This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
This is more my style, of DIY:
However, if I were a GPS mfgr, I'd think mighty hard about hireing you. You can do stuff. And, that is cool.
Nate
my system is fully autonomous, that green pcb bellow antenna holds my system and the gps part as well. my system heart is this processor, I developed a firmware for it, and it controls gps part of the board, and stores raw data to the MicroSD memory card.
my board transmits also raw data, at the same time, via bluetooth, so the data can be received by a pc with bt or a datacollector with bt. this is my next stem to write a stop-and-go datacollection software for a datacollector (Java or Mindows Mobile application)
If I am able to conwert raw dato into RTCM format and transmit them via bt than my receiver can be used for L1 open source RTK, I purchased RTCM manual.., but I almost run out of RAM memory..so it might not happen for this pcb version.
:), I lowed that TV show when I was living/surveying in Canada 🙂
Excellent! You definitively have a passion and an understanding of GPS technology. In regards of your business, an interesting branch maybe to considered offering repair services to legacy equipment.
I could see surveyors using this type of service to extend life of survey equipment if they were aware of such available resource. One more shot at life for the equipment after the dealers/manufacturers have moved on to newer models.
Here in the North, Buffalo Airways operates a successful aviation business with a fleet of old planes built decades ago. Their business approach is based on long term commitment to quality and care. Such a success story, they made a TV show (Ice Pilots NWT). In general, surveyors take very good care of their equipment.
It could be a very simple approach: you send it my way, if I can fix, I tell you, if I can't, I keep the unit, that's the deal. Costumers would have to take only one gamble: one way shipping costs to your service shop. Many surveyors would probably gladly donate the unit to help your business at that time anyway. Example: A customer has an old 4000 or 299 GPS that stopped functioning. Dealer says "we don't service those anymore". Customer sends the unit your way for a final service check. Can't be fixed? Keep the parts for someone else. Can be fixed, right on!
The trade in deals by the manufacturers would not be a road block, since they require units to be in working condition as part of conditions. Take Leica for example: The terms of the program are simple: All traded-in equipment must be less than 12 years old and in working condition; and all trade-ins must be received within 30 days of ordering a new Viva GNSS RTK Rover System.
Again, congrats on your work.
... that is a very good idea, but I do not have that much of expertise in electronics. I could connect a gps core of Leica (etc.) unit to my oscilloscope and check if it is breathing (outputting any binary messages, or responding to a query messages if I know query messages and able to send them) but even if it is alive - how to restore the rest of the system I think I would not be able to figure out for sure.
I am not an electronics guy, I am a surveyor by trade and my knowledge in electronics is very primitive.
Yeah you look ram limited, maybe even cpu limited (10 MIPS, as in bogomips?).
Maybe it would be worth your while to look into using a Android or iPhone as a data collection device. Most of these have bluetooth built in, and more and more people are using smart phones. I am just assuming that a programmer has access to the stack to make whatever type of connection with your receiver's bluetooth that is necessary.
I doubt it is all that hard to come up with the range error corrections and format them into RTCM format (mostly addition and subtraction and following the RTCM formatting I imagine), it's too bad the program won't fit in the receiver's ram. You could of course get around this by simply developing a program to do this on an external device, since you are apparently already capable of streaming raw data over the bluetooth serial link already. For the RTCM stream to be useful, it would need to be hooked and streamed through some sort of external device anyways, since I doubt a bluetooth radio link will have the range to do very much with.
I was thinking about android based systems and iphone, but they have to withstand harsh weather conditions, withstand the use by a wet muddy and sandy glove. To me, the best datacollector I have used was TSC2. but it is more expensive than my system 🙂
I an still searching for the most optimal collector.
RTK: my receiver' bluetooth has serial port service, I was thinking about Tablet PC running opes source RTK libs, getting rover stream of RTCM messages from my receiver via bluetooth and the virtual base RTCM stream would be coming from an RTK VRS Netwok. When the RTK lib has both steams, base and rover it can calculate accurate positions in relation to the base. But that would not be practical at all carrying a tablet pc in bush or construction site, etc, bad weather condition would limit such use even more.
I am thinking a Recon would be a good choice.