Spark RTK Torch won't go into WiFi configuration

GPS/GNSS SparkPNT / Consumer Products
1

I’m getting a little frustrated trying to connect to my new Torch. Bluetooth works fine in SW Maps. The problem is trying to get into RTK Config. I’ve been able to connect successfully via WiFi on my iPhone, once. It took a bazillion tries to get the Torch to go into Wifi mode. Now I wanted to check and see if my changes stuck (I made two changes - order of priority for checking RTK method and I checked the box for Auto Key Renewal), and I can’t get the Torch to go back into WiFi mode.

I have a Mac laptop, an iPhone and an Android tablet and I’ve tried them all using the USB-C cable, but I can’t figure out how to access the RTK Config that way.

After power up on the Torch, I click the power button twice and the Torch beeps twice. But the RTK Config network won’t show up on any of my devices. I’ve tried successive pushes, and powering down and back up, but the network won’t show up. I get simplicity, but there is no indication on the Torch that I can see, to tell me what mode it’s in.

Is this device defective? Shouldn’t be this finicky.

Thanks,

Erik

2

I haven’t used WiFi Config mode in a long time on my Torch, so I just tried it.

My Torch is running V2.2

My windows PC didn’t find the RTK Config SSID, even after turning WiFi On/OFF on the PC a few times. My iPhone did connect to the RTK Config XXXX successfully, and so did a few Android tablets. Eventually, the RTK SSID did appear on my PC.

It sounds to me that you’re doing everything correctly.
I power up the Torch and wait about 30 seconds before double clicking (& get 2 beeps for confirmation).

FWIW, I much prefer using a Terminal for a serial connection to adjust any settings. That might be your next path to reset to factory defaults, if you can’t get connected via WiFi.

3

I wish I could use the serial interface. I don’t own a windows machine. I can’t find any instructions for connecting via USB to either my iPhone or the Android tablet. The instructions on the Spark website assumes a windows machine. Still can’t get the Torch’s SSID to appear again.

4

For Android Tablet I use Serial USB Terminal .

115200 Baud Rate, connect to Port 2, send +++ [Edit: press any key] and you should see the Config Menu in the Terminal. It’s not required- but once you setup your favorite HotKeys…making config changes goes very fast.

There is a similar app for Bluetooth connection, but IIRC a few config settings cant be accomplished when connected via Bluetooth.

5

Ok, I downloaded Serial USB Terminal, and with that, discovered that the cable Sparkfun sent only charges. I couldn’t get it to connect to terminal after numerous unplugging and plugging. I swapped it for another USB-C cable and it connected right away.

The serial connection is clunky, but I was able to navigate the menus and confirmed my settings stuck from the one time I could connect via WiFi. I tried putting in the SSID and password to my network, but it wouldn’t connect, so I just took it out. Hopefully once I connect the tablet to my phone via wifi and the torch to the tablet via bluetooth, the torch will be able to obtain the Point Perfect IP corrections. One thing at a time.

The Torch I received has firmware v. 2.1. I’m not sure how to update it on the tablet. Maybe 2.1 is fine, or maybe that’s why the wifi interface is flaky. Not sure.

Thanks. This got me much further along. Once my Point Perfect subscription starts, I’ll be able to see if the horizontal accuracy comes down from 4.5 feet.

Erik

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6

FWIW, I much prefer PointPerfect NTRIP (OSR not SSR for most situations) instead of IP delivery.
An iPhone (with data collection app handling the NTRIP) connected to any SparkFun RTK is my SOP.

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7

Well, I’m not really sure what kind of data I’m getting at his point, but I see SparkFun turned on PointPerfect and after about 10 minutes over my first point I was getting 3.5” horizontal accuracy according to SW Maps. I have the Torch connected via bluetooth to my android tablet and the tablet connected via wifi to my iPhone. I gave up on trying to get the Torch to connect via wifi. It stayed in a loop trying to connect first to my iPhone and then my home wifi (both were in range) and it failed to get an IP address and disconnected. I guess I’ll worry about upgrading the firmware another day. Thanks for your help.

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8

Sorry for that! The cable is designed for both data and power. When I discover a power-only cable I cut it in half.

You’re using v2.1 of the firmware which only support the now deprecated MQTT corrections. They work, but as @rftop points out, they are not as good as NTRIP. If you’re willing to update the firmware to v2.2 (docs are here), and then contact us with your device ID, we’ll get you switched over the NTRIP based corrections. You’ll find that you’ll achieve RTK Fix within seconds instead of minutes (they are that much better).

The Torch can connect to any 2.4GHz wifi network. Your home router should handle this without issue but an iPhone likely needs to enable the ‘Maximize Compatibility’ setting turned on.

9

Point of Clarification: @sparky, I’m fairly confident that all the Sparkfun RTK products will function properly when sending NTRIP corrections over Bluetooth from various smartphone/tablet apps…no matter what FW version.

I assume you were specifically speaking about the built-in NTRIP Client inside of RTK Everywhere FW, requiring V2.2 for “non-MQTT” ?

Since we have a Bluetooth connection to the GNSS device anyway, that’s always been my preference to push the NTRIP RTCM corrections to the various chipsets (F9P, LG290P, UM980, etc). That’s worked for years on every SF RTK that I own (Surveyor, Express, Facet, Facet-LB, PostCard, Torch,) independent of the FW version when pushing corrections over Bluetooth. I can’t vouch for the Mosaic only because I don’t own one.

This isn’t intended to be argumentative at all, just pointing out what I think is an “Easy Button” for me (let the phone/tablet handle the NTRIP Client over Bluetooth) :grin:

I wanted to recommend the RTK Uploader Tool to @ErikB, but I didn’t know it was available for MacOS until now. It is the slickest way to upgrade for sure!

