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A Tutorial to SurvCE: how make a first survey.

The purpose of this tutorial is to drive the user in an easy way to perform a first survey using a

controller and the software SurvCE. This tutorial refers to a Windows Mobile 6 controller.

1. Bluetooth start up

After you have switched on the controller, click on Bluetooth icon , the Wireless Manager will

open.

Fig. 1 The wireless manager

Check that Bluetooth device is on, otherwise click on the icon and it switches on.

Note: The handheld can connect and control the mainframe in about 50 meters range. This mode

usually fits for surveyors. In case of problems with Bluetooth device, there is also the possibility to

use a cable for the connection, but in this case the range is limited by the cable length.

2. SurvCE first operation

When SurvCE is activated for the first time, if your software is in DEMO mode, the following

message appears:

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Fig. 2 Registration advise

You can choose if you want to register your software or if you prefer to register it later. Anyway

don’t worry about this problem, because you can make your first survey also in DEMO version. At

the end of this tutorial you can find a simple explanation about the registration procedure.

Then the program ask you if you want to “Continue Last job” or to “Select New/Existing Job”.

Fig. 3 First question

Click on “Select New/Existing Job”. Then write a name for the .CRD file which contains all the

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information about the job. Finally click on the icon .

Fig. 4 Insert job name

3. Defining the reference system

Now you can define some general properties of the job in the submenu “Job Settings”. For a

description of these properties you can read the SurvCE manual, the only important setting for a

first survey is defining in the submenu “System”, the unit of the distance (Metric, US Feet or

International Feet) and the reference system (the map projection).

Fig. 5 System Settings

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If you can’t find the proper projection, you can search it clicking on “Edit Projection List” and then

“Add Predefined”.

Fig. 6 Selecting Coordinate Projection

A window, which contains the most used projections for each country, is opened.

Fig. 7 Selecting Coordinate Projection

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If you can’t even find here the suited projection, there is still the possibility of defining a new one,

by selecting “Add User Defined” in the submenu visualized in fig.6 and inserting the projection

parameters.

Fig. 8 Customizing a projection

It should be noted that there is also another way for calculating the local projection coordinates:

defining a transformation file using two or three double known points (points with coordinates in

both WGS84 and local system). At the end of this tutorial you can read a briefing about this matter.

When you have set the properties, click on the icon .

4. Connecting a device

Now the program will ask you if you want to “Connect to last Bluetooth device” or “Continue

without connection”. Click on “Continue without connection”.

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Fig. 9 Question about Bluetooth

The program is now effective. There are 5 submenu in the top of the screen: “File”, “Equip”,

“Survey”, “COGO” and “Road”.

Fig. 10 Main menu

Click on “Equip” menu: you can select and set your instruments: Total Station, GPS base or GPS

rover. Click on “GPS base” or “GPS rover”, depending on the chosen configuration of the receiver.

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Fig. 11 Equipment menu

Both “GPS base” and “GPS rover” submenus contains 4 submenus: “Current”, “Comms”,

“Receiver” and “RTK”.

Fig. 12 GPS Rover menu

Inside “Current” submenu, select the name of the manufacturer and of the model. There are three

Stonex model available: S86, S82 and S9.

Inside “Comms” submenu, select Bluetooth as “Type” and Windows Mobile as “Device”.

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Fig. 13 Comms menu

Now click on the icon , “Bluetooth Devices” submenu is opened.

Fig. 14 Bluetooth device menu

Click on “Find Receiver”, the program searches for all near Bluetooth devices. Probably the

program will find more than one device, each identified by a different code (“Receiver ID”), you

must select the same code as shown on the label of the receiver. Then you can set a proper name for

the receiver clicking on “Set Receiver Name”, but it is not necessary.

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Fig. 15 Selecting the correct Bluetooth device

Now click on the icon and the connection between controller and receiver will be opened.

However user can check on the receiver display if the connection has been successful (middle red

led on). Software will come back to the “Comms” submenu. Now in the textbox “Instr” you can just

find the code of the receiver.

Fig. 16 Comms menu

In case of a problem with Bluetooth devices you can use a cable connection: select Cable as “Type”

and the correct COM number in “Port”.

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Fig. 17 Cable connection

Now click on the icon and the connection between controller and receiver will be opened, you

will see the message “Connection Successful”.

5. Receiver general settings

Inside “Receiver” submenu, on the top you can find that the offset of the phase center, that is the

distance from the bottom of the receiver to phase center, has just been selected by the program

based on the receiver model previously chosen. You have only to insert the height of the antenna in

the “Antenna Height” textbox, that is the distance from the unknown surveyed point on the ground

to the bottom of receiver. Please tick off NGS box for enabling the “absolute antenna offset”

(nowadays the “relative antenna offset” is usually no longer used). You can also specify the

minimum elevation of satellites in degrees (into “Elevation Mask” box) and the acquisition rate in

Hz (into the “Position Rate” box). Finally if you tick off “Store Vectors in Raw Data” box, for every

stored points in “fixed” condition SurvCE will save also the variance-covariance matrix.

