I’m interested in getting one of the facet units. I do underground and overhead communication construction in mostly rural areas. I’m new to RTK and am not sure I’m grasping all the different methods of gaining a fix completely. It seems like using the SWMaps app is one way of getting an accurate fix, but if I’m understanding correctly you (obviously) need internet access and the part I’m more confused about is does the NTRIP station need to be local as well? There are no public stations within 50 miles of me in any direction as far as I can tell (I may be wrong there too.) On top of that, a lot of the places I go to are so rural there’s no cell service. So it seems like relying on free/public NTRIP based corrections may not even be an option for me. Am I correct about that?
It seems like I probably need an L-band unit but I didn’t want to spend extra money if I’m just misunderstanding something.
Without a nearby station you’d need to either get the L-Band (all-in-one device), or get 2 RTK devices and use one as a base (survey-in to achieve highest accuracy; this would then provide the correction data) and one as a rover
I am just looking for some support. Nobody at Sparkfun answers web forms request, or emails. I added a couple forum topics begging for help only to get my post deleted.
@jothite - There’s some good info here: https://www.sparkfun.com/rtk#use-cases Survey-in does not require cellular service, but without it you would need a radio to connect the base to the radio. If you’re really remote, and want easy, the L-Band (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/20000) is a good unit for coverage all over US 48 states. No base required, no cell or WiFi required, no radio required.
@suhlir - I’m sorry to hear that! I see that you just created your account today. Please consider posting your question in a new topic to the forums and we’ll get you helped out.
@suhlir - None of your posts were deleted. Because you are a new user, your posts required moderator approval. We use this method for spam control as it’s one of the most effective ways to keep spam out of the regular users’ eyes. Sometimes it takes a little time for us to approve them because not all of us are Sparkfun employees and we have our own jobs that get busy. Now that you have an approved post, your future ones will not be automatically moderated. I did delete your triplicate posts however.
Thanks. I think I just have one more curiosity. Forgive my ignorance if it’s just not a thing that matters to anyone, but what is the vertical accuracy like on these things? And is it more of a relative reading, or an absolute (ASL) reading?
what is the vertical accuracy like on these things?
Depends on the mode you are in. In RTK Fix, the vertical accuracy is slightly worse than horizontal, but still in the centimeter range. With a good base station, vertical can be down under 20mm.
And is it more of a relative reading, or an absolute (ASL) reading?
The rover’s accuracy is relative to the base. If the base station providing corrections is accurately pinned, your readings will be accurate. If your base is a temporary base, or is incorrectly pinned 1.0m in the X direction, then all the rover’s reading will be 1.0m + (+/-)10mm in the X direction.