It may be inexpensive, but the cellular modem will be worthless pretty soon.?ÿ 3G is ending on most if not all U.S. cell carriers next year.
Get Ready, 3G is Going Away in 2022 - Wireless Customer Support (att.com)
Minnestoa DOT tested these:
?ú Hemisphere Eclipse P307
?ú Swift Piksi Multi
?ú NVS Technologies NV08C-RTK
?ú Emlid Reach
?ú u-blox NEO-M8P
?ú Skytraq S2525F8-RTK
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/reports/2018/201810.pdf
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The MNDOT test is a bit dated and apparently the brands might be same, but not equipment. They appear to have tested L1 only receivers.
Overnight it seems there is a whole crop of inexpensive receivers that appear at least on paper to have most of the features of units costing much more. What is the difference between say a Leica GS18 or Trimble R12 both with tilt IMU's and say a Tersus Oscar for $16K, roughly $10K less than the traditional manufacturer? A Carlson BRx7 is around $12K, I have no idea anymore if high end receivers are better than the slew of lower cost units.
We recently bought a Leica GS18i but if the integrated camera workflow wasn't thought to be useful, maybe for just IMU tilt there would of been less expensive options?
SHG
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The receiver tested is not the one in the?ÿ OP.
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yes, they both have "emlid" and "reach" in the name, but they are two different models.
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Specifically, the one in the OP uses all the available signals open to civilian users, while the MN test focuses on the L1 only receivers. The problems with L1 only are known and havent changed for quite a while.
Comparing apples to apples is very difficult.
One thing that gets me is the cost comparison. The Leica costs $X. The "cheapo" costs $Y. But, when you get into it, turning on the fancy bells and whistles on the Leica (all the constellations, tilt, etc) costs $Y. The costs on the fancy name brands tend to balloon once you get what is actually on the sales brochure.
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Regarding tilt, I have been told that the Leica's calibration free tech is the only one that actually gets used. The rest have "tilt" but since no one actually calibrates it, it often does more harm than good.
BTW, we had the latest Hyper HR's when they came out...they replaced Hemisphere S320's (Carlson BRx6, I believe are the same). The Hypers did nothing better, the biggest difference was that Hyper's batteries sucked to get in and out of the receiver.
Oh, and the Hypers didn't have tilt. Oh...you think the sales brochure said they did? That will be a multi-thousand dollar upgrade for something you won't use.
@dmyhill true, but maybe not as bad as in past.
Having just purchased a Leica GS18i, the base unit was $18,800 and that would include IMU tilt. Adding three additional constellations brought it to $23464. That is pretty complete with case, 2x batteries and so on. The camera option (only difference between a GS18T and GS18i) adds another $3500.
And then the controller and software, that might be when the newcomers win or not, I think they mostly depend on 3rd party solutions? In the case of Leica, right around $10k for a 10" tablet and software to run the unit, plus I had to upgrade office software. I don't consider a phone app a robust data collector for field work and most of the newcomers have weak if any office software.
If you already have a Carlson collector for instance and office software you could save a good bit of coin on some of these systems...
SHG
@dmyhill re: tilt. I thought any of the units with tilt using an IMU might be calibration free. Without that, I agree probably better off not using it. I can already see many uses for it and of course Leica needs that to actually use the camera for imaging. They have done a good job with that integration, pretty much collect images and GNSS data and click on the image to measure points, no image manipulation or other gyrations at all, very easy to use and testing shows it pretty good. Obviously static vertical occupations are best, followed by tilt observations and finally image points. I would guess with use I will get better but image points look to be 0.1 feet or better in XYZ, not bad for a lot of measurements and the safety factor and ease of measuring inaccessible points is huge for the extra $3500 over the tilt version only of the receiver.
SHG
And then the controller and software, that might be when the newcomers win or not, I think they mostly depend on 3rd party solutions? In the case of Leica, right around $10k for a 10" tablet and software to run the unit, plus I had to upgrade office software. I don't consider a phone app a robust data collector for field work and most of the newcomers have weak if any office software.
That's a big consideration for me. I've worked for firms that used cobbled-together solutions featuring three or four different manufacturers or developers before data even hit the office. It can certainly work, but how well is up for debate and usually depends on how savvy the individual users are.
For most firms, the efficiency/productivity gain, and consequent profit increase, with seamless data collection combined with being able to import, merge and process all types of raw data in a single software program will pay for the cost difference pretty fast. Especially if you are running multiple crews and have standard procedures that need to be as simple as possible.
Not to mention that to win certain types of projects you have to be able to say you are adhering to industry standards, and deliverables may include raw data in specific formats.
@rover83 agree with you, I have been there, when data collector, software and hardware are all different, it can be a real kludge getting anything fixed when issues. I buy all one color, when it doesn't work, one vendor to fix it!
SHG
Pros - small, light weight, fixes in less than 5 secs for open sky, long battery life or use a power bank as external power source, built-in 3G modem for NTRIP, subscription free Emlid NTRIP Caster ,free android/IoS controller software, L1/L2/L5 GPS,Glonass,Beidou,Galileo?ÿ
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Cons - L5 (for Beidou or Galileo or Glonass? not sure which) only, buggy firmware/software, limited stocks online, no local support (online support via emlid forum that sometimes addresses your problems and sometimes no one answers).
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Cons?ÿ
As pointed out on the previous page of this thread, 3G won't be around much longer.
As pointed out on the previous page of this thread, 3G won't be around much longer.
Not really a problem as it can connect to the NTRIP caster via wifi connection with your 5g phone as a hotspot.
@shelby-h-griggs-pls?ÿ ?ÿ ?ÿNo, Swift was L1 and L2.?ÿ Remember, Simultaneous reading makes L2 meaningless,?ÿ allowing equal comparisons. The MN Test was not about position or continuity. The Emlid Chip is the Emlid Chip, adding QZSS doesn't change how it works.