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Fig. 18 Receiver menu

Inside “RTK” submenu, you must insert in “Device” textbox the device used by the receiver to

connect to the reference base or to rover: “Internal GSM” if the receiver is configured with

GPRS\GSM module, “Internal UHF” if the receiver is configured with “built-in radio”, “Cable or

Generic Device” if the receiver is configured with “external radio”.

Fig. 19 RTK menu

6. Operating a rover with a GPRS connection to CORS

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If you have selected “Internal GSM”, then click on the icon to configure this device: you have

to select the provider of the service (the telephone company) in “Provider” textbox, if you can’t find

it select “Other”.

Fig. 20 Internal GSM device menu

Then click on “Settings” for the APN (Access Point Note) settings necessary for the connection to

internet: you have to insert “APN Server”, “APN User Name”, “APN Password” depending on your

telephone company and your kind of subscription.

Fig. 21 APN Settings menu

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In Fig.20 you can see also a textbox called “DNS”, this is an option which will be clearer in the

following, at the moment you have to leave it empty.

When the parameters are inserted in APN Settings page, click two times on the icon and the

device will start its configuration procedure: if you see the message “Device Configured”, it’s all

right.

Fig. 22 Device configured message

On the contrary if the error “The device did not respond to command” (or other messages) occurs,

there should be some problems, which are explained in the detailed report of the error, so please

repeat the configuration another time.

After returned to “RTK” submenu (Fig.19), you have to select the network protocol to use (NTRIP,

TCP, etc.) in “Network” textbox. Then Click on the icon for configuring the network

parameter.

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Fig. 23 NTRIP Broacasters menu

After giving a name to the network, you have to insert “IP Address”, “Port”, “User Name” and

“Password”: these parameters depends on the administrator of the GPS network.

Some users could prefer to give the URL address instead of the IP Address, for allowing this choice

you have first to come back to the Internal GSM configuration menu (Fig.20) and insert in the

“DNS” textbox the IP address of one server of the telephone company. This server will convert your

URL address into the usual IP Address. In the picture below you can see an example of using a URL

address:

Fig. 24 NTRIP Broadcasters menu using a URL address

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After the correct configuration, click on the icon for opening the connection. The procedure can

last some tens of seconds: you can see the message “Selecting Modem/Radio” for a while, then

“Connection to Broadcaster”. If the error “Unable to get base data ….” (or other messages) occurs,

there should be some problems, so please repeat the configuration. On the contrary if the connection

is established, the receiver will download the different positioning methods or the different bases

available showing the message “Loading bases”.

Fig. 25 Connection procedure messages

Then a new page is opened where you can choose among different positioning methods. Usually

you can choose a single base or a multi-base approach using different calculation algorithms (VRS,

FKP, IMAX, etc.).

Each method could have a different format for broadcasting the corrections to the receiver (for

example RTCM 2.3, RTCM 3.0, CMR, CMR +, etc.). Please contact the network administrator for

selecting the suited format or algorithm. After selecting the method, click on the icon and you

will return to “RTK” submenu.

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Fig. 26 Selection of different methods

Finally click on the icon and your receiver should connect to the network and begin to receive

the corrections. This procedure can take some tens of seconds and you can see the message

“Selecting Modem/Radio”, then “Waiting for reading”, then a message like “[IP Address]: [Port

number] [positioning methods]”.

Fig.27 Final connection procedure

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Finally if the message “Connection Successful” appears it’s all right.

Fig. 28 Successful Connection message

On the contrary if the error “Unable to start NTRIP RTK Stream” (or other messages) occurs, there

should be some problems.

7. Operating a rover with a radio connection to CORS

If you have selected “Internal UHF” in the “Device” textbox of “RTK” menu (Fig. 19), then click

on the icon for configuring this device: you have to select the radio channel used by the

transmitting base radio.

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Fig. 29 Internal radio configuration menu

Click on the icon and you will come back to “RTK” submenu. If there is no problem the

message “Device configured” appears, otherwise an error message occurs. Then you should select

the correct format in “Message Type” textbox, even if S9 rover can set itself automatically on the

base format.

Fig. 30 RTK menu

8. Operating a base transmitting with an external radio

If you have selected “Cable or Generic Device”, you have to select for the receiver the same baud

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rate of the radio in “Baud” textbox: select 19,200 bps except for specific cases, then you have to

choose the format of the information in “Message Type” textbox. The format available at the

moment are CMR, CMR+, RTCM 2.3 and RTCM 3. You should consider that the format CMR+

and RTCM3 can send also the Glonass correction.

Fig. 31 External radio configuration menu

Then click on the icon , software asks you which coordinates have the base in the “Base

Configuration” menu:

Fig. 32 Base configuration menu

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The program ask you if the base position is a known position or a new position.

