ReachView v0.4.0 is out, time stamps are now stored in RINEX!

Reach was built with precision mapping applications it mind. One of the big challenges in UAV mapping is eliminating Ground Control Points which are time consuming and costly to place. Reach RTK can help achieve that by synchronizing with the camera shutter on sub ms level. I have written more about this in a previous post. All you need to do is connect hotshoe adapter to your camera and wire it to Reach port. Only two connections are required “GND” and “Time Mark”:

Here is how @timvand did it with his Sony A6000.

During RINEX conversion on Reach you will see a new field that will show how many time marks have been collected. That should match the amount of pictures taken by the camera.

Those of you who have access to GrafNav can already start mapping and getting accurately georeferenced pictures. Thanks to @Stu74 we know that it parses time marks from RINEX and interpolates the post processed coordinates.

We have also implemented this feature in RTKLIB and will release modified RTKPost soon.

As usual new amazing features are brought to you by @egor.fedorov’s and @alexey.bulatov’s countless hours of work :slight_smile:

Emlid is going to make right what is broken about UAV mapping.

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Hi,

Really interested in getting this… can you contact me at andrew@droneflight.co.uk

Thanks

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Hi, this is great news. Will you produce a tutorial on how to post process the Rinex data including the timestamp info.

Thanks Kyle

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This is just a GPS right? no INS?

Congratulations! The hotshooe adapter will send a pulse for the Reach module on every shoot time, is it? I use de df6 connection with pixahawk controler and a Samsung NX300 camera to be trigged - it seems that this is made for my setup!!! So glad!!!

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Where you could buy this great tool, it works with Canon S110, SH260?
Greetings.

Hello Igor, thats good news.
Could you share the link to purchase that hotshoe, I have Piksi RTK and I would like to try its accuracy with this solution.
thanks.

good job , hope a wifi version will came soon for a sony a7r. … I can test if you need
try to find right now a place to buy the hot shoe on the web , any sugestion ?

rgds

Great work! I’ve got a pair ready to go. Heading to ebay to find a hot shoe adapter!

@Andrew_Griffiths Thanks, we will contact you!

@Kyle_Gardner Sure! We are now working on some modifications in RTKLIB that will allow to process the time stamps. As soon as it is ready we will make a tutorial.

@Bernard_Theuri Reach has an IMU on board, but it is not being used at the moment.

@fabio_lobo Exactly! :slight_smile:

@devdelgado You can but Reach in our shop. S110 and SH260 do not have the hotshoe.

Hi,

I made an hot shoe adaptor for the sony a7r to reach.

I try few log on the system in rover in kynematic mode with base with 3dr modem comunication.

Try to find the gps log corresponding to the photo taken with rtkpos.
Not a succes for now cause rtkpos mention there is no nav data on the log file… need to investigate and more with rtklib…

I know my test is not precise cause of the bad weather is and bad reception of the gps for my test. rain so test inside with a wood roof. will test tomorow the weather should be better.

but I found this on the rov_201605132212.obs file in rinex folder from the rover reach log :

2016 5 13 22 13 6.9240148 5 1
**Time mark is not valid COMMENT **
> 2016 5 13 22 13 6.9990000 0 4
R 9 20986926.887 111911495.957 3014.109 37.000
R18 19125106.535 102091054.711 -654.992 31.000
R 1 23449935.702 125353287.141 -1098.688 33.000
R17 21544826.761 115290755.853 -3343.808 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 7.1990000 0 4
R 9 20986813.827 111910893.060 3014.032 37.000
R18 19125130.774 102091185.668 -655.107 31.000
R 1 23449976.762 125353506.869 -1098.798 33.000
R17 21544952.210 115291424.743 -3344.472 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 7.3990000 0 4
R 9 20986700.854 111910290.152 3014.517 37.000
R18 19125155.431 102091316.562 -654.491 31.000
R 1 23450017.858 125353726.594 -1099.054 33.000
R17 21545077.102 115292093.587 -3343.615 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 7.5990000 0 4
R 9 20986587.794 111909687.308 3014.225 37.000
R18 19125180.245 102091447.535 -654.235 31.000
R 1 23450058.988 125353946.370 -1099.182 33.000
R17 21545201.748 115292762.504 -3344.346 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 7.7990000 0 4
R 9 20986474.909 111909084.453 3014.166 37.000
R18 19125202.948 102091578.519 -654.364 31.000
R 1 23450100.100 125354166.131 -1099.133 33.000
R17 21545326.744 115293431.324 -3343.855 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 7.9990000 0 4
R 9 20986361.884 111908481.614 3013.561 37.000
R18 19125228.338 102091709.536 -654.380 31.000
R 1 23450141.213 125354385.929 -1099.030 33.000
R17 21545451.217 115294100.226 -3344.158 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 8.1607747 5 1
**Time mark is not valid COMMENT **
> 2016 5 13 22 13 8.1990000 0 4
R 9 20986248.736 111907878.799 3014.283 37.000
R18 19125252.908 102091840.593 -655.077 31.000
R 1 23450182.204 125354605.796 -1099.609 33.000
R17 21545576.108 115294769.115 -3344.482 31.000
2016 5 13 22 13 8.3990000 0 4
R 9 20986135.729 111907276.070 3013.174 37.000

