Integration with XAG Ag Drones

[unmanned (Fair Lifts Unmanned)]

Hello Emlid community…

We are a helicopter company that has pushed into agriculture drones over the last year. We operate a small fleet of XAG P100 Pro drones and are integrating RTK our operations.

XAG offers an RTK solution but it’s really ineffective. It’s based solely on single point GPS signals and only one drone can be connected to each base. When running two or three drones at a time, this solution is awful. It’s inaccurate, offers very little connectivity, and costs as much as the Emlid Reach RS2+.

Recently, we added a WingtraOne to our fleet and several vendors recommended the Reach RS2+ as a possible solution to our issues so we purchased one and can immediately see huge benefits simply using it as a PPK base station for the Wingtra.

Unfortunately, the XAG software offers extremely limited options for getting RTK corrections. You can either connect to the XAG XRTK4 or a NTRIP network. My thought was to try to connect using the Emlid Caster solution. This seemed like it would be the answer we have been looking for.

However, while I can connect the XAG drones to a normal CORS/NTRIP network, the drones cannot connect to Emlid caster. I suspect that this is due to the required “Mount Points.” This is a setting that a normal NTRIP network would not require.

Being able to have our drones connect to our Reach RS2+ would be a huge step forward in safety and accuracy for our agricultural spray missions.

I searched through these forums and have found no mention of XAG drones at all. So I suspect I may be breaking new ground here.

Does anyone know if there is a method to connect via NTRIP using Emlid Caster without having the ability to enter the mount point?

I’m using the most up-to-date firmware and software for the Reach, Emlid Flow, and the XAG drones. Any suggestions that someone could offer would be very welcome. And if I find a solution, I will certainly post that in detail here for any future users that might be trying to solve the same problem. I’m a giant fan of the Emlid Reach and really hope that we can find a way to make it the PPK and RTK solutions for our agricultural mapping and spray missions. We operate multiple trucks each with multiple drones and I would like to scale this to all of them.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[ruth.bongon]

Hi @unmanned,

Welcome to the community!

Connecting the rover to an NTRIP service/CORS requires a mount point, as this corresponds to which base you are connected to. I am not familiar with this drone, and I couldn’t find documentation about connecting it to an NTRIP service.

Do you have the documentation with you? Could you please share it here? Thanks!

[unmanned (Fair Lifts Unmanned)]

Hi Ruth!

Thank you so much for the reply. Perhaps the “Mount point” is not my issue. In the app, when setting up a CORS network, the second step is to ask for the “access point.” I can successfully connect to a normal CORS network, but Caster seems to fail.

I cannot attach the most comprehensive manual available for the drones and the RTK rover that pairs with them but here is a link:

Manual: XAG P100 Pro Pilot’s Operating Handbook v1.0

I’m entering the rover info from Caster as provided but the system fails connection before I get to the step that allows me to select the “access point.”

I’m starting to think that this is operator error on my part if you are confirming that third party products can indeed connect to Emlid Caster as an NTRIP network. Other posts here clearly confirm this. There is just so little documentation for the XAG platform.

[MikeH (Mike Hannibal)]

I’ve had trouble in the past using the domain name, rather than the IP address which is what is explicitly asked for here. Is it possible that’s the problem. Also are you using 2101 as the port?

Sorry if these are stating the bleeding obvious.

[mauricioranzan (Mauricio master geo)]

Can you send a screenshot of the settings you are using?

[ruth.bongon]

I agree with Mike and Mauricio. Could you please try using caster.emlid.com instead of the IP address?

Also, what is “Access Point”? Is this where you need to input the Mount Point?

[unmanned (Fair Lifts Unmanned)]

Thanks for the input here, everyone! I did try using the IP address but the connection attempt timed out. I’m going to be back at the office to do some testing tomorrow or Wednesday and I will post my settings and results.

[timd1971]

May or may not help… different situation, but maybe some clues?

Reach RX with Pix4DCatch and GEODNET

Thanks Victor. I have already been through the support gauntlet with Pix4D, Rock Robotic and Emlid together. Kornel was the last person I corresponded with from Emlid. I have tried two different mountpoints from GEODNET and the Emlid Caster. They all do the same thing. At least we’ve gone from an error to it trying and just timing out. This is the original error. [image] Now it times out and disconnects from the RX.