Setting up a base station using AutoBase technology

SPS985/SPS986 GNSS smart antenna only.

The AutoBase feature influences how you set up the smart antenna as a base station. Before the receiver can transmit RTK corrections (that is, operate as an RTK base station), the current position of the smart antenna must correspond to a previous base station position. The base station position—latitude, longitude, and height—must be part of the GNSS site calibration.

You do not need to manually configure the base station receiver settings.

To perform the first base station setup at a new location, always use the Siteworksor SCS900 Site Controller software to initialize the smart antenna on a new point. You generally do this only once, the first time that you occupy the point, but see the Caution below. When the base station setup is complete, the smart antenna generates and stores an application file that contains the parameters for that location.

To perform a subsequent base station setup at the same location, simply press on the receiver. The smart antenna turns on, determines its location, finds the appropriate application file, initializes the settings, and starts to broadcast RTK CMR+ corrections through the internal radio or through the external radio (whichever radio was used the previous time).

When you perform a subsequent base station setup at the same location, the receiver assumes that there is no change to either the antenna height or the antenna height measurement method used previously. It is therefore essential that you keep the antenna height constant between setups. If there is any risk that the antenna height might have changed, you must use the Siteworksor SCS900 Site Controller software to start (and so reset) the smart antenna. From the SCS900 Site Controller software, select Start Base Station.

If the receiver uses an external radio, the AutoBase feature uses the Bluetooth wireless connection to the radio. If a Bluetooth connection is not used, the AutoBase feature searches the receiver communications ports for the external radio. When the receiver finds the external radio, the receiver transmits RTK CMR+ corrections to the radio.

Best practice

After each new base station setup, and at the start of every measurement session, Trimble recommends that you measure one known point to verify that the position and height errors are within tolerance. The measurement takes only a few seconds, but can eliminate the gross errors typically associated with daily base station setup.