Hello, I am trying to create a very basic base/rover setup. Here are the steps I went through.
Loaded firmware 3.3 on both devices and reset them to factory spec.
On the base (SparkPNT FPM-T) I did the following from the web config:
Enable lora in radio menu @910mhz
Enabled a fixed point base mode with the precise coordinates of my base.
Saved configuration.
Booted into “base” mode.
On the display we see an RTCM: xx counter that is increasing each second and a lora icon in the header.
On the rover (Original RTK Torch) I did the following from the web config:
Enable lora @910mhz
Enabled “rover mode”
Save config.
Boot into rover mode.
When I use SW maps and connect over bluetooth to the torch, I am not seeing any RTK fix, just regular “single” and “dgps”, so it appears like corrections are not flowing. I’ve not seen definitive guidance to if my setup should even work so I am asking here as a sanity check.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I bought both of these devices in hopes that I would be able to create a base/rover setup that I could use in an offline environment.
Welcome ievolve! I worry that you may have a LoRa firmware version mis-match. The original Torch shipped with v2 firmware, and we had to release a new firmware (v3) for the FP series to be cross compatible so that Torch<->FP communication could occur. Can you check both units and let us know what firmware you have running? Both Torch and FPM-T need to be on LoRa version 3.0.1 or above. Please see this doc for updating the Torch LoRa firmware.
Thanks for this. Is any of this information accessible in the web interface? Or is it only at the terminal?
I have a mac and have been able to connect to the USBC on the FP, but not on the torch. Many of these instructions are windows specific. I am wondering if I will need to break down and buy a windows computer to accomplish this setup?
I connected both devices to WiFi and updated firmware to the latest 3.3 firmware, but I am guessing you are talking about a different Lora specific firmware @sparky ?
To upgrade the LoRa firmware, the Torch / Facet FP needs to be put into a special pass-through mode where STM32CubeProgrammer can communicate directly with the STM32WL55 LoRa chip. Currently, that can only be done through the Serial menus. We are working on over-the-air updates for the LoRa firmware, but that is still some way off.
There are more details about the LoRa firmware here:
STM32CubeProgrammer is available for Mac. Please follow this link for details.
Regarding the FP USBC, it uses a CH342 USB-UART interface chip. Other Mac users have reported driver issues that have been tricky to solve. The most recent discussion is here. That discussion is about uploading custom code onto RTK Postcard, but it uses the same CH342 interface chip as Torch and Facet FP.
I’m batting there, trying to get to the serial menu to update the firmware. I got a windows machine. I can connect to the data port with Putty and Tera Term, and see data streaming across, but the menu does not appear when I press a key (I’ve tried many). Has anyone seen this before?
I should note that the above message pertains specifically to the torch. The SparkPNT FPMT v3.3 I can connect to and get to the serial port just fine. It appears to be running lora firmware 3.0.1 If I can get this torch updated that should help greatly. Alas, it isnt nearly as cut and dried.
Hi Paul. I was able to get a video of the serial behavior for you. I did try a short press several times but not seeing anything happening, and unable to get to the serial menu like on the FPM.
Apologies for the slow reply. I was travelling for a couple of days.
That video is very helpful - thank you.
Let me summarize, based on what I can see in the video:
You have a Torch, running RTK everywhere v3.3 (the latest full release)
The UM980 is running firmware 11833. That’s quite old. It would be nice to upgrade to 17548, once the Torch firmware is behaving itself and you can perform the update.
The firmware starts and you see NMEA messages scrolling in the PuTTY window.
The NMEA messages are ‘empty’ because you’re indoors with no view of the sky.
The NMEA messages are an important clue. You don’t normally see those. I believe that only happens when forwardGnssDataToUsbSerial is true. forwardGnssDataToUsbSerial is set true when the setting enableGnssToUsbSerial is true. enableGnssToUsbSerial defaults to false.
I suspect you might have used the Ports Menu to set “Output GNSS data to USB serial” to enabled?
When forwardGnssDataToUsbSerial is true, pressing a single key in the serial terminal won’t open the menu. Instead you need to send the escape sequence +++ (three consecutive pluses).
Please try hitting +++ in PuTTY. Does the menu then open? If it does, great. Navigate to the Ports Menu (option 4 in the Main Menu), set “Output GNSS data to USB serial” to Disabled. Exit the menus fully (press x twice) to save the change.
I took a gamble and installed the 3.0.1 hex file and the serial menu is now reporting that the torch is indeed on 3.0.1. Now I am hunting for a way to validate that it is indeed working. I have the torch in fixed base mode with some known coordinates that we have dialed in. The FPM is in rover mode. Is there a definitive way to know that corrections are streaming over lora and are being applied?
I have raised lora to the top priority on both base and rover and lora is enabled on both (which both are running 3.0.1 now) SW Maps shows only a DGPS fix (occasionally flipping to "RTK float every once in a while just for a second). Accuracy is still more than 1 meter. I must be doing something wrong?
Please check that you have enabled LoRa on both units:
From the Main Menu, select option “r” to open the Radios Menu (“Configure Radios”)
Please check that the Radios Menu shows “10) LoRa Radio: Enabled”
If it shows Disabled, please type “10” to enable
Please check that both units have the Coordination Frequency set to the same value. 910.000 (MHz) is the default.
Please fully exit the menu (hit x multiple times) to save the changes.
If you are still having problems, please post screenshots of the Radios Menu from both units. Thanks!
We are in the process of updating the LoRa firmware repositories. The new firmware 3.0.1 has its own repo and will run on both Facet FP and Torch. The older 2.0.2 firmware only runs on Torch, and isn’t compatible with 3.0.1. We need to make that clearer for users and make it easier to navigate to the correct firmware…
Everything was enabled and on the same frequency. Oddly we flipped it so the torch was rover and the FPM was base and it worked great! The only other thing we changed on the rover was to disable the E6/HAS in the GNSS config of the rover. Perhaps that had nothing to to with it working, but we are definitely getting 1cm “RTK fixed” signals now. It’s probably what we would prefer, have the torch as rover as it is lighter, smaller, and no external antenna to get damaged. If I can help with any other testing I am happy to do that but right now we are pretty happy to have this set up!
