Warning: PPL is Offline Continuing to struggle with Woods, and RTK Torch Configuration

GPS/GNSS
1

I searched for “PPL is offline” but didn’t find anything.

I continue to struggle to get an RTK Torch configuration that will work on my woods, where not only are the woods deep, the Cell Signal isn’t always the greatest….

Spent 3 hours Saturday at the top of the ridge, so less mountain in the way of satellite signal. And I could get e-mail on my phone so I believe data signal was working.

My configuration is SparkFun RTK Torch, connected to Android Tablet via Bluetooth for SW MAPS. RTK Torch connected over Wifi to iPhone HotSpot to get PointPerfect corrections. It was getting corrections from what I was seeing via serial port.

I could not get RTK Fix no matter what configuration tweak I tried.

And watching serial port for messages noticed this below:

Warning: PPL is offline.

The PUSHING statements would have varying byte sizes around xxx= 607, 177, 304, 152

Pushing xxx bytes from pp/ip/LAxxxxxxxxxx/N35 topic to PPL for UM980

Warning:PPL is offline

And I have occasionally seen an error
UM980 Rover failed to configure Rover config failed

but didn’t think I saw it this Saturday….. What does PPL is offline mean and did I just need to reboot to fix (which I failed to try ;( – stupid of me for sure….

ChatGPT says… this may actually be a known problem in firmware 2.2 ??
But Sarah Connor said not to trust it……

is there a Serial port command to restart PPL in the field or just need to get lucky and reboot until there isn’t an error?

And I didn’t read in Release Candidate 2.3RC that it was going to do anything about PPL Offline error?

2

And I tried updating UM980 to latest firmware from (build 17548)

and now I don’t get a version of UM980 displayed and now I can consistently get UM980 Rover failed to Configure and Warning: PPL is offline message

I’ve rebooted multiple times and now PPL is offline all the time, and UM980 won’t configure..

see Startup/Bootup messaged below

AC:15:18:92:7C:C0 - wifiMACAddress
AC:15:18:92:7C:C2 - btMACAddress
AC:15:18:92:7C:C3 - ethernetMACAddress
LittleFS Started
Using profile #0
PSRAM Size (bytes): 2097152
I2C Devices:
0x08 - HUSB238 Power Delivery Sink Controller
0x0B - BQ40Z50 Battery Pack Manager / Fuel gauge
0x5C - MP27692A Power Management / Charger
0x60 - ATECC608A Cryptographic Coprocessor

SparkFun RTK Torch v2.2

GNSS UM980 online
Profile ‘PPerfectTiltOFF’ loaded
Fuel gauge configuration complete
Charger configuration complete
UM980 configuration maintained
No GNSS date/time available for system RTC.
UM980 Rover failed to configure
Rover config failed

I am going to put version 11833 back on….

3

Replaced firmware to 11833 and the errors for PPL Offline and UM980 Rover failed to Configure went way… but Version of UM980 does not show version on boot up, so not sure what version is really running

AC:15:18:92:7C:C0 - wifiMACAddress
AC:15:18:92:7C:C2 - btMACAddress
AC:15:18:92:7C:C3 - ethernetMACAddress
LittleFS Started
Using profile #0
PSRAM Size (bytes): 2097152
I2C Devices:
0x08 - HUSB238 Power Delivery Sink Controller
0x0B - BQ40Z50 Battery Pack Manager / Fuel gauge
0x5C - MP27692A Power Management / Charger
0x60 - ATECC608A Cryptographic Coprocessor

SparkFun RTK Torch v2.2

GNSS UM980 online
Profile ‘PPerfectTiltOFF’ loaded
Fuel gauge configuration complete
Charger configuration complete
UM980 configuration maintained
No GNSS date/time available for system RTC.
Bluetooth SPP and BLE broadcasting as: Torch Rover-7CC2
STATE_ROVER_NOT_STARTED → STATE_ROVER_NO_FIX
Rover Accuracy (m): 0.000, SIV: 0 GNSS State: No Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 0.000, SIV: 0 GNSS State: No Fix
WiFi station state: WIFI_STATION_STATE_OFF, No consumers
MQTT Client state: MQTT_CLIENT_OFF, MQTT not enabled!
MQTT Client subscribe topics:
MQTT Client subscribed topics:
Network: Offline
WiFi Soft AP: Offline
Correction Source: None
Rover Accuracy (m): 0.000, SIV: 0 GNSS State: No Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 0.000, SIV: 0 GNSS State: No Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 0.000, SIV: 0 GNSS State: No Fix

This seems better….

Pushing 157 bytes from pp/ip/L4N3xxxxxx topic to PPL for UM980
Rover Accuracy (m): 3.449, SIV: 12 GNSS State: 3D Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 3.339, SIV: 13 GNSS State: 3D Fix
Pushing 157 bytes from pp/ip/L4N3xxxxxxxxx topic to PPL for UM980
Rover Accuracy (m): 3.956, SIV: 14 GNSS State: 3D Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 4.285, SIV: 14 GNSS State: 3D Fix
Rover Accuracy (m): 3.900, SIV: 14 GNSS State: 3D Fix
Pushing 157 bytes from pp/ip/L4N3xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx topic to PPL for UM980

Two cold reboots and no errors… and push to PPL for UM980 successful

I will test at house Monday (Oct 6, 2025) - raining… Tuesday….