I bought a Hiper to use on an RTN, and it's been giving me fits. I can get a single baseline solution everywhere I've tried, no problem, so it's not a range/cell reception problem.
In a few places, including my house, I can get VRS or MAC network corrections. If I drive 3 miles away, the network corrections stops working, and the display goes to autonomous. I can't get it work in a network mode (and I've tinker with the settings quite a bit), but I can switch over to single baseline, and it works fine.
I talked to my old boss, who uses the same RTN, and he says his dealer told him not to get a 4G smart phone because it won't work with the RTN ... has anyone else heard of this? It sort of makes sense, since perhaps at my house I'm not getting 4G coverage.
This is with a Hiper Pro/TDS 5.1/Ranger 3 with WiFi/Galaxy S2 (wifi hotspot)/T-Mobile network.
Hmmmm. Just took my phone outside and noticed that I'm not getting 4G at home. Perhaps there is something to this.
I downloaded an APP called "Phone Info" which supposedly lets you turn off 4G and only operate in 3G modes. I tested it at my house (where it always works) and it worked tonight. Tomorrow I'll have to drive to a location where it was not working previously and see if it works now.
Let us know what you find out. I use an Epoch 35 with Survey Pro 5.2 and a Verizon Mifi and the initial fix time is killing me lately, sometimes taking up to 20 or 30 minutes. The Mifi is 3G/ 4G, but is utilizing 4G most of the time in this area. It seems I used to get faster fixes with the old Blackberry, which was 3G, so maybe you're on to something.
> Let us know what you find out. I use an Epoch 35 with Survey Pro 5.2 and a Verizon Mifi and the initial fix time is killing me lately, sometimes taking up to 20 or 30 minutes. The Mifi is 3G/ 4G, but is utilizing 4G most of the time in this area. It seems I used to get faster fixes with the old Blackberry, which was 3G, so maybe you're on to something.
Does your say "Autonomous" for 20-30 minutes, then switch over to "network fixed", or does it go right to "network float", then take 20-30 minutes to switch over to "network fixed"?
I've never let it run for more than 5 or 10 minutes in "Autonomous" before giving up and switching the settings.
BTW, my old boss has a Verizon MiFi, but he had them set it so it only get's 3G data.
this is completely non scientific but I have been using the verizon mifi for a few weeks now with intermittent trouble getting a fixed solution on startup. I have a different setup for a 2nd RTN rover with zero problems using a bluetooth phone. I have been able to get it to work though each time by ending and restarting the survey and it seems that once I have made the connection it is rock-solid. Driving 3 miles after getting a fix will probably cause you trouble because your corrections are for the area 3 miles away..anything over a mile or so and I usually start a new survey just to be sure. This is a 3g/4g device and it is showing that it is working on a 4g signal.
try restarting if you dont fix after a few minutes...I never wait over 3 minutes to fix
No, I never see autonomous, unless I totally loose communications. I will have a good horizon to see satellites, typically tracking 12 to 15, along with 100 percent communications at a low latency and I can't get a fix. It will immediately float at start up steadily calculation the residuals down below a tenth, but drag out a fix solution for 20 plus minutes.
Yeah, I've tried re-boots and re-setting, which has only helped a few times. Like you I didn't have a problem with my old 3G phone utilizing bluetooth tethering, typically getting fixes under 3 minutes or almost instantly. I'm going to try and configure the MiFi to 3G only and see if I can get better results.
let us know the results please.
Pseudo,
There is another possibility. The Hiper lites come with a 1.5 mile operating limit which is unlocked by paying for a code from topcon. I am not sure of the Hipers though. So if you did fix and drive 3 miles away, you would go to autonomous because you have exceeded the 1.5 mile limit. try starting a new survey in the area you are working.
I thought about that, but since it's a Hiper Pro, I don't think it has a range limit. But I have tried starting a new survey in several locations where I can't get VRS or MAC network corrections to work. I have gotten single baseline fixed corrections up to 16 miles in some places, though, which is another reason why I think there is no range limit on this unit.
Mine goes through all the typical set-up, receives the base position, shows a latency of 0-1 seconds, but will never show "float" ... it stays in Autonomous.
We purchased a Verizon 4G MiFi several months ago and had to exchange it for a 3G MiFi because it wouldn't work on the RTN. We bought several 3G MiFi's off eBay for back-ups.
We are using the Verizon Jetpack 4G MiFi and have not experienced any issues at all, even in areas where it hops back and forth from 3G to 4G.
At LSU, we have a 1.0 kilometer limit to our RTN coverage in Louisiana after a subscriber acquires a fixed solution. If you need to go further than that limitation, we require the subscriber to inform us of that need in advance, and they will be provided a DIFFERENT mountpoint. This limitation is to prevent users from (unknowingly) degrading their solutions for zero-length baselines.
Once the one-kilometer limit is exceeded, the user is required to re-initialize.
That's a good point, different mount points can have varying settings. also settings may be different on other RTN's
Problem solved ... hopefully.
I'm pretty sure at this point it was a 4G issue. After turning off access to 4G, I went to three sites today, separated by 10+ miles, and it worked perfectly at all locations. One of the sites is a site I was at yesterday, where it wasn't working. I turned it on, and it went from Autonomous, to float, to fixed in 20 seconds. I spent about an hour there yesterday without even getting to float.
Problem solved ... hopefully.
I switched mine to 3G today and still no fix. I guess I'll have to get it checked out Monday.
We upgraded about 6 months ago to the R8's. We use the Verison MiFi Hotspot. The Trimble guy reprogrammed our MiFi to do 3G as he said the 4G mode caused problems. The MiFi's have been working great. We only do single baseline RTN (CRTN).
Neil
