Epochs, RTK Engines, Etc.

[Aaron S]

I have to finally admit that I may not fully understand what an epoch is. The way I understand it, an epoch is 1 instance of data, resulting in a fixed solution. At 1 Hz, this is 1 fixed solution every second. In beast mode, you get 5 solutions, or 5 "shots" per second. Is this line of thinking correct? If I am shooting in Boundary mode, and the end result is 405 epochs (or whatever), can I say that the resulting coordinate is the statistical result of 405 individual fixed positions? In Trimble equipment, this would be equivalent to their "rapid point", which is a fixed solution using 1 instance of data.

Next up, is the concept of RTK engines. Do other manufacturers only use 1 RTK engine? If the Javad is using 6 (and let's say for the sake of discussion that all 6 are fixed at a given moment), how are these 6 fixed solutions interacting? If I use the Quick Topo preset, and it stores a point, is it really storing 6 points, combined into one? If I have 405 epochs while having 6 fixes the whole time, do I have 405 x 6 (2,430) shots going into that position?

 

[Adam]

I have to finally admit that I may not fully understand what an epoch is. The way I understand it, an epoch is 1 instance of data, resulting in a fixed solution. At 1 Hz, this is 1 fixed solution every second. In beast mode, you get 5 solutions, or 5 "shots" per second. Is this line of thinking correct? If I am shooting in Boundary mode, and the end result is 405 epochs (or whatever), can I say that the resulting coordinate is the statistical result of 405 individual fixed positions? In Trimble equipment, this would be equivalent to their "rapid point", which is a fixed solution using 1 instance of data.

Next up, is the concept of RTK engines. Do other manufacturers only use 1 RTK engine? If the Javad is using 6 (and let's say for the sake of discussion that all 6 are fixed at a given moment), how are these 6 fixed solutions interacting? If I use the Quick Topo preset, and it stores a point, is it really storing 6 points, combined into one? If I have 405 epochs while having 6 fixes the whole time, do I have 405 x 6 (2,430) shots going into that position?

You are correct that an epoch is 1 instance. I rarely pay attention to the epoch counter because time is what matters the most. When we started doing 5 HZ I started paying more attention to the seconds and use time and minimum duration settings in the profiles.

J field will use the number of engines shown in the upper left that looks like this 5/3. This means you have 5 engines fixed and are requiring 3.

 

[Matt Johnson]

Yes most other manufactures only use 1 engine. The solutions of all fixed engines are averaged together. For multiple engines to be fixed simultaneously they must agree within the "RTK Engine 3D Guard" threshold as defined in Advanced Setup > RTK/DGPS.

 

[Aaron S]

Thanks for the responses. So in my first example, the shot consisting of 405 epochs during which it has 6 fixes the whole time, it is the result of 405 shots, each one of those being the average of 6 independent "opinions"? If so, that's truly mind-boggling!

 

[Joe Paulin]

That is why we love the LS and 5hz!!!