New product, seems fine to making mapping, but don't know the cost, and whats the advantages/disadvantages comparing to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swiftnav/piksi-the-rtk-gps-receiver
The standard V-Map system now features the following components and functionalities:
L1/L2 GPS phase measurements recorded on board at 20Hz
Power input ranging from 5V to 36V
LED indicator to monitor satellite reception
LED indicator to monitor proper data storage
Event marker port
One PPS outputs
Removable micro SD card for data retrieval
Dual frequency helix antenna
The weight of the receiver excluding external cables and antenna is 120g.
V-MAP- PDF (http://www.microaerialprojects.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/The-20Hz-V-Map-System-Jul14.pdf)
Comments
@Martin
Same here. Been using a L1/L2 traditional base/rover setup with great senstivity. Trying to get RTKLib on the Ublox setup since we concluded the Ublox sensitivity is just plain superior to those GNSS systems. As for Piksi, their advantage is cost and weight... that's pretty much it, using just L1 (like a L1/L2-PPP hybrid) is a technological achievement if they can pull it off, but in the end, like the team Troubled Child, just get a GNSS setup and be done (you can get super lightweight rover units, but they are twice the cost of a normal rover.
I have been using similar system already two years. Also with RTK. The advantage comparing to pixy, is that it actually works in high dynamic environment, thanks to L1/L2 receiver. I tested a similar system to Pixy, also L1 only, both in RTK and post-processing. It worked well in static environment but the measurement of the phase is extremely sensitive- if you want to get down to cm-level acc. I have doubts that Pixy will reliably work (RTK fixed) on copters, due to the high EMI that disturbs the phase on L1. The price of the surveying-grade receiver is between 4-12k$ depending on the sw. options.
The main/huge difference between V-Map system and Piksi is that V-Map is an dual frequency, L1/L2 reciever, while Piksi is (at the moment) only single L1 GNSS reciever. L1 only is capable of decimeter precision, while L1/L2 is common in survey-grade equipment with cm (maybe mm) precision.
Other thing to mention; V-Map are based on existing Ashtech hardware, closed hw/sw (my guess), while Piksi is open. If ardupilot could be able to read the live stream/GNSS-ephemeris from V-Map/Ashtech/Piksi then ardupilot could do the positioning estimation itself by a tightly-coupled kalman filter. That would be awesome!!
The main difference between this and a Kickstarter is this is out there IRL and it seems working
Here is their web site: http://www.microaerialprojects.com/v-map/
They don't seem to mention price (except - affordable).
Wonder for whom? - small countries perhaps.
interesting, someone needs to find out how much...
Great product. Can't find any info regarding the cost of the system. Hope can fit to " low cost " category
Advantages compared to Piksi, * Integrated with Camera, * Still Kinematic but not real time so lighter...