When are you going to change the ad?

Charles Owens

Active Member
The announcement this morning by email.


Is this the new feature hinted at a few weeks ago. Even more reason now to upgrade to plus.
 

Shawn Billings

Shawn Billings
5PLS
This is going to be an amazing feature. Beyond processing in near real time, we're looking at other ways to implement post-processing in J-Field. With multi-constellation data, the Justin engine is proving to be very robust. It was very good before with GPS+Glonass, but what we're seeing now is a full magnitude better.
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
Will RTPK work over any of the radios?
If not, will it work via Bluetooth, after returning to base?
I can see going beyond rtk range, either in a hole, or miles. Then, return to base. Will it work, if I stop and download the base?
Thank you.
Nate
 

Shawn Billings

Shawn Billings
5PLS
Will RTPK work over any of the radios?
If not, will it work via Bluetooth, after returning to base?
I can see going beyond rtk range, either in a hole, or miles. Then, return to base. Will it work, if I stop and download the base?
Thank you.
Nate

That's the direction we're headed with it, Nate. I don't want to get too specific because this aspect of RTPK hasn't been developed yet, but we've had serious discussions about using it for processing points beyond radio range and what that workflow would be.
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
If a return to base is needed, it'd be best if it had another bluetooth capability... That of RTPK without stopping and downloading base to rover. Or, we could end up with a bunch of base stations, for one day work.
So, connect to base, and RTPK, at any time.
Of course, running 2 radio frequencies, simultaneously, comes to mind. But, hey, I'm not from the "technology barn". I'm just a poor in the dirt, surveyor, who daydreams!
Thank you.
Nate
 

Joe Paulin

Well-Known Member
Wow, this is huge, to be able to post process static on the fly, before leaving the point of interest. Can't wait!
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
Ok, from the ad, it also says "4 super engines".
I've been reading. How is this working out for everybody?
I'm wanting to upgrade. Friday, I spent over an hour, on a corner. I finally added the addendum: "for ppk", and stored it. Then, I sat on for about 20 minutes more, and stored it again. I was able 5-6 yrs ago, to shoot this corner with my Topcon legacy e. I had tied it 30 yrs before, with total station.
My job flow was points 1-199, total station.
Points 200-249, legacy e, and rotate to grid brgs, ground coords.
Then Friday, javad, 250-300, and more work, same project. So, I do have some clue as to where things are. But, gps/GLONASS alone is semi lagging. I used to get these crazy shots in 15 minutes, and they would verify +- 0.08' or so. Afternoon doldrums? Poor sat config?
I dunno.
But, it bothers me... There is a competitive system, that a full system costs about 15k that would have shot it. (Or so I'm told)
Anyway, is the upgrade (for just north of 18.5k) worth it?
Anybody using it?
Stories? Thanks!
N
 

Matthew D. Sibole

Well-Known Member
5PLS
I am using the 4 engines and am very happy I made the upgrade. I can also attest to the RTPK performance. I think it is a huge advantage and has saved me time already.
 

Darren Clemons

Well-Known Member
I have been using and testing the rtpk feature since getting my LS plus back about 5 weeks ago and will 2nd Matthew‘s comment that it is an amazing feature.

On every session, once you hit stop (or it completes phase 3), the LS plus immediately gets and downloads the corresponding data from the base and then processes the PPK data and gives you that solution. It is, of course, very time dependent with the longer the session the longer the downloading and subsequent processing time to come up with said solution.

I have been amazed at the quality of the solutions, even in moderate to heavy coverage with as little as 200 to 500 seconds of data.

3C06F4AE-6883-46ED-856A-F08E6B09C6E6.jpeg

In the screenshot above, this point was in what I would call a standard moderate wooded area. The 6 epochs in 213 seconds is shown by the brownish green square. Upon stopping the session, the rtpk processed (In about 4 minutes) and is shown horizontally by the red asterisk and vertically by the solid red line. As you can see, by the scale of my horizontal, the rtpk is no more than 0.03’ different than the rtk. Once you store this point it has BOTH coordinates, just like it has in the past AFTER you Dpos back in the office, but now you have that right on the spot - in real-time!

On much tougher points where you may not get any rtk, you can just stop each session after no more than 300/400 seconds (as of now any longer than that it takes a bit too long to process as the data gets to be too much and, as I’ve said, the results in that time frame are seeming to be remarkably accurate). As soon as the first 4 to 5 minute session is stored, go into points and manually change the coordinates to the PPK solution. Then while on the 2nd session, I put that PPK point number in the Pdelta screen (dist to last will be showing you the incorrect rtk that was stored for that point so you must use pdelta to get the “switched” coordinate. With what I’ve seen so far, with 4 or less 5 minute session, I don’t know of any point anywhere you won’t have either rtk matching one or more of those rtpk solutions or two or more of the rtpk solutions matching themselves.

There‘s quite a bit that still needs tweaked, but this option is truly changing what the LS can do. With the four super engines, there’s way, way less “bad buckets” as most times it starts on the right coordinates right off the bat and never goes to another bucket. With the addition of rtpk, what you really get is TWO shots in one.
7D27CF8C-0656-4A01-B10E-0412309D927E.jpeg

The screenshot above is a validated 3 phase shot (in the woods) which has the blue green square calculated in the center of the 0.089’ horizontal spread of the 130 epochs. After completing, the rtpk automatically downloaded, calculated and shows the rtpk solution (probably took about 2 minutes or less on this 147 seconds of data) within about 0.03’ horizontal and the vertical almost exactly where the rtk has it (we’re never concerned about vertical accuracy on boundary in the woods of course but this is quite amazing to be honest).

On those really tough points where you likely won’t even make it to phase two your screen will look like this:
C869D760-F183-4AEB-848E-6DFB412E5596.jpeg


The “lead group”, of course, is shown on the horizontal side by the square. I stopped this point intentionally as one of the “testing” times of the rtpk. This was in a very tough spot and with only 214 seconds of data, the rtpk came back “appearing” to match my held rtk, indicated by the red asterisk showing up right on top of the square.
Now, another awesome feature of this rtpk is, IF this rtpk had came back and NOT matched all I do is hit “resume” and continue the session a little longer and try again. I did not continue here and the rtk and the rtpk matched within 0.04’!

The challenge up to now is, by far, getting a feel for how long to go before stopping each session and letting the rtpk calculate. That, along with, for us anyway, completely abandoning requiring a minimum of 2 engines in phases 2 & 3 the way we always have with the standard LS. With the 4 super engines, getting 2/4 is much more difficult than the standard LS getting 2/6. The trade off is however that the 1 engine fixes with the Plus are much, much more reliable. There are quite a bit more jump/fail instances, especially trying to validate in phase 3, but again, the fixes come in so much quicker you’ll get right back to phase 2 much quicker than before.

Of note, all of this is still using the pre release version of firmware in the LS plus. There are several things that have been found and are being addressed, I’ve been told, before anything gets to release version. We’ve had major, major issues with anything to do with UHF ever since day 1 with the Plus. These are tremendously massive improvements but they are still somewhat in their infant stage. All issues will certainly get fixed and improved upon as more and more LS plus units get put into circulation.
 
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