10

Ah! That’s a really good point. All our RTK firmwares and products work with the built-in NTRIP client, or receiving corrections over Bluetooth (for example using SW Map’s NTRIP Client). So v2.1 can be used with PointPerfect NTRIP/RTCM service, we would just need to get @ErikB some new credentials.

Starting in v2.2, we added PointPerfect NTRIP/RTCM into the core RTK Everywhere firmware so that a user can automatically request and receive the NTRIP credentials. This makes it so a user doesn’t have to fiddle with entering awkward and randomized user names and PW into SW Maps or other NTRIP Clients. They do however have to enter WiFi credentials. So it’s really six of one, 1/2 dozen of the other.

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11

I would like to update the firmware to 2.2. I’ll see how that goes tonight. I only have Mac computers, an iPhone and an android tablet.

I went out this morning to start on my project at a local park. I was not able to get any RTK fixes. Only DGPS. Accuracy was between 1.2 and 1.5 feet for 15 points I captured. It took an average of 15 minutes to get a fix for each point. At that rate it will take months to get another 600 points or so.

1.2 feet isn’t what I’d hoped for, but will work. I would like to try and switch over to NTRIP, especially if it’s seconds. Got a little chilly standing around waiting for a fix.

Erik

12

It really is seconds for all the areas I’ve been…the key is to swap to a PP FLEX RTCM Plan (which is OSR). Enter the NTRIP credentials into SW Maps once, and never look back :slight_smile:

13

Ok, I’ve tried multiple times to update the firmware via the GUI 1.7 tool, with no joy. I’ve tried both the 2.2 bin and the 2.3 RC bin. Neither did anything, yet I didn’t see any error messages either. See below:

Detecting flash size

______________________________________________________________________

ESP32 Flash Size Detection

Command: [‘–chip’, ‘esp32’, ‘–port’, ‘/dev/tty.TorchRover-A916’, ‘–before’, ‘default_reset’, ‘–after’, ‘no_reset’, ‘flash_id’]

esptool.py v4.8.1

Serial port /dev/tty.TorchRover-A916

Connecting…

Flash detection complete. Uploading firmware…

Flash size not detected! Defaulting to 16MB

RTK Everywhere Firmware detected. Using RTK_Everywhere.ino.bootloader.bin

Uploading firmware

______________________________________________________________________

ESP32 Firmware Upload

Command: [‘–chip’, ‘esp32’, ‘–port’, ‘/dev/tty.TorchRover-A916’, ‘–baud’, ‘460800’, ‘–before’, ‘default_reset’, ‘–after’, ‘no_reset’, ‘write_flash’, ‘-z’, ‘–flash_mode’, ‘dio’, ‘–flash_freq’, ‘80m’, ‘–flash_size’, ‘detect’, ‘0x1000’, ‘/Applications/RTKUploader.app/Contents/Frameworks/resource/RTK_Everywhere.ino.bootloader.bin’, ‘0x8000’, ‘/Applications/RTKUploader.app/Contents/Frameworks/resource/RTK_Surveyor_Partitions_16MB.bin’, ‘0xe000’, ‘/Applications/RTKUploader.app/Contents/Frameworks/resource/boot_app0.bin’, ‘0x10000’, ‘/Users/erikberg/Downloads/RTK_Everywhere_Firmware_v2_2.bin’]

esptool.py v4.8.1

Serial port /dev/tty.TorchRover-A916

Connecting…

Firmware upload complete. Resetting ESP32…

Resetting ESP32

______________________________________________________________________

ESP32 Reset

Command: [‘–chip’, ‘esp32’, ‘–port’, ‘/dev/tty.TorchRover-A916’, ‘–before’, ‘default_reset’, ‘run’]

esptool.py v4.8.1

Serial port /dev/tty.TorchRover-A916

Connecting…

Reset complete…

I’ve also not been able to get this thing to connect to any of my Wifi access point options. I use a Ubiquiti system at home and I’ve also tried my iPhone personal hotspot. When I watch on the Serial Terminal app on my tablet, I see it attempt to connect to my wifi network, but then 0.0.0 is returned for an IP and it disconnects. My APs broadcast both on 2.4 and 5 Ghz. So I’m also not able to get the Torch to update itself.

One last observation is that while watching the message traffic, I see a message that my device hasn’t been whitelisted, so I assume that is when it tries to retrieve the correction data, but I don’t know.

Erik

14

One other thing I forgot to add. I’ve tried double clicking the Torch power button to get it to broadcast wifi network so I can log in that way (I still don’t know if a slow blink means wifi or bluetooth, but I’ve tried both).

15

On the Torch, make sure to select Serial B for updating the FW.

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16

I’m not using Windows, so those are not my options:

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17

Ok, this ended up being way more complicated. I had to set up my MacBook Pro as a bridge. I hardwired my Mac to the internet via a cable and then connected to the Torch via wifi from my Mac. This allowed me to use the RTK Config webpage to check for updates (the upload bin never worked). I still had to do the check for update twice, as the Torch did not update after the first try. After second attempt, the Torch successfully updated to 2.2, but even checking allow Beta, it won’t update to the Oct 15 release candidate, so I’ll leave it at 2.2.

What do I need to do to use NTRIP now? Is that going to cost more than the $15 a month subscription?

Erik

18

NTRIP works with any corrections network, free or other. Check if your state has a free network. If not, let me know your device ID and I’ll get you setup with an account (via DM) for a free test-month, then yes it’s $15/month.