This is a small sample but can find this log aproximatly each time I manualy shoot with the sony asr.

here ia the setup :

setup with reach

300 mv signal

pc synch signal who look strange to me see under… (pin 4)

pc sync pinout signal : look the small negative pic who is the signal when i take a pict

and the sync signal from the noname pin who look correct 300 mV

The signal for flash from the hotshoe who feed the time mark input of the reach is only 300 mV max when declenching.

I check with an osciloscope and the declenching timing is correct from the a7r .

Is this voltage level is enough to mark an entry on the log of the reach with the associed gps coordinate (time mark input pin ) ?

Is there something wrong here or is this message is normal in this log file ?

thks

This is a time mark, it says that it is not valid because the receiver did not get proper time fix. When you test it outside everything should work.

The flash sync requires a pull up resistor, which is installed in Reach. So you should only scope the signal with Reach connected and powered.

Hi,

This is my new test I’ve done

gps reception is better but it’s possible that there is some multipath. the system in rover and base is glonass 5hz

the base comunicate with the rover with 2 usb 3dr 38400 raw mode no ecc, so directly without the pixhawk .

The color bar and the grey bar are present in the rover status

Mode is kynematic without dynamic mode.

Here is what I found on the rover obs file

G16 21545499.963 113222363.5732 -2429.550 40.000
R20 21110382.729 112886716.3432 -2827.925 37.000
G21 25110531.703 -1298.027 28.000
R21 19553688.337 104635712.4262 1262.675 35.000
R22 22169329.827 5307.569 16.000
R11 19315978.582 103218756.2372 109.189 40.000
G27 20290863.021 106629203.7032 -460.926 43.000
G26 23831838.310 125237145.9202 -3068.793 29.000
R 2 22647716.547 120852519.6182 -2031.857 36.000
> 2016 5 18 18 3 54.2685955 5 0
> 2016 5 18 18 3 54.4000000 0 12
G 7 21726755.479 114174875.1632 2629.040 30.000
G30 24077433.757 126527760.4402 3356.070 33.000
R 3 23412961.309 125331452.4153 1234.001 35.000
G16 21545591.385 113222849.3462 -2427.865 37.000
R20 21110486.767 112887281.8062 -2827.308 35.000
G21 25110578.522 -1293.164 28.000
R21 19553639.651 104635459.8262 1262.841 35.000
R22 22169130.754 5367.719 16.000
R11 19315973.993 103218734.6232 107.858 38.000
G27 20290881.239 106629296.0422 -462.205 43.000
G26 23831955.175 125237759.6712 -3068.909 29.000
R 2 22647791.984 120852926.1962 -2033.142 38.000
> 2016 5 18 18 3 54.5188189 5 0
> 2016 5 18 18 3 54.6000000 0 12
G 7 21726655.856 114174350.1472 2626.420 34.000
G30 24077305.410 3359.636 28.000
R 3 23412913.095 125331205.2342 1235.543 35.000
G16 21545684.202 113223335.3302 -2430.237 39.000
R20 21110591.416 112887847.0622 -2827.557 35.000
G21 25110628.831 131957244.4743 -1290.402 28.000
R21 19553585.398 104635207.3782 1263.377 37.000

it seem this timing value are corresponding to the a7r hotshoe picture take .
with the 5hz time mark form the glonass

Now how to exploit this to geotag the picture taken from the a7r ?
is there a minimal time necessary between the take of 2 pictures ?

final project we will normaly take one to 2 seconds between to pict for the hi resolution on a uav with the a7r

thks

Yes, those lines are time marks from the camera.

We have just uploaded a custom RTKLIB build in the docs. You need to process as usual and it will output 2 solution files that you can open with RTKPLOT. One of them will have your timemarks coordinates. Note that currently you should not use SBAS when processing with RINEX3.x. If you need to use SBAS, please use RINEX2.x .

Not faster than the update rate, so at least 200ms in your case.

Hi Igor,

We got everything to test it! Superb! Something works - superb! But please help:

  • Some questions left…

Now we are able to see in rover obs the “Time mark not valid” when there is no GPS reception. So the hotshoe on nex7 is working. After it we go outside. The reception is switching between float and fix so working. In the rovs obs file during the download they say it contains 8 time marks - which is correct. But:

  • how can we found it in the obs file?
  • does here a sw to process it on exif’s of photographs?

We used kinematic default profile with rinex 2.10 and gps,sbas,glo,qzs. Fw is 0.4.9

SilaS

… and found! After processing rovers log in RTKPLOT I found the …_events.pos in the directory! Sorry for stupid question!

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