Machine control, Takeoff and Drone Data Education and News

Quantum's YouTube Pro Series Continues to Grow

It's important to us that our clients are successful with their machine control systems. We regularly add new content...

Quantum Land Design

Pro Series - John Deere 470G SmartGrade Excavator - Virtual Warnings

Learn how to quickly set up and use a virtual limit warning to avoid swinging into traffic or other obstacles.

Quantum Land Design

Pro Series - John Deere 470G SmartGrade Excavator - Key Settings

One of John Deere's Precision Construction Instructors, walks us through important settings on a 470G SmartGrade Excavator.

Quantum Land Design

Pro Series - John Deere 470G SmartGrade Excavator - Automatic Control

One of Deere's Precision Construction Instructors teaches us how to initiate automatic control on a 470G SmartGrade excavator.

Quantum Land Design

Pro Series - John Deere 750L SmartGrade - 2D Basics

One of John Deere's Precision Construction Instructors walks us through the basic functionality of the 2D Smart Grade system.

Quantum Land Design

GPS machine control bulldozer pushing a full blade of dirt on a construction site under a partly cloudy sky.

Pro-Level GPS Machine Control Tips Every Contractor Should Know

Every contractor hits the same GPS machine control growing pains. We pulled tips from Caterpillar, John Deere, Komatsu, and Case -- four things their experts say consistently separate crews that make GPS work from those that don't.

Zach Pieper

GPS Site Control - Keep it Level

It seems simple but, too often, machine control basics like keeping the rover level and stable are overlooked when calibrating GPS to a cons

Zach Pieper

A gravel surface with mixed stone sizes shows a bright orange spray-painted dot marking a point on the ground. Grass borders the edge of the gravel area, and sunlight casts light shadows across the scene.

Ground Control - Principle 4

Ground control points put your drone data in the right location. Check shots are what prove it's actually accurate. Collect them between GCPs, at tie-ins and flowlines, and any critical elevation areas. Any check shot is better than none, and they add almost no time to your field work.

Zach Pieper

Ground Control - Principle 5

ALWAYS, and only, measure in your ground control with a rover that is fully calibrated to the site control for your GPS system.

Zach Pieper

An aerial image of a golf course hole shows a red boundary line outlining the mapped area across fairways, greens, and tree-lined sections. Red points labeled “GCP” are placed around the perimeter and along the corridor, while yellow points labeled “CK” are distributed within the interior for accuracy checks. Sand bunkers, cart paths, and water features are visible throughout the scene.

Ground Control - Principle 3

To start, place a GCP on roughly the highest and lowest spots on your project. Don't worry about...

Zach Pieper

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Featured Posts

Infographic showing 4 GPS site control principles for machine control: use the design engineer's surveyor, surround the site with control points, calibrate to 5 or more points, and trust but verify with daily checks.

Get Your 3D Grading Under Control: 4 Site Control Principles Every GPS Contractor Needs to Know

Poor site control is the number one problem we see from contractors running GPS machine control. Not bad models or broken equipment. Site control, the first step on every single project. We've seen it cost contractors two weeks of production, turn a correct machine control model on a balanced site into a mysterious site export, and force concrete footings to be redone because the control was rotated 2.8 degrees. Every one of those situations was avoidable.

A screenshot from a drone flight planning interface titled “DJI Mavic 3E Flight Planning for Topographic Survey Mapping” shows a mapped area with a green grid overlay and waypoint markers on the left. On the right, advanced settings display sliders for side overlap ratio (80%), frontal overlap ratio (80%), and margin distance. A note emphasizes that 80% overlap provides good photogrammetry results and should not be set below 70% for 3D mapping. A YouTube play button is centered over the image.

Quantum Flight Pack - DJI Mavic 3E Training Hub

If you're running a DJI Mavic 3E on a construction site, this is where to start. These training videos cover flight planning, RTK setup, camera settings, and calibration — everything you need to get clean topo data that works with your GPS machine control system.