Reach RS2 not connecting via wifi and lora

[cameron.silburn]

Hi emlid forum,

I have been using the emlid RS2 for the past 3 years and haven’t had much of a drama with them. However, over the last 6 months my connectivity with them has began to deteriorate. I have been using a base and rover setup.

My first issue is with the wifi connection between the rover and my phone (iOS). I don’t have a problem when connecting with base. When I have the base and rover close to each other (5m) both come up in the emlid flow app however when I walk away to do my survey the rover losses connectivity and I then can’t see it in my wifi settings on my phone so are unable to connect. The only way I seem to be able to fix this is by turning the rover on and off until it appears in the my wifi list. Once I have it selected in the phones wifi list it seems to work okay. Very frustrating having to sit around for an hour turning the rover on and off until it decides to connect. I don’t have any problem with the base connecting, it comes up straight away in my wifi settings and connects perfectly. This problem also isn’t isolated to my phone, others who use the devices have the same problem.

Secondly and more recently, the lora connection between the base and rover has being getting worse and worse over time. It has come to the point were I can’t walk 50 m away from the base until it looses the fix position. I haven’t had any problems in the past, I surveying in open paddocks with no obstructions and line of sight. I also haven’t changed any settings (as far as I’m aware) and have being running on the standard Lora settings in the app the whole time. The only thing that I have changed recently is using omni external antennas with both the base and rover for doing duelem paddock surveys due to undulating terrain and reaching distances up to 2 km away from the base.

I update firmware last week in the hope that this might fix some of the issue, however upon testing hadn’t made a difference.

Any help or suggestions on the next steps to fix these issues would be greatly appreciated.

[kirill.pavlyuchuk]

Hi Cameron,

Let’s try to resolve your issues.

@cameron.silburn

My first issue is with the wifi connection between the rover and my phone (iOS). I don’t have a problem when connecting with base. When I have the base and rover close to each other (5m) both come up in the emlid flow app however when I walk away to do my survey the rover losses connectivity and I then can’t see it in my wifi settings on my phone so are unable to connect.

This description makes me think that this is caused by the fact that the rover connects to the base hotspot. Once you move away from it, the rover disconnects, and you don’t see it in the app. And the reboot helps because when the rover can’t find any known Wi-Fi networks nearby, it turns on its hotspot to which you’re connecting.

If you work with the LoRa, you don’t need to keep both devices on the same Wi-Fi network. You can configure the base via its hotspot and then switch to the rover’s hotspot.

If I got you wrong, please tell me to which Wi-Fi network the devices are connected.

@cameron.silburn

The only thing that I have changed recently is using omni external antennas with both the base and rover for doing duelem paddock surveys due to undulating terrain and reaching distances up to 2 km away from the base.

Do you still have the original LoRa antennas? If so, I’d suggest the following tests:

• Try connection with original antennas. Then swap the receivers and do it again.
• Try connection with third-party antennas. Then swap the receivers and repeat.

It may help us to pinpoint the root cause or define malfunctioned antennas.

If these tests don’t improve the situation, I’d suggest you try connecting receivers via Emlid Caster if there’s cell coverage nearby. This way, we can make sure that the receivers themselves send and receive corrections well.