Emlid M2 to Trimble Ez Guide 150 Success

Excellent explanation of how the different levels of GPS are used in the agricultural market! I will have to add a write up on the drainage side of things, surface ditches/subsurface tile/land sloping or forming.

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It was refusing to connect to the hotspot on three iPhones. One being my own that i had used extensively in the past.

After upgrading firmware it seems to have smartened up and now will lock back on if hotspot connection is interrupted which it would not do before.

@PotatoFarmer,

I’d also recommend updating the iOS software to the 14.0 version since, according to our tests, it provides a much more stable hotspot workflow.

One more thing I noticed (at least with iPhone hotspot) is that the Reach-device must be pretty close to the iPhone. When the iPhone was in the drivers cabine (with hotspot enabled) and the reach was booted outside on the machine, 50% of the time reach wouldn’t connect to the hotspot. If we first boot reach close to the hotspot is always works. After that the device is mounted outside on the machine, and all keeps working properly. So I guess the signal strength should be higher to ‘find’ the hotspot during startup. (maybe something to keep in mind to test in case of issues)

Nice. Do you have a picture of the M2 antenna mount too?

Here is the mount I used for the tractor off aliexpress, it also needs a sma to mcx adaptor. I would of made another vibration mount but was pressed for time.

The M2 sits in an aluminum enclosure inside the cab. I had no issues with it until it started asking for an update.

Since updating you have it either locks to the phone hotspot, or creates its own but will not switch without power cycling. Its much more stable now.

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I’d be curious if a heavier high-gain survey antenna could improve your WAAS performance at all (by reducing multipath or the likes). Something like Budget Survey GNSS Multiband antenna (IP66) - ArduSimple. I have seen some really high gains using ours, but I haven’t studied pass-to-pass accuracy.

They were using the finest high accuracy L1 antenna Trimble sells for Ag.

I think the biggest problem with WAAS is, its very general correction over a very large area that the correction may not even apply to.

2 Emlid M2’s cost less than buying an AG antenna from trimble. If you can get a Reach to talk to your equipment its a much better solution.

M2 makes WAAS fully obsolete in my opinion.

I think you might have missed this is a conversion of a 15year old L1 guidance system to L2 RTK.

The combine example has modern AG372 integrated receiver $3kcdn used no unlocks.
It receives Glonass but does not use it unless you pay for an unlock, rtk 2 unlocks, beidou unlock.

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The 372 is a nice receiver but, those unlocks are $$$$.

Any corrected service over WAAS will be a huge improvement

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Thats why I was so surprised how well the M2 did uncorrected. It was driving better than if it had used WAAS.

When the M2 is able to receive corrections its better than buying the commercial subscription because you can keep a much shorter baseline.

But walls still exist, Ability to change talker codes, sentence selection are a big step.

Then its to get a gateway working for TSIP, and also CAN BUS / ISOBUS.

I am still trying to figure out if the tilt sensor for terrain compensation they are using on the 372 is in the GPS, or if its in the grain sieves. They have cut down on duplication greatly using BUS communication.

The 372 doesn’t do tilt or terrain compensation. In the steering application the NAV controller handles that.

I hope you succeed with the TSIP. Personally, I try to stay away from anything CAN. They cab be a horrible nightmare. One faulty ground and nothing works

Thanks for the tilt info

I am pretty pumped about TSIP conversion, I got a hold of Trimbles SDK for it right off their website.

I notice in my newest Trimble does not use it. Its been replaced by something called “GSOF”. But there is just such a massive amount of gear that uses TSIP still.

I have to figure out CAN then Deere might join the Emlid Party.

Farmers are worried right now after Deere announced they are bricking the iTC in January. If Emlid gets converted to TSIP, Any old Ez will retain its resale value.

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Thats true, we had to upgrade to 3000 or 6000 recievers

What do you think the possibility of getting a M2 to Tsip so my Trimble autosteer setups don’t need these super expensive unlocks any more. Has Emlid got the rtcm legacy to Trimble figured yet?

Id say its getting better.

Only problem is i am sitting in a combine right now lol.

Too bad the guys on AgTalk think I am from Sask. Im right in @farmerBrianTee neck of the woods.

I am well aware of the lineup for this if i can get it to work.

No legacy rtcm support as of yet for emlid.
But if it can be converted to tsip and can might not need it.

I am not sure it needs to be converted to legacy. Unfortunately fall is one of my busiest seasons. That combined with my rental property was empty this month so doing all the “touch up” work while it is empty has eaten up all my spare time. I want to test/play with some things.

I have added the RS2 to a FMX/TMX monitor as a generic NMEA receiver with success. I cannot steer with this but use it to control grade with WM-Drain.

I played with using it as a base for my FMX but using 3DR radios, I need to add a UART to 232 converter. I have purchased the converter but haven’t had a chance to test it. If this works, it will be the base for the FMX using RTCM 3. Then I can steer with the internal globe, and grade with a RS2.

If we can figure out the TSIP, perhaps we can steer with the RS2/M2 as well.

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That’s my understanding, can do stuff like yield mapping etc without Tsip as an external receiver, but no autosteer unless Tsip involved. Pretty sure on receivers like 372 we are going to need the 1008 string in the rtcm from the base to make it work. Thinking the same for fmx etc
Have setup 1 4wd with the Trimble valve in it but steering it with AgOpengps, this gets rid of the need for Trimble receiver

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Legacy is just for receivers that already have the unlock to receive corrections.

I also want to get a AG Open steering setup built. I think that is the path forward. But the EZ line is extremely popular and still used by many. But L1 gps only is pretty hurting after trying multi band RTK.

Only about 500 acres left of 2300, then I can get back at it.

There are a lot of FMX/FM1000 monitors out there unlocked to RTK for a reasonable amount ($4-6000 US) If I can get a RS2/M2 working as a base for it, that would make a sweet setup reasonable.

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There is a guy on the combine forum who apparently made a 1008 injector for f9P, and is using it as base.

I ripped out an old oem board that had its unlocks already and use it as base for 1008.

The trick is to develop a system that does not involve a electronics repair degree to setup and still works.

I would like to thank the farmer that sold me a box of “possibly broken” trimble 150’s for $250. I am sure he thought they were fully obsolete at this point. He really helped me get my vegetable farming venture going. My rows next year will be much more legit.

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