Trimble

Trimble NT300D

1. In order to properly configure the NT300D to work with Carlson Field, it must first be powered up in Setup mode (by holding down the [Setup] button on the front panel of the receiver while powering it on) so that the advanced setup options are available. Once the NT300D is powered up in this mode, bring up the Setup menu via the [Setup] button. Page down using the More menu option until the I/O menu item is available, and select it.

a) In the I/O menu, select whichever port is to be used to interface the receiver with the computer running Carlson Field (Port 1 by default). Next, set both the input and the output to transmit/receive in NMEA, at 9600 baud rate. The final option, Remote Select, should be set to Primary.

b) Now the NMEA sentences must be configured. From the I/O menu, enter the NMEA Sentences submenu. Disable all sentences, save for the GGA sentences and the GSA sentences. Ensure the Talker ID is GP. From here, Return to the I/O menu.

c) The NMEA Control menu item, reachable from the I/O menu, has three options. The Output Rate here should be set to 1 second, the Position Output Rate set to Output Rate, and the NMEA Output Version to 2.1.

Next, the GPS settings must be configured, and can be found in the GPS menu under the main Setup menu.

The GPS Mode should be set to 3D, and the DGPS mode set to Auto. The DGPS source should be toggled to Internal, and the Pos/Vel Filter should be Off. Mask Values should be left at Default, and the SNR at M.

Finally, the Beacon Receiver configuration (under Beacon Receiver on the Setup Menu) needs to have its Search Mode set to Auto-Dist Mode. All other values in all menus ought to either be left at their default settings, or configured as necessary to the local conditions (in the case of antenna height, etc.).

2. The RMS value reported in Carlson Field is the RMS value of the standard deviation of the range inputs to the navigation process including pseudoranges and DGPS corrections.

The NT300D is now properly configured, and if connected to a computer running Carlson Field, will transmit position fix data to the computer automatically. Before using it, however, it is best to power it down and then turn it back on normally, as running it in Setup Mode is not recommended.

Trimble 4000 Series

Hardware Setup

1. Setup the antenna and GPS receiver as normal. The radio should be on I/O Port 2.
2. Connect the Computer that Carlson Field is running on to I/O Port 1 by the appropriate cable.

Front-Panel Configuration:

Base Station:

1. After powering on the receiver, press the [Control] Button. From the selections available, select MORE. This will bring up a second page of options. Select MORE again. The front panel screen should now be on RECEIVER CONTROL "3 of 7".
2. Select BAUD RATE/FORMAT, and from the menu that this creates, select SERIAL PORT 1 SETTINGS.
3. Ensure that the port is set to 38400 baud, 8-Odd-1 Format, with no flow control.
4. Similarly, make sure that the settings for I/O Port 2 agree with those of the type of radio being used (typically 9600 8-None-1).
5. Return to the RECEIVER CONTROL menu, and go to page 4 o 7. Select REFERENCE POSITION.
6. Enter the Lat/Lon of the position the base is located at. Alternately, select HERE to have the GPS unit read the current position and use that as the base reference point.
7. On page 1 of the RECEIVER CONTROL menu, select RTK OUTPUT CONTROL.
8. Set the RTK OUTPUTS to Port 2, and the ANTENNA HEIGHT to the measured height of the antenna.
9. Ensure that all other forms of output (Cycled Output, 1PPS output, Event Markers, etc.) are disable. These options may all be accessed with the submenus accessible through the [Control] button.
10. Ensure that the Synch time of the Rover and Base are the same. This setting may be accessed by first pressing [Control] and then cycling through the menus until the MASKS/SYNCH TIME option is available.

