When will the announced Reach module be available for purchase? Can you provide more technical info and a more detailed project status? How will it be priced?
It should be released in April. Price range will probably be in 140-180$ (maybe less or more depending on what we’ll include with the package). We’ve got most of the technical here - http://www.emlid.com/reach/
What other technical info would you like to know?
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Thanks for the price info. I meant more like the possible applications scenarios for both base and rover - I guess the (Reach) board will output directly the correction data when used as a base station, so one could easily connect it via USB, read from USB port feed and save it to a webserver page (on Raspberry Pi for example) to provide a network-accessible corrections? Like that the rover could easily connect to an IP and use the corrections to provide its own USB feed with its position that is corrected by RTK already? I do not really know how NTRIP with RTCM work but I try to imagine how the general device setup could look like.
The base station setup may be easy but the rower confuses me a bit, because it seems it will need to use USB to both read correction data and provide precise coordinates at the same time…? You surely have some testing setups, how do they look like? Could you elaborate here a bit?
Reach has a lot of connectivity options:
- USB OTG port that is detected as a network adapter in device mode and can host other devices (e.g. 3g\4g modems)
- UART port
- WiFi
- Bluetooth
So, in order to make a network accessible reference station all that is needed is to connect Reach to a WiFi router (or plug 3\4G modem in it), no need for RPi or other computer.
As for the rover, corrections can be provided by any means: UART, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth. Precise coordinates are also available on any of these. There’s no problem to both accept corrections over USB and output them to the USB.
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Hm, that sounds interesting. So actually it will be a self-sustaining board in terms of connectivity for both base and rower only needing power supply.
The wireless communication options surely are interesting (including 3G modem via USB) however I do not really like them for local connections (WiFi, BT) for projects in robotics. Ethernet would be more welcome here - I guess an “USB to Ethernet” adapter for the USB OTG could work in such case?
What OS will the board run on? I guess some flavor of Linux? Is there a change you will leave it open for custom user development? I mean to be able to program and run custom code on the Intel Atom itself…
There’s no problem to both accept corrections over USB and output them to the USB.
But I meant to accept corrections and to output precise position coordinates.
I guess an "USB to Ethernet" adapter for the USB OTG could work in such case?
Yes, you can use a USB-to-Ethernet adapter to connect Reach to an Ethernet network.
What OS will the board run on? I guess some flavor of Linux? Is there a change you will leave it open for custom user development? I mean to be able to program and run custom code on the Intel Atom itself...
Probably Debian or Yocto. Of course we’ll leave it hackable, so it will be possible to ssh into it and run what’s needed.
But I meant to accept corrections and to output precise position coordinates.
I typed the wrong word:) There’s no problem to both accept corrections over USB and output precise coordinates to the USB.
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Great to hear all that! I am really looking forward to seeing the board at workI I was thinking about getting started with RTK with the USB dongles myself but that would require quite some time to setup and maintain so I think I will wait for Reach.
So I keep my fingers crossed and hope the market introduction of Reach wont have a big delay (as there always are delays with these kinds of things)! 
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hi, there are two question to your new product:
- will there be a distro based on yocto by add a new layer and source tree? i don’t really want to hand install software on edison due to it’s poor gnu software availability.
- how do you make RTK effective on arduipilot, according to my understanding, DCM based algorithms or current GPS data processing algorithms has limited reference granularity.
thanks.
Have you thought about adding a pressure sensor to this board? It would add minimal cost, and could further improve elevation estimation. It seems like an obvious addition, given that the board already has a 9-DOF IMU.
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Hi - is the output compatible with ArduPlane? The question is could this replace the GPS on a Pixhawk for example?
It just needs to output UBX binary to connect to an APM.
- Distro decision is not finalized at the moment. Please note that our main goal is to make Reach user friendly and ready to use, so we are working on utilities that would help setup RTKLIB and other settings easily. But if you’re an experienced user you can hack it as much as you want - for example install Debian and then install RTKLIB and our utilities on top.
- When there would be an affordable RTK GPS module on the market such as Reach, ArduPilot will catch up. In any case, ArduPilot is not the only use case for Reach - it can be used in agriculture, in racing, as a local reference station, etc.
RTK GPS altitude is more accurate than barometric, so there’s not much use for barometer there. Anyway, I2C bus is available in the DF13 extension port on Reach, so you can connect barometer if you need it.
Yes, it can replace GPS on Pixhawk. It outputs NMEA, which is supported by APM.
Thanks. I did not know that the APM would accept NMEA.
Will the reach also be able to be used as a Base Station?
Yes, Reach can act either as a rover or as a base station.
How is the reach powered? Is it only powered by USB, or is there a connector to hook up and external power source? It would be nice to have the latter for embedded applications that did not hook up to USB.
Is there a primer anywhere on how the RTK setup works? Specifically, what is required, and where? Would like to get a better understanding of how the system as a whole works, especially with regard to RTKLIB.
@dmurray14 for information about RTKLIB look at the emlid documentation
http://docs.emlid.com/Navio-dev/rtklib/
http://docs.emlid.com/RTKLIB/rtklib-base-setup/
or
and the RTKLIB Manual
http://rtklib.com/rtklib_document.htm
Hi,
Sorry one more question. Does the Navio+ GPS support RTK and be used with a Reach Base station?
If not I guess it is a no-brainer that the Navio+ will support the Reach input so it can have RTK positioning.
@Stephen_Gloor
as mention here http://www.emlid.com/navio-new-hat-compliant-navio-video/
the Ublox m8n receiver is supported by RTKLIB.
Navio+ as well as Reach are based on the Ublox m8n receiver.
Therefore Navio+ and Reach are both supported by RTKLIB.
So technically (in my opinion) there is no reason why you couldn’t use a Navio+ Rover with a Reach Base station connected over an RF Link.
If you like to get a deeper comprehension I suggest to read the the documentation I mention above!
M8N raw messages are not officially supported or documented by u-blox. So RTKLIB does not officially support M8N. RTKLIB only supports just UBX-TRK-MEAS and UBX-TRK-SFRBX messages (since 2.4.2 p8). Actually, I confirmed they are obtained by NEO-M8N F/W 2.01. However, I’m not sure other modules or further F/W versions. Please use them in your own risk.
Reach can be powered either over USB or DF13 port.
Reach in RTK setup works pretty much the same way as other RTK receivers. You either need 2 Reach modules connected to each other over radio\network or you can use one module with corrections from the internet.
Yes, GPS receiver in Navio+ is capable of providing raw data unofficially. However, it is limited to 1Hz on GPS+GLONASS and 5-10Hz on GPS only. So Navio+ can be used with some limitations.
Reach will be equipped with NEO-M8T, which is the official raw data receiver from Ublox. It outputs GPS+GLONASS raw data with a proper rate.