Request on total station equipment

It depends on you. If you are used to recording info with a manual theodolite or transit and a tape measure, practically anything will be an improvement.

I will help you as far as in me lies.

My background is in history and archaeology, and I've worked with a good experienced archaeologist surveying some historic sites with a total station and semi-total station, so I have some familiarity the kind of attributes you deal with. It all depends on how much you want to spend money and how detailed you want the finished product to be. That means how many shots you need to take in a given time period.

I would suggest a good used South Total station to begin with, maybe coupled with data collection software to start out with... Don’t worry it will be well.