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M3E vs M350 RTK for small survey firm - worth the price jump? | DroneSurvey

c/equipment•Posted byu/Mike Hargrove•about 2 months ago

M3E vs M350 RTK for small survey firm - worth the price jump?

Running a 3-person survey crew. We've been using an M3E for about 8 months and it handles 90% of our work just fine. But we're losing bids on larger sites because clients want RTK accuracy.

The M350 RTK is $12k+ with the L2 payload. Is the jump worth it for a small firm doing mostly residential subdivisions and small commercial sites? Or should we just add more GCPs with the M3E?

Anyone made this transition? What was the ROI timeline?

Comments

T. Weston PLS•about 2 months ago

Made this exact transition last year. The M350 pays for itself on large sites where GCP placement eats up half your day. But for residential subdivisions under 10 acres, the M3E with 6-8 GCPs is honestly just as good.

I'd say if you're flying sites over 20 acres regularly, the M350 is a no-brainer. Under that, the math gets tighter.

jess_aero•about 1 month ago

We kept the M3E and invested in a good base station instead. D-RTK 2 mobile station + more GCPs = significantly cheaper than the M350 upgrade and we're hitting 2cm accuracy on checkpoints.

nate_107•about 1 month ago

Following this thread closely. Same boat here in Arizona.