Rover Station:

1. After powering on the receiver, press the [Control] Button. From the selections available, select MORE. This will bring up a second page of options. Select MORE again. The front panel screen should now be on RECEIVER CONTROL "3 of 7".
2. Select BAUD RATE/FORMAT, and from the menu that this creates, select SERIAL PORT 1 SETTINGS.
3. Ensure that the port is set to 38400 baud, 8-Odd-1 Format, with no flow control.
4. Similarly, make sure that the settings for I/O Port 2 agree with those of the type of radio being used (typically 9600 8-None-1).
5. Return to the RECEIVER CONTROL menus, and go to page 2.
6. Select RTK ROVER CONTROL.
7. Toggle the ENABLE setting to L1/L2.
8. Push the [Status] button, and select POSITION. There should now be an RTK option. Select it. This will bring up a screen displaying delta Northing/Easting, correction status, etc.
9. Ensure that the STATIC option appears at the right. This means you are in kinematic/rover mode. If instead the ROVE option is available, select it.
10. Ensure that all other forms of output (Cycled Output, 1PPS output, Event Markers, etc.) are disable. These options may all be accessed with the submenus accessible through the [Control] button.
11. Ensure that the Synch time of the Rover and Base are the same. This setting may be accessed by first pressing [Control] and then cycling through the menus until the MASKS/SYNCH TIME option is available.

Trimble 4700/4800

Hardware and Equipment:

1. Make sure that the computer's serial port is connected to the 4700/4800 in it's COM1 port (typically the port that a data collector is normally plugged into). Power should be supplied on COM2, and any radio used for RTK should be plugged into COM3.
2. All other equipment (antenna, wires, etc.) should be set up as normally directed by the manuals.

Software Configuration:

1. After selecting the Trimble 4700 equipment type from the "configure field" menu, open up "Equipment Setup." This should bring up a new window/dialog box with the following options:
a. Receiver Type: Select whether you are using a 4700 or 4800 receiver.
b. Station Type: Choose what type of RTK station you are setting this receiver up as a base or rover.
c. RTK Correction type: Select the type of Corrections you would like a base station to transmit. Note that CMR messages should be used for most precision applications, as RTCM is only capable of producing less-accurate floating precision positions
d. Radio Baud Rate: The baud rate of the radio port. This should be left at the default setting of 9600 in general
e. Satellite Elevation Cutoff: All satellites with elevation from the horizon of less than this number will not be used in calculating a position. This allows less accurate low elevation satellite to be factored out of a position.
f. Configure Base Station: Will configure the receiver to act as a base. See "Configuring Base Station" below.
g. Cancel without saving: Will exit this menu without saving any changes that have been made.
h. Save and Exit: Will save these settings to the receiver and to Carlson Field's setup and exit out of this menu.

Configuring Rover:

No real configuration is necessary, aside from setting up the equipment and setting the appropriate Receiver Type, Station Type, and Satellite Elevation Cutoff.

Configuring Base Station:

1. After selecting all the appropriate settings in "Configure GPS," click on the "Configure Base Station" button.
2. In the menu dialog that opens, there are a few buttons:
a) Read from GPS: Read a position from the GPS and fix to that position
b) Enter Lat/Lon: Fix to a manually entered Lat/Lon position
c) Enter State Plane Coord: Fix to a manually entered State Plane Northing/Easting position
d) Read From File: Fix to a position read from a *.ref file.
e) Cancel: Cancel base setup

If Read From GPS is selected, the software will read once from the GPS receiver, and then fix to that position. If Enter Lat/Lon is selected, a dialog box will open and a Latitude and Longitude must be input manually. If Enter State Plane Coord is selected, a dialog box will open allowing the input of a set of Northing/Easting coordinates by hand. Read from File will open a File>Open dialog and ask for a file name of a reference file (*.REF) to open for use in corrections.

Regardless of which option is selected, after the position is determined, this position will be displayed, and dialog boxes will open to enter a station id (used by the base to identify itself to the rover(s)) and the measured base antenna height. Once these values are entered, base setup is complete and the "Exit and Save" button can be selected to exit the Equipment Setup menu. At this point, whenever looking at a menu that displays the connection status, "REFERENCE" will be displayed, instead of Float, Fixed, or Autonomous.

Trimble 5800

Carlson Field Configuration:

In Configure Field, set the Equipment Type to Trimble Generic.

In Equipment Setup, be sure to set the Data Type to match your receiver setup. This Data Type is the port on the receiver that communicates with Carlson Field. Typically, the Data Type should be set to 2 for the serial connection and to 4 for Bluetooth.

When configuring the Base receiver, use a base station id number in the range from 1 to 32.