Okay, I am trying out Skylark, and having some issues… Couldn’t connect throu SW Maps, even thought i have connected to several RTK2Go NTRIP servers, and a UNAVCO NTRIP server, gotten RTK Fix with them…
I installed uBlox uCenter and was able to connect to the RTK Facet. I confirmed that I have HPG 1.13 and also that differential mode is set to fixed. Like I said, I have gotten a fix from a couple of different NTRIP casters as well. That was just a step of troubleshooting suggested by Swift Nav.
So then I tried logging into the NTRIP client from uCenter. Seems to be connecting. Pulled the log file and it is showing queries. Never changes to FLOAT or FIX thought, only DGNSS.
When I log into the UNAVCO NTRIP caster thru uCenter, I do get it switching to Float due to the Facet being hooked up to my computer inside and sitting in a window.
I tried messing around with a different mount point while connected to the Swift NTRIP server with uCenter and got the Facet to show Float when using the RTK-RTCM31 mount point in uCenter. I thought sweet, I’m getting somewhere! Tried switching to CRS mountpoint and again got to Float!
However, when I go back to using my cellphone and the SW Maps app, neither CRS or RTK-RTCM31 mountpoint go to Float/fix… stays DGPS…
I can’t think of anything. When I used Skylark it was just easy. I used SW Maps + RTK Express (the Facet hardware is basically identical). Connected to Skylark using SW Maps NTRIP client and I had RTK Float, then Fix within a few seconds. It was as if I was near a good, fixed, base station. No sweat.
My only explanation would be some sort of poor reception (as you’ve seen near windows, RTK float sometimes, but fix is impossible), or your distance to a Skylark ‘base’ station is so great that RTK anything is impossible. I put ‘base’ in quotes because most of these services (u-box, skylark, etc) don’t have thousands of physical stations, they are using a few stations then modeling a portion of the ionosphere. Perhaps the Skylark model and your area are just not compatible? Sorry, I can’t be more help.
I reached out to Skylark support and they suggested I update the firmware on the uBlox chip.
Can I do that without affecting the Facet’s firmware? Do I have to wait for a Facet firmware to update the uBlox chip? I don’t want to brick this thing…
RTK Float was only coming when I was connected to my PC. Never even switched to Float when connected to my phone. Using Lefebure Ntrip client on my phone to compare to SWMaps, it just kept timing out on the Skylark server.
I’ll try to do some additional testing today (I need to re-enable my Skylark account). I’m dubious the ZED firmware is the issue. What is your ZED firmware version?
I don’t believe it to be the firmware because I get data transfer from the Skylark NTRIP server when connected thru uCenter. That is just what Skylark told me to try first.
I screwed something up…
I followed the tutorial to update from the 1.13 to the 1.34 firmware. I was having issues at first of uCenter dumping me out of the update due to a missing .dll several others were having on the uBlox forum.
Found and placed the missing .dll.
Now the firmware was ZED F9P processed successfully. Then when connected thru uCenter, I wasn’t able to see as many satellites as before. I remembered about your step of saving the preferences. I went back to update the preferences that I saved and it processed, but said there were conflicts. Still only looks like 10 satellites connected… I’m going to do some real world testing thru my phone and see what happens…
I’d recommend doing a factory reset on everything. That will reset the ZED as well and get it into a known good state.
Skylark is working well for my using Facet + SWMaps + ZED HPG v1.13. I’ve got RTK fix within ~10s. HPA is ~20mm. I’ll write up and add to the RTK manual shortly.
I wonder if you messed up the user/pw for the NTRIP server. That was certainly the case for me. Skylark loves its 16 character random number/letter passwords.
I reset my credentials, and looked through your “How-To”. I realized its not spoken about, but in your screen shots the “Send NMEA GGA to Ntrip Caster” box is checked. I had been leaving this unchecked, and gotten RTK Fix from other sources.
I checked the box and connected, bingo RTK Fix in like 30 seconds. 15-20mm horizontal. Yay!