Has anyone successfully paired the Lecia GS16 GPS receiver with Collector?

[HughWyn-Harris]

I have been trying to pair a Lecia GS16 GPS receiver with Collector (running on a Panasonic FZ-G1) however I have run into a few issues and therefore I have a few questions. 

I can connect the Lecia GS16 GPS receiver with the Panasonic FZ-G1 and use the Captivate software to connect to RTK and set the NMEA output to;

• GGA
• GSA
• GSV
• RMC
• VTG
• GST

Then in collector I tried to add the GS16 GPS receiver as the location provider however when I try to 'switch' from the integrated receiver to the GS16 GPS receiver (which is connected via Bluetooth) the error message "connection failed" appears. I closed Captivate so no programs were using the GPS sensor and used PuTTY to test the NMEA stream (screenshot attached below).

1) What is the cause of this error message and is there anyway to connect the GS16 directly to collector? Is it not connecting due to an error in the NMEA messages?

After coming across the above issue I then tried to work around it by installing GPS Complete and installing the GPSDirect Driver and selecting the NMEA source as the COM port (COM5) that the GPS receiver is connected too. 

When I test COM5 I can see all 6 NMEA messages being streamed (including the GST message)

Back in collector I selected the integrated receiver as the location provider. The location of the "integrated receiver" was showing the location of the GPS receiver however the Horizontal Accuracy and Vertical Accuracy were shown as 2m when Captivate was showing the true accuracy to be around 25mm. 

Since the accuracy isn't being shown as 25mm in collector I think that Collector isnt reading the GST message through the integrated receiver.

2) Are there any specific setting that are required when setting up the GPSDirect Driver to get the GST message through to Collector? or is the GPSReverse (COM Port Driver) required to be installed?

Miaogeng Zhang‌

Any help will be much appreciated 

Thanks

Hugh 

[MatthewCriel]

Hello

This is just a suggestion-

If you cant find a solution for your Panasonic FZ-G1 issues, I would look into pairing the GS16 with a android device running Leicas Zeno Connect to transmit NMEA and RTK streams.

Regards,

[HughWyn-Harris]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for the suggestion, however I don't think the Lecia GS16 can connect to Lecia Zeno Connect as this is for the GG02/03/04 units. I think the app NTRIP Client for Android could be used to connect to RTK.

Regards

[MatthewCriel]

Hi Hugh,

Not a perfect solution. But I can confirm that the app NTRIP Client does work, I have used it in the past to send a RTK stream to a Trimble Geo XH device.

Best of Luck

Matt

[AliceBreault-Germain]

Matthew Criel Hello, I am trying to do the same (connecting a GS16 and receiving NMEA messages to use as a mock location provider with the Android app "NTRIP" by Lefebure). Do you happen to remember the settings you had or if you did anything special to make the connection work? With my current setup, I am not receiving data on the Android app but it is working on the Windows app. However, it would be preferable to use the Android app because of the mock location provider option that is not so straight forward with a Windows tablet. 

Here is my setup :

- GS16 with NMEA license (v8)

- RTK Port = BT1

- NMEA Port = BT2 (outputs set to GGA, GSA, GSV, RMC, VTG, GST)

- Bluetooth connection to the GS16 with either an Android phone or tablet (Getac ZX70)

- RTK connection to a public network (MERN)

→ However, no NMEA messages received and a waiting warning for GGA displayed (see image)

[HughWyn-Harris]

Update: I have talked to Michael Chourdakis (the developer of GPSdirect) and he has said the GST sentence cannot pass though the Windows sensor interfaces. This explains the 2nd question I had about collector receiving the GST message through the GPSDirect Driver.

I am still keen to know why collector will not allow me to select the Leica GS16 GPS receiver directly over Bluetooth as a location profile receiver 

[GeoffreyDeLano]

Hi Hugh, I am also having this same issue. What firmware version is the GS16 using? I get the same "connection failed" message in Collector on my Windows tablet. In Collector for Android, there is no "connection failed" message and it looks like it is connected, but no location is received.

We only have this issue while the GS16 is on firmware 7.50 or 7.52. We are able to successfully make the connection by rolling the firmware back to 6.04...but that firmware doesn't send the GST NMEA messages so the accuracy that is reported in Collector only gets down to about 12'.

[HughWyn-Harris]

Hi Geoffrey,

Thanks for the reply. I have been using firmware 7.52. I have been in contact with Leica and this is the lastest reponse. 

"I think I’ve got to the bottom of this problem. From SmartWorx Viva v6.16 onwards the Bluetooth connection on our GS sensors supports two SPP (serial) ports instead of just one previously. We introduced this feature as a request from many other 3rd party applications. The second port is now commonly used to push the RTK data from any 3rd party application to the GS. The first serial port is the one, where the NMEA data is streamed.

It seems that ArcGIS uses a service (you cannot directly set the port) to establish the connection and it expects only 1 SPP port from our device, but instead receives two and does not know what to do with it or uses the incorrect port.

At the minute we cannot change the behaviour of our sensors, because it was a request from many 3rd party developers. Instead could you take a different approach to request ESRI to adapt their application?"

Hopefully ESRI releases an update in the future that allows for Leica GPS senors to use the Collector App without having to download a 3rd Party app. 

[GeoffreyDeLano]

Thanks Hugh. Leica just back to me as well with that same info. The support rep also added that ESRI is aware of the issue, and that Leica reported it to them in July 2018.

[HughWyn-Harris]

Hi Geoffrey,

Leica has updated their firmware for the GNSS receivers which now allows the GNSS receiver to connect directly to Collector while streaming the GST message.