4.

9 TESTING THE HORIZONTALITY OF THE COLLIMATION LINE

This Test is also known as the 2 peg test.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether a level instrument has a

fault and is reading too high or too low.

Let us use the following information to Test a Level Instrument.

Set up no. Staff No. Staff reading Distance to Staff

1 A 1,83 30 m
1 B 1,56 30 m
2 A 1,44 2m
2 B 1,20 62 m

Sketch:

1.83 1.56

1.44 1.2
0

Set up B
Set up A
2 2 1
30m 30m
m
Setup 1 in Brown
Setup 2 in Green
NB. Set up 1 is ALWAYS in the middle, halfway between the two pegs.
Set up 2 is always nearer to the point observed first. It can be between the
two points or outside the two points like in this example.
Step 1: Find the exact difference in height between the 2 points.
The true difference is always calculated from the set-up with the instrument in the
middle (Set-up 1) and equidistant from both pegs. This is because the collimation
error increases with distance.
Thus, for equal distances you have equal error and it will cancel out during the
subtraction.
ΔhT = BS1 – FS1
ΔhT =1,83 – 1,56 = 0,27
Step 2: What should the correct staff reading be on staff B from Set-up 2 ?
We now use the true height difference between A and B (0,27) to calculate what the
correct FS- reading on staff B from Set-up 2 should be.
ΔhT = BS2 – FSB
0,27 = 1,44 – FSB → FSB =1,44 – 0,27
Thus FSB = 1,17
This means that if the level has no error the reading at the foresight of the second
set up should read 1,17
BUT our actual reading is 1,20. So, there is a collimation error present in the level
instrument!
Step 3: Express the collimation error in mm/m
You will notice that the actual staff reading at the FS2 of the second set-up is 1,20.
We should have read 1,17 if there was no error.
Therefore we can conclude that there is an error in the instrument.
The error = 1,17 – 1,20 or 1,20 – 1,17 = 0,03 (Ignore the negative sign)
But this error is recorded between the 2 pegs A and B. The total distance between
the two pegs is 60m.
So the error per meter = (0,03 / 60) x 1000 = 0,50 mm/m (We divide the error by the
distance between the pegs and multiply by 1000 to get mm/m)

Step 4: Is this level reading too high or too low?

This is an important question. If the FS observed in set-up 2 is more than the FS
expected then the instrument is reading too high. If the FS observed in set-up 2 is
less than the FS expected then the instrument is reading too low.
FS2=1,20 but FSB = 1,17. Thus FS2>FSB
So we can conclude that this instrument is reading too high!