[Qgis-user] wishing for accurate lattitude/longitude from a cell phone

Sat May 23 13:43:00 PDT 2020

Hello all. Regarding GNSS precision, I also find useful the Trimble online GNSS planning website:

https://www.gnssplanning.com/#/settings

Which lets you pick a location and timeframe, and it will show you the real time status of each GNSS constellation, and lets you pick some or all. It will compute your DOP, number of satellites from each constellation in view, a sky plot, and also ionospheric index, TEC (Total Electron Content), and scintillation. This is all useful for planning when would be the optimum time to do your field measurements. A good teaching tool for GNSS as well.

My experience with GNSS is that you do get what you pay for. A ~$200 Garmin with WAAS gives us reliable ~2meters, cell phones ~10 meters, and you can pay for ~ cm with the surveying class kinematic systems. It all depends on what you are measuring and what precision you require.

Scott Madry

On May 23, 2020, at 3:53 PM, Mike Hyslop <mdhyslop at mtu.edu<mailto:mdhyslop at mtu.edu>> wrote:

If you don't want to attempt to engineer your own GNSS hardware + software, you may want to check out the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor. Yes, it's in the neighborhood of $500 US, but gives relatively consistent positions within about 1 meter with averaging, its data can be differentially corrected using the RTKLIB open-source software, and if you are working in an area with cell service, it can receive real-time corrections via NTRIP networks if this is available in your area (it is here in Michigan). Some Googling will turn up tutorials. I have done some simple comparisons with Trimble hardware and have been pleased with the results.

Best,
Mike

On Sat, May 23, 2020 at 3:45 PM <j.huber at post-ist-da.de<mailto:j.huber at post-ist-da.de>> wrote:
Hi Nicolas,

there are several potentially accurate GNSS modules available, even sensitive choke ring antennas aren't that expensive. What's time consuming and difficult is building a whole functioning system (integration and software).
This would be a great university project - develop an open source GNSS system based on relatively unexpensive components. It should be possible to get the cost down from over a thousand to several hundred euro. This could also be the basis for a "free" correction data service built on private reference stations. Just dreaming...

I agree that for precision, "old school" technology is often better and cheaper, although it requires more effort than simply pushing a button.

Regards
Jochen

Am 23.05.20 um 20:21 schrieb Nicolas Cadieux:
Hi,

I looked at the page.It looks like a neat project!  Buy time you buy a case, antenna... (I don’t think they come with on), your back into the price range of a forestry grade survey GPS unit.  I think the Emild single band gps (https://emlid.com/reachrs/ <https://emlid.com/reachrs/> ) is probably a better choice unless you really want to make this a learning project. But if I understand you are really on a shoe string budget.

None of these Gps, by the way, would beat and old theodolite...  if you can establish or find a good gps position (look for the city or state geomatics services) or survey point,  a théodolite would give you survey grade positions.  City have these points on every few blocks.  You may be able to find A theodolite for free.  A second hand TotalStation could be better but that will be more difficult to find in those price ranges (Shoe string).  You can also rent equipment or find a college that would take this up as a teaching opportunity.

Have fun!

Nicolas Cadieux
Ça va bien aller!

Le 23 mai 2020 à 13:52, Bernd Vogelgesang <bernd.vogelgesang at gmx.de><mailto:bernd.vogelgesang at gmx.de> a écrit :

Unfortunately, the Forest Service Website went offline (maybe this thread caused so much traffic that it broke down? ;) )

I'm also desperately searching for an affordable way to have at least some decent accuracy. I do not need submeter, but it would be fantastic if it was possible to achieve meter accuracy.
I gave up on that Garmin stuff. They might be accurate, but I have no chance to control this until I return home and put the recorded data on screen over an aerial image. Those screens are a joke, and the business logic that prevents me to put reasonable aerial imagery on the device without paying a fortune is apita. Maybe this improved cause I last checked 5 years ago.

Mobile phones at least in my case seem to get worse. My Motorola from 2016 had an accuracy of less than 4 meters, most of the time less than 2.
Now I bought a Huawei 30 pro cause of the camera (my first phone with nice pictures!), but the accuracy is a nightmare. The position is jumping around like a dog on rabies.
I also bought a bluetooth device (Navilock BT-821G) two years ago. This is much better than the phones GPS, tho it only receives 20 satellites maximum (The phone claims to receive some 40). But also this device sometimes, when walking a transect, is constantly 5 meters off the track for several several minutes.

As apps averaging the positions were mentioned: Does anyone have a recommendation on such apps (for Android)? I found some, but the usability was not that great, and some even didn't enhance anything.

Furthermore, I stumble upon an article about a module with u-blox chip. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/16481
Does anyone have any experience with modules like this and what else is needed? The description of all the stuff leaves me a bit puzzled.

