Hello, I am considering some options for a base and rover set up for some stakeout work and mapping. I’m most concerned with relative accuracy between the base and rover, but absolute accuracy of the base station w/in about a foot would be nice. I’d also like to know what sort of vertical accuracy I can expect between the base and rover.
Cell service will not always be available which is why I’m leaning towards a base and rover, I’ll just use the rover with ntrip when I have cell service. I may be working in some conditions with heavy brush and trees but will always have some sort of clear sky view for the base station. I usually don’t need to operate at too great of distances ~500 feet at the most.
I’m considering two TX2s using the ESP-NOW radio for communicatoin, a TX2 and SparkPNT FPL, or two SparkPNT FPLs. If anybody has any insight on what sort of performance I can expect with these set ups it would be appreciated or any concerns I may not be considering. I’ve looked around at the forum and some of the documentation but a lot of this is new to me and I’m still a bit unclear on how well these will work together. Thanks all for any help!
Welcome to the community @moleman !
The form-factor of the TX2 is just plain tough and sturdy. But the LoRa Radio in the FPL is a benefit to some that will operate Base/Rover consistently.
My general advice is to normally recommend trying a Network Rover first…before dealing with a local Base/Rover. There have been countless times where a person tells me they don’t have cellular coverage, and it turns out NTRIP works just fine. NTRIP Data requires much less than voice comms. NTRIP over Cellular works in places you wouldn’t expect to make a voice call.
With that said, you’re not out anything if/when you later decide to upgrade to a 2’nd device for a Base 
You might even decide to try a different model and swap up the Base and Rover duties.
If vertical accuracy for stakeout is highly important, I’d lean slightly towards the larger antenna element in the FP lineup. But the TX2 is extremely rugged. Most users likely wont notice a difference in the antenna elements for “normal” RTK work.
That’s a question that’s impossible to answer. It depends on so many factors, and they change constantly (like environmental, space weather, constellation geometry, etc).
In reality: I don’t stakeout elevations with GNSS generally. Yes, it can be performed successfully, but the workflow (for a true QA/QC) is repetitive. But if you’re OK with walking back through your stakeout points later for a check point, then it’s absolutely viable.
That is very helpful thank you. I will seriously consider starting with just the one unit, I have other methods I can use if I am at a spot with truly no service and can upgrade if I need. If I were to get two units do you have any idea of how badly the EPS radio degrades with trees/brush? A rough idea of what sort of distance I am able to achieve? As far as vertical accuracy goes I’ll be able to take multiple readings and I do have a rotary laser and automatic level that I currently use. Always looking to increase efficiency if possible so I am exploring the capabilities of these units. Thanks again for the input, much appreciated.
@sparky says the ESP-NOW radios perform well at 500’.
I’ve been meaning to test (2) PostCard’s in Base/Rover with the ESP-NOW radios…I just haven’t had time lately. I typically try everything to get NTRIP/Cellular working before going the temporary Base route.