Connect to Trimble Base Station

[jf121]

I have yet to get any use out of my RTK unit for my EVOII enterprise and have yet to find straight forward instruction on connecting to NTRIP networks or base stations. Early on, I had success accessing our USACE VRS corrections network, but it failed to improve the accuracy of the x,y,z. Lately, I had received an error stating that the RTK was not ready even though it was connected to the VRS network.

To improve the accuracy, I would like to connect to a base station rather than a VRS network. We have a trimble base station. How do you tell the drone to use the local base station?


Thanks

 

[reynolds8126]

What Trimble base station are you using? We use Trimble's construction receivers. Currently, I have documentation on both the SPS855 and R750 base station.

 

[reynolds8126]

Trimble's software is only programmed for the Trimble receiver to serve as the NTRIP Caster. The Trimble receiver is configured to broadcast the RTCM corrections.

I don't believe the Trimble base can be configured to output the RTCM to a cloud service (e.g. Emlid Caster). The Evo has to receive the RTCM from the Trimble Base.

Communication needs to be established between the Trimble base and the SmartController. Our SPS855 does not broadcast it's own wireless network. Therefore, we connect another device, essentially a battery powered wireless router, to the receiver to provide the wireless network. The Trimble receiver connects to the wireless router over ethernet and the SmartController connects to the router's wireless network.

The R750 broadcasts it's own wireless network, eliminating the need for the router and thereby simplifying this process.

Let me know what you are using. If my documentation may be beneficial, I can upload a copy of the document.

 

[jf121]

What Trimble base station are you using? We use Trimble's construction receivers. Currently, I have documentation on both the SPS855 and R750 base station.

I will get back to you RE: which base station we have when I get back to the office on Monday. Documentation would be very much appreciated.

 

[jf121]

The base we use is a 5700 and we use R6 and R8 rovers currently.

 

[reynolds8126]

The 5700 is an older unit. I have used Trimble's GPS Configurator to interface with other receivers from that time period, primarily to send out NMEA from a rover receiver for hydrographic surveys. I'm not sure, provided you can program the 5700 to output a RTCM v3+ via serial port or Lemo port, how you could receive the broadcast RTCM at the SmartController. I suspect you would need a hardware device that would interface with the 5700 by wire and would broadcast the RTCM over a wireless network. The Trimble bases we use either have a multi-port adapter with a RJ45 network port for network connectivity or they broadcast their own wireless network.

Another option you may want to consider is a third party base receiver. They are not expensive, compared to the Trimble equipment, and seem to work well in this application. Two options I am aware of include Emlid and Robota. Along with our Trimble equipment, we use Robota's RoboDot. I do have documentation on interfacing with the RoboDot and the SmartController.

 

[jf121]

So, lets assume I have a RoboDot. Is it as simple as setting the device on a nail or known point, connecting the drone RTK to it, flying and getting 0.1' accuracy in x,y,z? If so, what is the range of the RoboDot? I would not mind spending 1500$ to just make this thing work and give good results w/o GCPs, which is why I bought the RTK unit in the first place.

 

[Dave Pitman]

The Emlid RS2 or RS2+ works perfectly with the Evo RTK. No experience with RoboDot.

Is it as simple as setting the device on a nail or known point, connecting the drone RTK to it, flying and getting 0.1' accuracy in x,y,z?

If the environment is good for gnss, then yes. Works equally well with DJI RTK drones.

Autel EVO II Enterprise and Reach RS2/RS2+ base integration | Reach RS2/RS2+

This guide shows how to set up Reach RS2/RS2+ as a base for the Autel EVO II Enterprise drone to geotag drone images for further mapping in photogrammetry software.

docs.emlid.com

I use at least 1 GCP when using drone RTK setups. You could target and use your known point for that. But best practice would be to include some Check Points for verification as well.

 

[reynolds8126]

So, lets assume I have a RoboDot. Is it as simple as setting the device on a nail or known point, connecting the drone RTK to it, flying and getting 0.1' accuracy in x,y,z? If so, what is the range of the RoboDot? I would not mind spending 1500$ to just make this thing work and give good results w/o GCPs, which is why I bought the RTK unit in the first place.

See the attached document that walks through the configuration of the RoboDot. I don't know the range of the LoRa radio on the RoboDot. Robota offers a RoboNode that serves as a repeater, but I am not sure the range. Robota should be able to answer those questions.

The Emlid RS2 or RS2+ works perfectly with the Evo RTK. No experience with RoboDot.

If the environment is good for gnss, then yes. Works equally well with DJI RTK drones.

Autel EVO II Enterprise and Reach RS2/RS2+ base integration | Reach RS2/RS2+

This guide shows how to set up Reach RS2/RS2+ as a base for the Autel EVO II Enterprise drone to geotag drone images for further mapping in photogrammetry software.

docs.emlid.com

I use at least 1 GCP when using drone RTK setups. You could target and use your known point for that. But best practice would be to include some Check Points for verification as well.

I also recommend using a combination of GCPs (Ground Control Points) and CPs (Check Points). We have experienced a vertical shift and sometimes horizontal shift in our RTK and PPK processing when using no GCPs. The shift appears to be consistent within each control target used in a single survey but inconsistent between different surveys . Using at least one GCP forces the processed data to the GCP. Post processing with at least one GCP historically has resulted in good checks on all other CPs.

Excerpt from a recent processing report with no GCPs (all 21 points as CPs)

Excerpt from the same processing report with 3 GCPs and 18 CPs

 

[Jasono]

Hello,

I went through unbelievable amount of frustration before finding a solution to a similar problem I had.


If you have a base station it makes absolutely no sense to send anything over the internet. But everyone and everything pushes that.


not I do not use Trimble for a base I use Unlocks setup

What I am doing is using a rfd900x radio broadcasting from my base to another 900x plugged into a laptop

You can then use snip v3 if you have a windows maxhine

Setup a serial stream as input and then you just connect your evo 2 to whatever the laptop ip is

My assumption is that the process would be the same with the Trimble except that you would need to configure the radio to use the same channel spacing, frequency range and network ID of the Trimble Base


I personally use rtklib “str2str” and yccaster now but the configuration was much more difficult

 

[pedals2paddles]

If you have a base station it makes absolutely no sense to send anything over the internet. But everyone and everything pushes that.

Maybe because pushing it over the internet requires about 100 less steps and less jerry rigged custom configured hardware?

 

[Jasono]

I guess to each his own. We fly where the internet isn't available.

 

[pedals2paddles]

I guess to each his own. We fly where the internet isn't available.

Now that is solving a problem and I look at that much differently. Nice!

 

[kbttes]

Trimble's software is only programmed for the Trimble receiver to serve as the NTRIP Caster. The Trimble receiver is configured to broadcast the RTCM corrections.

I don't believe the Trimble base can be configured to output the RTCM to a cloud service (e.g. Emlid Caster). The Evo has to receive the RTCM from the Trimble Base.

Communication needs to be established between the Trimble base and the SmartController. Our SPS855 does not broadcast it's own wireless network. Therefore, we connect another device, essentially a battery powered wireless router, to the receiver to provide the wireless network. The Trimble receiver connects to the wireless router over ethernet and the SmartController connects to the router's wireless network.

The R750 broadcasts it's own wireless network, eliminating the need for the router and thereby simplifying this process.

Let me know what you are using. If my documentation may be beneficial, I can upload a copy of the document.

Hi @reynolds8126,

Would it be possible to share your documentation with me? We have both Trimble 855s and R750s as base stations and recently purchased a DJI M350 RTK Drone.


Thank you!
Katie