Sub meter accuracy with Collector

[NathanielClement1]

Since there are some devices that can help improve the accuracy of iPads, I was wondering how to transfer that functionality into Collector. Specifically, I need to have sub-meter accuracy. Points that have a one meter buffer around them will need to be viewable and samples collected within that one meter. From what I can tell the highest scale you can use in Collector is 1:1500 which doesn't show the one meter buffer at all. And as far as accuracy, it seems that the best Collector can do is five meters. Is ESRI planning on changing the scale ranges and accuracy at all?

[BrianShepard · Accepted solution]

We are using iSXBlue II external GNSS devices connected via Bluetooth to iPad Airs, and here's what I understand.  Collector uses the accuracy reported by iOS which doesn't go lower than 5 meters.  We have confirmed that we are getting sub meter-accuracy with the SX Blue app and 3rd party apps on Android devices.  iOS won't pass that on to Collector (or any app), however.  You will never get sub-meter accuracy from the iPad's internal GNSS, you'll have to use an external GNSS.

I believe your scale issue may be related to the tiles that are cached using ESRI Basemaps.  If you tile your own basemap for a smaller area, you should be able to zoom in farther, but you'll probably have to use it as a disconnected map, set your extent and zoom range.  There's a tile/size limit for downloading the map, but I don't know that you can't get a larger scale if your extent is sufficiently small.

Hope that helps a bit.

[NathanielClement1]

Thank you, we've been looking at the iSXBlue II external GNSS device

[MTorres]

Brian Shepard, you said,"...and 3rd party apps on Android devices". Could you name those apps please? Thank you

[Kylie]

Today, Collector does support external GPS receivers. You'll see the submeter accuracy reflected within Collector.

High-accuracy receivers—Collector for ArcGIS | ArcGIS 

[BrianShepard]

Megan,

This is a really old thread.  I was using GPS Status on Android to report the GNSS receiver being used and the reported accuracy from the iSX Blue app.  As Kylie mentioned, this is now reported in Collector.  Setting up a device and location profile with a Bluetooth GNSS receiver in Collector ensures that you're only getting your location from that unit.

-Brian