In the first case you can specify if the position comes from a point already stored into the active

project (“Previously Surveyed Point”), if user have to insert the local coordinates (“Use Local

Coordinates”) or if the position are taken from a base position saved file (“Read From File”).

In the second case you must calculate the new position: you can use an approximate positioning

from an average of raw GPS measurements (“Read from GPS”), write the exact geographical

WGS84 coordinates (“Enter Lat/Lon”) or insert the exact local coordinates (“Enter Grid System

Coordinates”).

Choose the proper option based on your kind of survey: consider that in a new job you have to

select a new position. In the tutorial we shows the most comment option, that is user already knows

the base coordinates into a local projection: if you have selected a local projection in the Job

Settings menu, now you have to select “Enter Grid System Coordinates” in the “Base

Configuration” menu.

Fig.33 Inserting grid coordinates menu

A new page is opened: you have to insert the Northing, Easting and Height coordinates. If a geoid

file has been loaded into the software, you have the possibility of inserting an ellipsoidal height or

an orthometric height, on the contrary you can only insert an ellipsoidal height.

Then the program converts the inserted position into WGS-84 coordinates and advises you in case

the position calculated from GPS observation is very different from the position given by you. In

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this case please check your local coordinates and repeat the base configuration, on the contrary if

there is no error the software ask you to confirm this position.

Fig. 34 Base configuration procedure

Click on “Yes”, finally the program asks you if you want to store your base coordinates into a file

(“Save Settings to File”). After this question the entire procedure of initializing the base is

concluded and you can proceed with the survey.

Appendix 1: How to register SurvCE

Open the page “Equip � About SurvCE � Change Registration” and arrive to the “Product

Registration” page.

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Fig. 35 Product registration page

Then you have to insert into “Serial Number” textbox, the software serial number found on CD box

or on the cartoon. Click on “Get Code” and a code of 8 numbers appears beside “Reg Code”.

Fig. 36 Product registration page

Then you have to go the website of Carlson to the page http://www.survce.com/Stonex, here you

can find the form for registering SurvCE.

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Fig. 37 Product registration page on Carlson website

Besides of writing your name, phone number, email, etc., you have to insert:

• “Serial Number”: the serial number printed on CD box or on controller cartoon.

• “Hardware ID #1” and “Hardware ID #2”: you can find it in the “Product Registration” page

on SurvCE (see Fig. 36).

• “Reason for install”: you have to select “Initial Installation of Stonex SurvCE.

• “Registration Code”: obtained in the previous step in the proper boxes in the “Product

Registation” page (see Fig. 36).

Then click on “Submit Registration”, you will get another code: this code has to be inserted into

“Enter Change Key” box in “Product Registration” page of your controller (you can see it in the

bottom of Fig. 36). Then click “Ok” and your registration procedure is finished.

Please go the website http://www.stonexeurope.com/downloads for download the last version of

Stonex SurvCE.

If you have a Carlson license instead of a Stonex one, the procedure is similar except the online

registration form which you can find on the website:

http://update.carlsonsw.com/register_survce.php

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Appendix 2: How to create a local system of coordinates

User may need to define a local system different from the usual projections, where all surveyed

points coordinates are referred to a local point which becomes the centre of the reference system.

For defining this kind of system, user have first to measure and store the surveyed points using the

usual projection, then he has to enter in the menu “File” � “Points”.

Fig. 38 Points menu

Once you have collected all points, you need to define the coordinates of your base point, click on

“Add”.

Fig. 39 Add point menu

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In this menu, you can define the three coordinates of your base point, then confirm with the

icon. You come back to the previous page and you can see that the point has been stored.

Fig. 40 Points menu

Now you have to come back to the “Equip” menu and select “Localization”. A new page is opened,

you have to select “Points” menu.

Fig. 41 Localization – Points menu

Now click on “Add” function and select the button showed by the red arrow.

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Fig. 42 Local Point menu

This command opens again the list of stored points, you have to select your base point.

Fig.43 Points Details menu

After the confirmation using the icon, software will ask you to provide the global coordinates

of the base point in order to match them and the local ones. There are three ways to recover the

global coordinates: collecting them at the moment with GPS observations, inserting manually or

selecting a peviously stored point. We have made a procedure in order to choose the third way: so

select “From Raw file”.

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Fig. 44 GPS Coordinates menu

Then you have to select, from the usual stored point list, the base point with the coordinates

collected with the usual projection.

Fig. 45 Selecting the local projection stored coordinates

After the confirmation with the icon, you come back in the “Localization � Points” menu (Fig.

41), then select “Save” button. Software will ask you to give a name to the localization file.

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Fig. 46 Localization File saving

After the confirmation with the icon, software will ask you to reprocess all stored points using

this new localization file: answer “Yes”.

Fig. 47 SurvCE asks you to reprocess all points

A new menu called “Process Raw File” is opened, select the icon. Contiue the procedure until

you come back to the “Points” menu: there you can see that all surveyed points are now referred to

the base points.

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Fig. 48 Points menu