I am looking to purchasing CHCnav NX510 SE autosteering for my old Valtra tractors. It looks like a really nice set for easy to set up and with good features like RTK and headland turns.
However then I have a problem with getting RTK. I could get commercial signal for 500€/year but I have been thinking about setting up my own base station. The little I have studied this subject it looks like it could be possible quite cheap with some of these DIY kits since paying 500€ for signal sounds a bit too much for me.
I see that there is many guides but for inexperienced they look all the same. What would be the easiest route of setting up my own base station? My fields are max. 10km from the farm but there is quite a bit of forest and hills surrounding fields, is that something to keep in mind when choosing the right one?
You load and save Ardusimple config for base station.
You have to register base on rtk2go and choose your mountpoint name and password, wait till they reply with email.
Put NTRIP master into Xbee socket and connect it to your home wifi, in NTRIP server configuration write your Mountpoint, password and rtk2go IP:port.
And thats AgOpenGPS RTK base station. 300$~
(you can cheap out with esp32 as ntrip master)
Does CHCnav work with this or needs additional messages as trimble idk.
You choose if you want radio or NTRIP if you have obstacles between
you and base go for NTRIP, that Base that I described is NTRIP so you have 4G internet in tractor like mobile hotspot and AOG tablet will pull from rtk2go corrections.
Idk how much are they used but for 1.5k or less you got AgOpenGPS with Autosteer.
Thank you for your answer. I have been trieng to study this and can you correct me if I’m wrong.
With this kit I can assemble it inside my house and then only need wifi and power connected to it? So it sends location information to rtk2go after configuration. Then I could just run the antenna to the roof and leave other parts of the kit inside?
Closest signal from rtk2go is 60km away, I think this is too far away to get precise location? Or would this already be enough to get better location than only with EGNOS? I’m not planning sowing with autosteer so I would be fine with 10-20cm accuracy.
Some others might have more info about 60 km away but accuracy-wise you would be 10 cm or less. I still think you’re concern might be seen enough common satellites to lock onto rtk, If you have a Rover just try connecting to it and see what it does
My basic understanding would be 1 cm plus 1 mm per kilometer from your base station, so 60 km should be 1 cm + 60 mm. If you could get a lock I wouldn’t survey a road with that but it might work for planting
I am in the same situation. as far as i know you need a rasperry pi or something like that to load data to rtk2go. what might work is the loran radio. but i have no experience with it.
All you need to get rtk data to rtk2go is a receiver like an F9P with an antenna, a ntrip unit, ardusimple has one that plugs right into the f9p, or use an esp and program it from GitHub. Get a sign in or account with rtk2go and follow their info about speeds etc to send data to them,then once you have the f9p and ntrip unit, connect that to the internet. The f9p and ntrip usually are inside with a cable to the antenna that is outside. Once you get the base running, survey it in via the procedure in Ucenter, if you want the base to be more accurate look into the process of getting the survey in post processed to increase accuracy
Why not purchase a base from CHCnav if one is going to purchase their auto-steer system to start with? Too expensive? Then why not go for AOG instead of the CHCnav?
Sorry about being a bit rude but I don’t think CHCnav helps AOG users set up their base or steer systems.
I’m getting their autosteer system for a really good price, half the price of Trimble system with less functions, it is cheap enough that I don’t think it is worth the effort to build AOG system.
This offer doesn’t include the base, it would cost around 1600€ more or 500€ per year for commercial signal so if it is possible to build base station for little over 300€ and just a little studying it seems like a no brainer.
Reality is comercial system are good price now trimble is not only producer.
I can buy chcnav for 5k and get 50% back so thats autosteer for 2.5k with out complex process of building an autosteer aog cost me about 1.5k or more.
Real reson why i went went with DIY is get skills in stuff that I whould never do otherwise , like making PCBs, WAS installation, UDP “NETWORK”, GPS RTK, arduino, esp32, 3d printing parts etc…
In hope that I will start learning programing and opensorce will be better on that level for aditional stuff like section control vario plough…
If someone goal is just to get autosteer I dont think that DIY is best, you need to learn alot of new stuff and if its just to make autosteer not worth it, if its to improve your skills for life 100% worth it.
This is a free world forum, anyone can express their personal opinion (some other parts of the world do not have this luxury). The focus here is AgOpenGPS but even advertisements for competing products is allowed. Biased opinions are not welcome.
I just find it odd if saving €1100 is important for a base but saving €1500 on autosteer is not (one can build AOG autosteer for less than 1.5k. The amount of learning is less for AOG than for an RTK base. Building HW more involved on autosteer compared to a base. Moving to AOG later on when it has plough control etc. sounds odd if money is tight.
I am already with AOG because i wanted to DIY, but as just a farmer I considered other options what is best for me. I am really greatful to brain and others that build free software for us to use but i respect opinions that DIY is more advenced then buying full kit from any company. ( I dont have anything from any company i just refer to my exerience and prices that i was quoted at that time when I was considering what autosteer to get).
About learning it depends at what skill you have for someone its PCB go brr for someone its learning how to solder etc.
If i exclude 3d printer from total cost it was 1.3k for full AOG system which is better than any commercial quoted price by minimum 1.2k. (And basestation on top like @Bwuk ).
With teensy upragades I belive that AOG will be trimble competitor again not with low cost kits. When you compere to that price its really good to go DIY.
For me building full autosteer seems like a big challenge, I could be wrong, haven’t studied the subject enough. I would need really direct guide on how to do it on exact tractor model with parts and install instructions. I have two Valtra/Valmet tractors that aren’t that common compared to bigger brands so I would imagine this makes things little harder. If you know some ready guides to build full autosteer from scratch (hydraulic or wheel with motor) feel free to link them.
On the base station it just looks like I can save that 1100€ with minimal studying and installment job so from my point of view it is quite a lot different compared to building whole autosteer from scratch. I find it hard to believe that learning for autosteer would be less than for RTK base? Since base should be working with basically two components and some settings made through wifi.
I do have have two tractors and a combine so it could be an option to build AOG system in future but for this spring it is easy to buy ready and polished kit.
I am really open minded to hear what more experienced people say about this subject. I am new to this whole autosteer scene so I’m just trying to learn everything I can.
Is there a guide how to get precise coordinates for my base station? I received my simplertk2b and wifi ntrip master today and I’m starting to build base for it.
Thank you for the answers. I managed to install antenna to the roof and get exact location with PPP, it showed that accuracy was 3mm so should be good! I’m also already sending data to rtk2go and am showing on the map so so far so good. Now I’m just waiting autosteer to arrive so I could test the signal.