I don’t think there is anything on the market that comes within a bulls roar of the Emlids for <1000$ a piece, out of the box, ready to go, good user interface, functionality, and help.
The Swift Navigation PKSI is just a KIT albeit a L1/L2 kit similarly priced to EMLID. BUT it’s a kit suited for developers and experimenters. If ever package similar to EMLID it will come at a price somewhat pricier than EMLID. However it would be putting EMLID on notice.
I personally don’t subscribe to the much published furphy of “open sky” constraints on the emllds everyone talks about. I find it’s down to satellite geometry and forward planning for capturing quality data.
The photo below FAILS miserably for “open sky” and that’s not the worst locality I use he Emlids in!! It is set over a known co-ordinated station. The captured converted lat/lon values are within ± 5mm. The time to work here was based on forward looking at the satellite coverage days ahead and picking a time where there was a good spread of satellites to the north and east plus a some patience. For the 1st minute the system flicks in and out of float, single with and an odd fix.By the second minute it is mostly toggling float/fix. The values for PDOP is usually around 1.6 and AR flipping >3/<3. By the 4th minute FIX is holding for longish periods. PDOP still around the 1.6 value and AR values in the 100’s isn’t uncommon. I then capture 5 to 10 40 second observations.
My take on reflections is yes they do do have an affect BUT ONLY FOR the 1st few minutes! Over time they have little to no effect on the data.
In summary -
- Have a GOOD BASIC understanding of GNSS
- Pick observation windows based on BEST satellite coverage and more importantly SKY POSITIONING to suite terrain constraints placed on you.
- Have patience
- Have confidence in the data captured
- Be prepared for good days and bad days
EMLID won’t suite all requirements, environments or users BUT IT SURE FITS MOST.