Cheers,

Bernd

On 23.05.20 18:17, Michael.Dodd wrote:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00118.x I did this quite a few years ago but in the graph in supplimentary material it shows how the accuracy of one consumer grade gps varies over time (at a fixed point). At the time I also did a lot more measurements using mobile phones and consumer grade units on a grid of points in the field, that was not published but basically the phones were often as good as if not better than the consumer grade gps units especially when using certain apps to average points.
[X]<https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00118.x>
Where are my quadrats? Positional accuracy in fieldwork - Dodd - 2011 - Methods in Ecology and Evolution - Wiley Online Library<https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00118.x>
Introduction. There has been much written about sampling design, spatial scale and the need for permanent plots in ecological long‐term monitoring, for example, the paper on spatial scaling in ecology has been cited over 1500 times, but one frequently ignored issue, intimately associated with sampling design, scale and permanence of plots, is how to locate positions accurately.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com<http://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/>

________________________________
From: Qgis-user <qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Nicolas Cadieux <nicolas.cadieux at archeotec.ca><mailto:nicolas.cadieux at archeotec.ca>
Sent: 23 May 2020 16:34
To: Randal Hale <rjhale at northrivergeographic.com><mailto:rjhale at northrivergeographic.com>
Cc: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] wishing for accurate lattitude/longitude from a cell phone

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Hi,

This is a very interesting list. It basically confirms what I thought. Consumer Point and shoot deceives are all around 2-6m with no canopy. The average multiple positions basically give you a better idea as a gps may get lucky.  It would be nice to have the full methodology for this and more data (like the number of satellite and the position of the constellation and the gps price list) but it’s very interesting none the less.  I was also happy that the data confirms the precision of the gps Sx-Blue 11. This claims to be sub meter and my tests indicated that on our office unit but it’s nice to see it done elsewhere.  For about 2000$, this gps is pretty good. As for the rest, the difference between 150$ and 1000$ is probably  more a function of the options (like maps and screen size...) and not a question of precision. It would be nice to know what gps chips they are running...

Interesting thing also is that based on my reviewing the data on my phone (without graph or cross tabulation tables) is that the Glonas Constellation does not seem to help much.  Quick stats on this list would confirm this. Maybe this is just a figment of my imagination because there’s only so much information you can grad without running proper stats.

Thanks for the post.

Nicolas Cadieux
Ça va bien aller!

> Le 23 mai 2020 à 09:02, Randal Hale <rjhale at northrivergeographic.com><mailto:rjhale at northrivergeographic.com> a écrit :
>
> One other thing that may or may not be of use but the USDA Forest Service Publishes a GPS Receiver Report that covers phones - and that's helped if I've had a client go "Well I have a Apple <something> or a Android <thing>". At least I feel slightly better going "good enough" or "no not good enough".
>
> It should be good worldwide (but I will admit I think phones are my 'tech ceiling' these days) but your mileage may vary.
>
> https://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/mtdcrept/accuracy/index.htm
>
> Randy
>
>> On 5/22/20 8:55 PM, Priv.-Doz. Dr. Maria Shinoto wrote:
>> Somehow I did not follow the discussion, but like to add some of our experience.
>>
>> We are doing field work in a remote region in the southern Japanese mountains, archaeological surveys on the ground based on LiDAR data.
>>
>> A simple Garmin etrex10 is mostly reliable in an area of 40cm by 40cm around a measured point, if used repeatedly at this point and the point is located in the middle of a valley. Even cell phones do a good enough job. As soon as we get closer to the steep slopes, the accuracy of the Garmin is less than 5 to 10 meters. We can check this with the detailed LiDAR based map, and geologists told us, that even an expensive device could not be more precise under these conditions. So we decided to measure traditionally on the ground if precise measure is necessary, otherwise note the GPS data and the location as shown in the map.
>>
>> To sum up, we came to the conclusion not to spend money on an expensive GPS that may not work in the shadow of steep slopes -- or in the streets of New York. -- I appreciate any additional advice, and hope that this experience can save Steve's organisation some money...
>>
>> Best,
>> Maria
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Am 23.05.2020 um 03:54 schrieb Stephen Sacks <sacks44 at earthlink.net><mailto:sacks44 at earthlink.net>:
>>>
>>> In order to make widely available some wise advice, I'm sending to this list a message I received from Neil B.  In addition to Neil's message below, I want to mention that Nicolas Cadieux also provided similar information, saying I'd have to pay around $1,000 for equipment that gives consistently accurate location coordinates.  And thanks, also to Falk Huettmann and Bernd Vogelgesang for their replies.
>>>
>>>
>>> Message from Neil B:
>>>
>>> Hello Stephen.
>>> Glad that you're having su
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