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The Wow Factor: Loyola's RTK-Net Management Portal
Written by Cheves Media
Friday, 25 April 2008
A 592Kb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE
As part of its newly-released Management Portal and GPS Work Day Planning Center, Loyola now provides Real Time Connection Logs to their customers. A map function is included that uses Google Maps to plot the location of GPS rovers that have been connected to RTK-Net®. This exclusive feature is a tremendous benefit to equipment owners and managers regarding the implementation and utilization of their investment in GPS.
After securely logging in, the user is presented with a utilization chart that shows usage of all the company's rovers. This information can be sorted by time frame using a calendar tool and selecting which rovers are to be displayed. Real Time Connection Logs start and continue until the rover disconnects from RTK-Net. The connection log is created on Loyola's servers running Leica GPS Spider software. Currently, the records are updated every ten minutes. Development is underway to allow RTK-Net clients the ability to see their rovers operating live in real-time on Google Maps. The Log provides basic information about the connection including who, when, where and what type of correction was being generated, as well as the connection history.
Clicking on the Map function opens a Google Maps window. Each pushpin on the map correlates to a change in the "Rover User State" as indicated in the Real Time Connection Log. For example, the rover changed from tracking 8 satellites to 9 satellites or the rover changed from a float position (DGPS) to a precise (PPS) or "fixed" position. It should be noted, however, that the map push pins do not indicate where a rover recorded a position. By zooming in, individual points from the Real Time Connection Log can be seen, and the user can click on a point to view the time stamp and the Latitude and Longitude of the point.
Another useful part of the portal is the Work Day Planning Center. The Planning Center provides quick links to local weather, space weather, NGS Tools, current almanac, GPS and GLONASS constellation status and weekly satellite availability plots. The satellite availability charts are updated weekly to provide accurate information. Because much of the RTK-Net coverage area is full GNSS (GPS & GLONASS) both satellite availability charts are provided for survey planning purposes.
A 592Kb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE
Editorial: CGSIC in Savannah
The 48th meeting of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) was held September 15-16, 2008 in Savannah, Georgia. Of particular note was the announcement that NDGPS will continue. Funding is still a challenge, but the powers that be have decided that NDGPS, like GPS, is .... Read the Article
Point to Point: Relatively Speaking
Sooner or later it happens: one of your friends or relatives asks you to survey their property, or otherwise act professionally on their behalf. Is that all right or do we have a higher obligation to the public concerning impartiality? Although I have not conducted an exhaustive examination of the .... Read the Article
More Than a Simulation
When work such as land surveying requires precision and gets impacted by changing technology, it makes sense to be introduced to high-tech equipment on an actual project rather than on a simulation exercise or in a classroom setting. That runs counter to ... Read the Article
Optech Incorporated: The Lidar Company
In the early 70s, Dr. Allan Carswell, a physics professor at York University in Toronto, developed a pulsed laser system used in the world's first lidar bathymetric mapping system. Based on his research, Carswell founded Optech Incorporated in ... Read the Article
The Wow Factor: SmartWorx from Leica Geosystems
Every version of Leica Geosystems software contains user requested features. The latest product request that made the final cut was a "Field to Office" application. This full-featured FTP and transfer software is now built into the operating system of all System 1200 sensors, making it possible for .... Read the Article
Visualizing N G S Control Stations in Google Earth
Google Earth is rapidly becoming the land surveyor's tool-of-choice for preliminary job site reconnaissance and survey planning (see "Topography is Dead," by Joel Leininger, March 2007). Survey projects often begin with the investigation and .... Read the Article
Surv-Fi, Part 2: Boomer's Hearing
Stand back from the cradle Hector!" Vel warned her colleague. "You could receive a rather nasty static shock as it spins up!" Hector Fontecilla stood shivering in the still Chilean Patagonia morning awaiting instructions from Vel Kawashima. Ten thousand ... Read the Article
Tips & Tricks: Hidden Point Offset
Let's say it's 5:30 Friday afternoon and you're past ready to call it a week. You've just calculated the angle and distance to look for one of the last monuments you need to tie in. You turn the instrument to the angle and shoot a distance that measures just behind a tall tree. After a few minutes' search ... Read the Article
FeedBack
Wendy, quite possibly the best article ever written in a surveyor's journal ["If Not Now, When? Sept. 2008]. It matters not how technically proficient we are, how much money we make or how well "esteemed" we seem to be in our profession when we face serious illness or death. What do our friends and ... Read the Article
Vantage Point: Diversions in the Park
There is not a lot of unused land in our urban and increasingly suburban areas. It disappears under shopping centers and houses and roadways at a rate unimaginable a century ago. So it may not be unusual to start eyeing land that was set aside for parks and open space at ... Read the Article
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