Pretty sure base has Ethernet port - not sure on brand was installed by LH Agro about 8 years ago now and has been so reliable I’ve never looked at it sinse !
Extending RTK base station range options ?
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
Pretty sure base has Ethernet port - not sure on brand was installed by LH Agro about 8 years ago now and has been so reliable I’ve never looked at it sinse !
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
Your investment hopefully wont extend much beyond a couple of Cat5 leads, some time with LH on the phone to configure NTRIP on the base and opening/configuring some ports on your router.
Thanks - that would be great news if it’s the case !
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
When you configure the base on your local network (or pc/laptop etc running NTRIP caster) then set it up with a fixed IP address on your LAN (outside the usual range of your DHCP addresses your router gives out). Then open the appropriate port on your router and port forward that to the base.
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
How did you go @Clive ? Was there an NTRIP caster built into the receiver in the end or did you come up with another solution?
I’ve been having a bit of a play with the SNIP caster software, especially the free version. I like free! Even managed to get it running on a £50 lynx W10 tablet I had kicking about. Not too bad really.
Not done it yet but have a quote from LH
Receivers good to go with addition of sims - just the base that needs upgrade
Need to sort something before harvest
Northern farmer
Member
- Location
- North
SNIP also have this RTK2go service:
https://www.use-snip.com/rtk2go/
Might be useful for those who have a dynamic IP from their ISP (serving the base). The cost is exposing their correction stream to the public for free.
We run Fendt with VarioGuide where the NTRIP caster IP address can be entered as a domain name (in text format). The tractor settings do not need to be changed if the IP address of the NTRIP caster changes. On the Topcon X30/AGCO C3000 on the other hand the NTRIP caster address has to be entered in the numerical format, meaning the settings have to be changed every time the IP address of the NTRIP caster changes.
Since changing from ADSL to LTE, the IP address at the base tends to change randomly even if the LTE modem was always on (a few times per year). Not sure if the modem restarts on its own or if the LTE network is guilty. This 4G service provider does not offer any fixed IP even at extra cost.
https://www.use-snip.com/rtk2go/
Might be useful for those who have a dynamic IP from their ISP (serving the base). The cost is exposing their correction stream to the public for free.
We run Fendt with VarioGuide where the NTRIP caster IP address can be entered as a domain name (in text format). The tractor settings do not need to be changed if the IP address of the NTRIP caster changes. On the Topcon X30/AGCO C3000 on the other hand the NTRIP caster address has to be entered in the numerical format, meaning the settings have to be changed every time the IP address of the NTRIP caster changes.
Since changing from ADSL to LTE, the IP address at the base tends to change randomly even if the LTE modem was always on (a few times per year). Not sure if the modem restarts on its own or if the LTE network is guilty. This 4G service provider does not offer any fixed IP even at extra cost.
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
I was doing some experimenting with SNIP, kind of to prove the concept worked on Friday.
Say you had a radio RTK base, but it had no serial ports accesdible or you could not even access it physically or didn’t have the login details to reconfigure it. No worries you can still have a fully accessible NTRIP caster from the base....
If you have a spare receiving radio, tuned to your base frequency - connect it via serial port or Bluetooth to a Windows or Ubuntu computer running SNIP, using the serial port input tab in SNIP and then have the radio/serial port feed in as a NTRIP caster mount point.
Pleased to say it worked a treat! Just another option to get NTRIP from a base without actually touching the base or even being physically located near it. The free version of SNIP allows you three such streams but importantly there’s no licence limit on user connections to the caster.
Say you had a radio RTK base, but it had no serial ports accesdible or you could not even access it physically or didn’t have the login details to reconfigure it. No worries you can still have a fully accessible NTRIP caster from the base....
If you have a spare receiving radio, tuned to your base frequency - connect it via serial port or Bluetooth to a Windows or Ubuntu computer running SNIP, using the serial port input tab in SNIP and then have the radio/serial port feed in as a NTRIP caster mount point.
Pleased to say it worked a treat! Just another option to get NTRIP from a base without actually touching the base or even being physically located near it. The free version of SNIP allows you three such streams but importantly there’s no licence limit on user connections to the caster.
matttargett4
Member
Sorry if I'm hijacking to ask stupid questions
I have 3 rtk enabled tractors all running rangepoint as the first demo yr proved to do everything I wanted and it' a lot cheaper than an erm signal, 3 months into the second yr and the results arent what they were.
So if I'm reading this right I could put up my own erm base on my office, connect it to a pc with internet access which runs 24/7 anyway, use free software to cast the correction info then get 3 data Sims to pick up the info over 4g and have rtk?
If I'm right how much is a base? Was there not a cheap one mentioned on here?
How much are the data Sims/ what are they? Presumably just a mobile sim with internet access?
Thanks
I have 3 rtk enabled tractors all running rangepoint as the first demo yr proved to do everything I wanted and it' a lot cheaper than an erm signal, 3 months into the second yr and the results arent what they were.
So if I'm reading this right I could put up my own erm base on my office, connect it to a pc with internet access which runs 24/7 anyway, use free software to cast the correction info then get 3 data Sims to pick up the info over 4g and have rtk?
If I'm right how much is a base? Was there not a cheap one mentioned on here?
How much are the data Sims/ what are they? Presumably just a mobile sim with internet access?
Thanks
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
Have you had any quotes to get RTK service using NTRIP (or even radio)? See this thread for some costs. At least you will have an idea of baseline cost to use a service provider. I'd hazard you're still looking at the thick end of around £2K per year for all three machines, that's for a full 12-month sub.
If you get a portable base from Topcon, Trimble, NovAtel or similar well established, known and supported brands they are going to set you back the best part of £6 to £7K for a portable base. It's then fairly trivial to add an NTRIP caster, as noted above using SNIP.
So your payback period is about 3 years on a portable base. There are plusses and minuses for using a portable base, probably more than what I can muster words wise for now, and without de-railing this thread any more
I've also got mixed views about some of the cheaper / more basic L1-only RTK devices now on the market. Again probably explore more in another thread.
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