I am opening a discussion concerning the use of a satellite based source of RTK corrections. Specifically, Point Perfect. It is a pre pay subscription source of rtk corrections that comes from the satellites in much the same way the GPS signal comes. No internet is required in the field. No radio base either. I’m neither selling it or pushing it. Just wondering the level of desire for it. My initial thoughts is that if my dad can simply plug in one gps and it is automatically corrected then it would be worth the subscription. But want to know what the community thinks.
Ublox sales and tech please feel free to offer your advice and what you offer here. Let’s find out what the pros and cons are of this solution.
The free trial service is the Internet version of PP. The GPS receiver will need Internet access somehow. A 4G daughter card, WiFI, etc. The L-Band reception version requires a receiver daughter card. Ardusimple lists it for $143 but one has to contact them to order it.
Does the F9P request the key? The AgIO can be changed easy enough to send a key. Does the user get updated keys automatic or would AgIO be able to send a GET request when it has internet. And if the intended use is without internet, can the user get the key from the satellite service?
I have this working now and it’s pretty sweet. One RTK2B board plus the D9S and L-band compatible antenna. Took a bit of head scratching to work out the procedure as I was passed various manuals to read, but it’s actually pretty simple.
Happy to write up a full procedure for this.
I’m out in the field with a bunch of archaeologists testing it out and am getting an RTK fix in about a minute, then around 3CM precision (I believe, this is being tested).
The beauty of this system is that no base is required which means that half way through a job, you don’t lose RTK (NTRIP) if your neighbourhood suffers a loss of power. It also means that only one board plus antenna is required which saves the cost of a second board and antenna. No range limitations, no loss of precision over long distances, no base station security issues, no settling down (survey-in) delays, no radio base station fiddling.
Configure it once, fire it up and you’re working in a minute.
There is a drawback with satellite based corrections. These corrections come from a geo-stationary satellite and if the fields are a bit far from the equator, the signal may well be lost from any limited view towards the Southern sky. Very different from the loss of GNSS satellite visibility where a hill in one direction does not matter much if other directions have reasonable visibility.
Pricing usually is not competitive at all with a private RTK base. I got a bit lost with the $0.25 per month plan, how useful is 500 messages per month per device?