Universities and teaching programs

This page is written for the person who will actually run the instrument, not for a procurement portal. If you are a faculty member trying to work out what a teaching lab costs, what your grant will and will not pay for, and how long the paperwork takes, that is what is below. Numbers, not brochure language.

Three things worth knowing before you read further

• We do not offer an educational discount, and we would rather say so on the page than have you ask and be disappointed. Our pricing is the same for everyone. What you get instead is the paperwork handled properly and someone who will specify the job with you.
• Emlid runs its own education program. It is Emlid's to offer, not ours, and we will point you at it rather than pretend it is a concession we arranged.
• If you are spending federal grant money on drones, read the compliance section. The rules changed on 22 December 2025 and they now reach grant recipients directly.

Federal grant funds and drones

What this does not affect: ground based instruments. GNSS receivers, total stations, theodolites and handheld LiDAR scanners are not unmanned aircraft systems and the restriction does not reach them. A department equipping a surveying lab with receivers and scanners has nothing to work around here.

What it does affect: any aircraft purchase on federal money, and the operation of aircraft you already own under a federal award. The two drones we sell that are on the published cleared list are the Inspired Flight IF800 Tomcat and IF1200A, both built in the United States. The full picture, with the sections cited, is on the government and public agency procurement page, which is written for exactly this problem.

Teaching lab equipment lists, at three budget levels

These are built from instruments we hold as live listings, priced at list, so you can lift a number straight into a budget justification. None of them is a package we invented for the page. Every line links to the product.

Level one, one instrument at the front of the room

The realistic starting point for a program that has no capture capability at all and needs students to have seen a point cloud produced rather than only rendered.

Level two, a working teaching lab

Enough instruments that a class splits into groups and every group measures something, which is the point at which the teaching changes.

Level three, research grade

For a program that has to produce georeferenced deliverables a paper can be written from, rather than teaching artifacts.

How the purchasing actually works

1. Talk to us before the requisition exists. Ideally six to twelve months before, while the equipment line is still being written into a grant budget justification. That is the cheapest point at which to find out that the instrument you specified does not do what the deliverable needs.
2. We quote by the next working day at the latest. Itemized, on Boddie LLC letterhead, with manufacturer part numbers, so the requisition matches the order matches the invoice and nobody in accounts payable has to reconcile three different descriptions.
3. The W-9 and vendor pack arrive attached to the quote. Legal entity, state of formation, remit-to and accepted payment methods. Vendor registration is best done before the order rather than during it, and if your office needs a form completing or a portal registration, send it and we will do it.
4. The quote holds for 90 days. Prices do not move underneath you while it sits in the approval queue. If your cycle runs longer, tell us and we will look at reissuing rather than letting it lapse silently.
5. Send the purchase order to support@mysurveyingdirect.com. We acknowledge it, confirm the order and tell you what happens next.
6. Equipment ships direct from the manufacturer to your receiving dock with tracking, and we invoice against the purchase order on net 30 terms.

Emlid's education program

Emlid runs a global education program offering a discount to students and staff of recognized schools, colleges and universities. It is applied for directly with Emlid, using a form on their site, and they ask for proof of status and a short description of the project. It is a 10 per cent discount at the time of writing.

Two honest notes about it. First, it is Emlid's program, not ours. We are naming it because it exists and it is useful to you, not because we arranged it. Second, it applies to purchases made through Emlid's own channel, so if you take it, you are buying from them rather than from us and you do not get the purchase order handling described above. For a single receiver bought on a departmental card that is often the right call, and we will tell you so. For a lab going through procurement on a purchase order, the paperwork is usually worth more than 10 per cent.

Questions faculty ask us

Can we evaluate an instrument before the committee signs off?

Talk to us about it. Grant funded and committee approved purchases run on a different clock to commercial ones, and a return window designed for a consumer is not fit for a department that needs to field test before a purchasing committee commits. Tell us the constraint and we will tell you honestly what we can do rather than quoting you a policy.

Will you quote against our specification rather than your catalog?

Yes, and this is the part worth using us for. Send the specification and we will tell you which instruments meet it, which do not, and where the specification is asking for something no instrument in that price band actually delivers. That last conversation saves more money than any discount would have.

Our fiscal year ends and we have residual funds. How fast can this move?

Tell us the date you have to obligate by and we will work to it. What we will not do is invent a delivery promise to win the order. We ship direct from the manufacturer, so the honest answer on timing comes from them and we will give you it on the quote before you raise the requisition rather than after.

Who supports it once it is in the building?

Us first. Call and we will tell you whether it is a settings problem, a warranty claim or a repair, and we handle the manufacturer side. See service and support for how that runs.

Do you sell to community colleges and technician programs?

Yes, and the level one and level two lists above are written with those programs as much as with four year departments. A technician program that puts an instrument in every pair of hands teaches more than one that owns a better instrument nobody touches.