RTK for $800?

How will this create more work?

There was a similar thread on this "spilling the beans on RTK GNSS" I believe.
BUILD IT AND WE WILL BUY
I recently purchased a base and rover for less then $13,000, less then half of what I paid for a used pair of brand name units 10 years ago. The future looks good for low cost GPS

I wonder if these units will communicate with industry standard software like survce and survey pro?

Brilliant price but limited use if not able to be used with everyday interfaces.

I use gnss. Sometimes rtk, often static. Like most surveyors, I am aware of their limitations without understanding the science. I can use a digital camera but I have no idea how it works. I wonder with these new units, how they compare to the main players? Fence technology etc.

Mike Lyon, post: 426146, member: 12695 wrote: How will this create more work?

Fixing the mistakes that non-surveyors make using gps

I might buy one, but would not trust it. First off it is L1 only, so I consider that at that price it is still a worthwhile receiver. Precision for RTK is stated as 25mm +, which is 0.08'. For what I would use I for 0.1' is acceptable. It says it uses SBAS, but if it cannot do L1 ranging from SBAS that precision might be exaggerated.

So what would I use it for. I typically use at least 1 L1/L2 for control and several L1 only receivers for tying in other traverse points. I believe this would be ideal to mount on the top of a robotic pole. With that I could rather accurately search for corner markers and would also be able to record coordinates to bolster my robotic calculations. Just doing L1 static with it makes the price a bargain, but to do RTK there will be other tools to invest in to support it.

L1 RTK has been around for many years, but it is not L1/L2 RTK. It will be somewhat closer with a second constellation and soon the 3rd and 4th will be satisfying. for what it actually is, it is a worthwhile investment.

At 32 oz. it is OK as a drone payload. This I will study more.

Paul in PA

I would be extremely suspect at this pricing, both for accuracy and the ruggedness of the unit.
It would be great if this unit performs well but the down side is that it affordable to the novice that is not trained and has no clue what the limits and capabilities of RTK are.
The layperson doesn't understand the accuracy, methodology, planning and behind the scenes processing. To this day people still think they can download a GPS app and get precise location and elevation information. Garbage in, garbage out!

25mm horiz. and probably 50-75mm vertically, that's not a unit I would want.

From what I have heard from a rep who has been following this company, they are crowd sourced. I have heard that as a result it can take up to a year to take delivery of items. This may or may not be the case but would be worth investigating if investing that sort of money.

I've seen several of these startups the past year or two, they're popping up everywhere... then going out of business just as quickly as they appeared.

It seems that none of them really understand where the reliability and desirability of a good system come from; most of them are L1 only, with some open source RTK engine that no one has any field experience or proof of reliability with. Many that I've seen rely solely on Android apps, and don't interface with common field programs/controllers.

There's a high bar set to break into the market, and for good reason. No one wants to trust something that's completely unproven and has no real assurance that the company will even be around in 6 months or a year.

Add to that the fact that you have no authorized dealers or service centers, and your only repair option is to send a unit back to the manufacturer and be subject to their backlog of service orders, and it's a no-brainer.

I would avoid any of the small startup companies trying to develop an RTK system for 1/10th the cost of everyone else. There is a reason systems from the big name players cost what they do. It takes million of dollars in R&D and a team of engineers that have been in this industry for years, each with their own specializations of GNSS chip design, RTK processing, antenna design, radio communications, firmware development, geodesy etc. to build an RTK system from scratch. The idea that some startup company with no experience in these field can hire a couple of kids out of college and develop a good RTK system from scratch is laughable to people with knowledge of this industry.