Take Your Projects to New Heights with SparkFun RTK EVK
SparkFun's newest RTK option is now available!
Hello everyone and welcome back to another Friday Product Post here at SparkFun Electronics! This week, we only have a single product, but we promise that it's a big one! We are happy to introduce all of you to the new SparkFun RTK EVK. This enclosed GNSS platform is perfect development platform for your fixed or mobile high-precision positioning and navigation needs. Let jump in and take a closer look at it, shall we?
The newest enclosed RTK option is now available!
Designed and manufactured in Boulder, Colorado, USA, the SparkFun RTK EVK (Evaluation Kit) is the perfect development platform for your fixed or mobile high-precision positioning and navigation needs. Regarding connectivity, the SparkFun RTK EVK has it all: WiFi / Bluetooth®, Ethernet and LTE cellular! We called it the EVK (Evaluation Kit) as it truly covers all the options: L1 + L2 RTK GNSS, with L-Band correction built-in if needed, running on an agile processor with memory to spare!
Under the hood, the RTK EVK is based on the Espressif ESP32-WROVER processor with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM. The GNSS is the excellent dual-band (L1 + L2) ZED-F9P from u-blox. The integrated u-blox NEO-D9S provides L-Band reception and access to correction services such as PointPerfect. The u-blox LARA-R6001D provides global cellular connectivity; insert your nano SIM into the front panel, and away you go! A built-in USB hub provides direct access to all three u-blox modules if needed - very handy for firmware updates! A WIZnet W5500 provides 10 / 100 megabit Ethernet connectivity; PoE is supported, too. Data storage is microSD. The OLED display is 1.3 inches with 128x64 crisp white pixels.
The RTK EVK comes pre-loaded with our RTK Everywhere firmware. The firmware will let you do many things: configure the EVK as an RTK Base and push corrections to an NTRIP Caster over WiFi or Ethernet; configure the EVK as an RTK Rover and use corrections delivered over WiFi, Bluetooth or Ethernet. However, the firmware doesn't yet support LARA-R6 cellular. So, we've written and tested extra code examples that will allow you to stream MQTT correction data from a u-blox PointPerfect Localized Distribution topic via the LARA-R6 cellular chip. This example demonstrates how easy it is to subscribe to PointPerfect and only receive the IP correction data you need for your location, minimizing cellular data costs.
The RTK EVK includes a feature we call Zero-Touch RTK. Register the device, plug it into Ethernet or give the device the WiFi credentials for a hot spot or other WiFi network, enable PointPerfect, and it will begin getting corrections without any further setup. No NTRIP credentials required! These corrections are obtained over Ethernet or WiFi from u-blox PointPerfect and are available in the US, EU, and various parts of Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Korea (see the coverage map). The latest RTK Everywhere firmware supports both localized distribution and AssistNow. The RTK EVK includes a one month free subscription to PointPerfect L-Band+IP - covering both L-Band corrections from the inbuilt NEO-D9S and localized corrections delivered by IP. Additional subscriptions can be purchased if desired. If PointPerfect coverage is not available in your area, corrections from a local base station or service can be provided to the device over NTRIP (delivered via Ethernet, Bluetooth or WiFi).
That's it for this week. As always, we can't wait to see what you make! Shoot us a tweet @sparkfun, or let us know on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. Please be safe out there, be kind to one another! We'll be back with more new products next week so make sure to check back then. Happy hacking!
Bring back the AVC! The Sparkfun RTK EVK would really change the Autonomous Vehicle Competition. Navigation would be a snap. The competitors could focus on detecting other vehicles, moving objects, etc and not have to worry about where their vehicle is at any given time.
The AVC competition would be a terrific way to demonstrate the features of this new product.