DiscoX Introduction

Where the DiscoX came from, and how it grew out of the SAP6 cave survey project.

The DiscoX project started in 2021, following Leica's decision to stop manufacturing the DistoX. It grew out of Phil Underwood's SAP6 cave survey project, which democratised the production of cave survey equipment — making it easy for anyone to build their own device.

The DiscoX is still an open-source project, but with less of a focus on making the device cheap and easy to build, and more of a focus on quality and robustness, with manufacturing mostly outsourced to professional parts fabricators. The result is a purpose-built, reliable device capable of grade 5 surveying.

Final assembly takes place in the UK, and devices can be shipped worldwide. I'm currently only releasing small pre-ordered batches every few weeks, but if the project is successful I should be able to increase production capacity to fulfil more orders.