Patent ID: 8620587

Claim:
A combination locate and marking apparatus, comprising: an actuation mechanism to control dispensing of a marking material; an actuator to provide an actuation signal to control the actuation mechanism so as to dispense the marking material; at least one receiver antenna to detect a magnetic field from a target object; a mode selector device operable to select a locate mode distinctly from a marking mode for the apparatus and operable to select the marking mode distinctly from the locate mode for the apparatus; a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processor coupled to the actuator, the mode selector device, the memory and the at least one receiver antenna, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processor, the processor is configured to log both locate information and marking information in an electronic record stored on the memory, the locate information relating at least in part to operation of the at least one receiver antenna and the marking information including at least one characteristic of the marking material, wherein the processor logs the locate information and the marking information based on or in response to: at least one characteristic of the magnetic field detected by the at least one receiver antenna when the locate mode is selected by the mode selector device; and the actuation signal provided by the actuator when the marking mode is selected by the mode selector device.