4 ms·

I've just started looking into RTK GPS. My state has a Trimble network that I might use. My application is, weirdly, something a lot like the waypoints of old

I've just started looking into RTK GPS. My state has a Trimble network that I might use. My application is, weirdly, something a lot like the waypoints of old Garmin GPS handhelds for hikers, only more accurate. I need to be able to lay down a series of points as I drive (perhaps around 30 mph or so) to map out a street network. However, as I look around trying to find something I can just drop into my car and pull the data from (SD card? USB port?) later on, I haven't seen all of the RTK goodness trickle down yet into something relatively brain-dead and simple to use for my rather small case. I am definitely seeing kits and modules, and some stuff built into high-end drones, but it hasn't seemed to make its way down to my level yet and I am a little curious as to why (or if I am just not looking in the right place for the right thing).

kbaker 6y ago
Well, $265 (+antenna $60), but I purchased an Emlid Reach M+ [1] for drone RTK experiments, and it has been pretty simple to use... comes with a really nice UI on the device and internal storage in the unit. Also their website has good documentation, which is helpful since there is a lot to learn about how to do RTK. Found a local NTRIP caster (within 10 km, lucky I am in range of a public RTK2go one) and the Reach uses the mobile hotspot on my phone to connect to the caster. After a couple seconds to minutes, it settles down to a 10-12 mm accurate fix in lat, lon, alt, and is kinematic so it maintains the accuracy as I am flying the drone around. It records the whole thing internally, or you can have various output modes like standard NMEA over serial, or bluetooth to your phone. Also, I have used it to record data internally then post-process it for PPK using the county's publically-available RINEX files [2] and Emlid's RTKLIB fork [3]. [1] https://emlid.com/reach/ https://emlid.com/reach/ [2] https://geodesy.noaa.gov/CORS/standard1.shtml https://geodesy.noaa.gov/CORS/standard1.shtml [3] https://docs.emlid.com/reach/common/tutorials/gps-post-processing/ https://docs.emlid.com/reach/common/tutorials/gps-post-proce...

kbaker 6y ago

Well, $265 (+antenna $60), but I purchased an Emlid Reach M+ [1] for drone RTK experiments, and it has been pretty simple to use... comes with a really nice UI on the device and internal storage in the unit. Also their website has good documentation, which is helpful since there is a lot to learn about how to do RTK. Found a local NTRIP caster (within 10 km, lucky I am in range of a public RTK2go one) and the Reach uses the mobile hotspot on my phone to connect to the caster. After a couple seconds to minutes, it settles down to a 10-12 mm accurate fix in lat, lon, alt, and is kinematic so it maintains the accuracy as I am flying the drone around. It records the whole thing internally, or you can have various output modes like standard NMEA over serial, or bluetooth to your phone. Also, I have used it to record data internally then post-process it for PPK using the county's publically-available RINEX files [2] and Emlid's RTKLIB fork [3]. [1] https://emlid.com/reach/ https://emlid.com/reach/ [2] https://geodesy.noaa.gov/CORS/standard1.shtml https://geodesy.noaa.gov/CORS/standard1.shtml [3] https://docs.emlid.com/reach/common/tutorials/gps-post-processing/ https://docs.emlid.com/reach/common/tutorials/gps-post-proce...