How strong of a satellite signal is needed for snowblowing?

Support & Solutions Set up & Installation
1

Recently received the Yarbo core and snowblower module. All I will use the Yarbo for is to clear snow.

Firmware 3.6.0

Android App version 3.15.6

Data Center version 1.1.1

I have been having problems with getting the data center set up because of “Poor” satellite signal. (Being adressed in a separate thread.) But, that problem made me wonder about something else.

  1. If the satellite signal is “Poor” for the data center that is mounted on our roof, I thought, Well, then the signal must be even weaker on the ground/driveway. So, even if I can fix the problem of the data center mounted on the roof getting a poor signal, when the Yarbo is driving in the driveway (on northeast side of the house) to clear snow will it simply not work because the signal is even weaker at ground level? Or, are the (high) RTK antennas on the Yarbo core more robust than the RTK antenna on the data center and thus they will work fine with weaker signals? (Since the data center is mounted on the roof I can’t walk around the driveway now with it to view signal strength, but before I mounted it on the roof I did and it always showed “Poor” everywhere on our driveway. So, I downloaded an android app (“GPS Test”), and on the driveway I always get an average strength reading of 33.x - 36.x, which I thought confirmed the data center saying the signal was poor on the driveway.)
2

@badstuff9 is the data center version listed above correct? My data center shows version V1.025 and says it’s the latest.

IMG_838D3C1D204E-1
IMG_838D3C1D204E-11125×2436 72 KB

3

That is a correct version for some DC’s.

1 Like
4

That does seem poor but the antennas on the rover should have a higher gain and might cut through that. They also are of a better design for picking up GPS. You might be fine.

1 Like
5

I’m not sure that the core receiving better than the DC Center. The core is driving in space where there are obstacles above or near. For me, I have lot a stop of Yarbo waiting better signal.

And normally, I think, this is not the case for Yarbo, but as RTK device, the core could have its position with the help of the DC.

1 Like
6

I was referring to their test using the cellphone and an app. The core should in theory have better GPS reception than a cellphone.

It’s an important note that the DC doesn’t solve GPS problems. Both the DC and the Rover have to see the same satellites. They compare notes and are constantly communicating to compare these notes (fixed point reference of the DC vs the current position the rover thinks it is). Doing some complex math, the rover can achieve cm level accuracy when it has an RTK status of 4 and a good quality GPS signal (little to no interference or multipath).

1 Like