fixing this one? and if so would you mind sending me some details of how you managed it?Thank you.