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H520 RTK News?

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Hello,

Am I the only one who is still waiting for the H520 RTK units to be officially announced and delivery? I do a lot of mapping and volume calculations with my H520 so RTK upgrade is something that would really increase my performance. As a satisfied Yuneec customer I've been waiting for this upgrade since it was presented at CES 2019 and that's more then a year ago. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is lack of official statement from Yuneec whenever this unit is going to be ever shipped. I talked to my local dealer and they can not get any information about those units production from Yuneec. Although I am surveyor and I do own a survey grade GPS-RTK and Total Station units I believe RTK onboard is nowadays a "must-have" if your daily job is drone photogrammetry. And this is becouse you can be more productive and competitive if you want to stay in the "business".
What do you think about this situation and Yuneec behaviour? Do you believe if they are going to deliver the RTK units? If anyone has any information or heard any roumors about H520 RTK I'll be glad if you share.

Greetings.
 
Partner, really, there's not much to say. Yuneec is known for this sort of thing. It should have come out by now, but what do you want me to tell you, better not to get it out with faults and when it does, let it work well. I guess, that's the reason for the delay. I'm looking forward to seeing a good review of its operation.
 
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You could stop waiting for Yuneec and go with Emlid's RTK/PPK system and it would probably be cheaper than the Yuneec RTK upgrade. I've seen an H520 with one hooked up on it so it's definitely doable. You would then have the option to transfer it to another drone in the future, say Yuneec went belly up and you couldn't get replacement parts for the H520, then you're not stuck with dumping a bunch of money in a drone you can't use. Also, I've heard that you will still need to put in some GCPS in your flight even with an RTK upgrade as photogrammetry doesn't always get the elevations correct and it's good practice to double check these items, so I'm not sure if it is really worth the cost for the RTK upgrade. Just some food for thought.
 
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You could stop waiting for Yuneec and go with Emlid's RTK/PPK system and it would probably be cheaper than the Yuneec RTK upgrade. I've seen an H520 with one hooked up on it so it's definitely doable. You would then have the option to transfer it to another drone in the future, say Yuneec went belly up and you couldn't get replacement parts for the H520, then you're not stuck with dumping a bunch of money in a drone you can't use. Also, I've heard that you will still need to put in some GCPS in your flight even with an RTK upgrade as photogrammetry doesn't always get the elevations correct and it's good practice to double check these items, so I'm not sure if it is really worth the cost for the RTK upgrade. Just some food for thought.

That option has been and always will be, but the most important thing is lost in my opinion. The integration of the whole system, that the photos come out of the camera already referenced exactly without depending on possible failures, that at least are given, making PPK or taking out of a register the timestamps of the RTK which is how I do it. The integration is a big time gain and you minimize the errors to the own capacity of the system and as we all know, time is gold ;)
 
Do you have it on pre-order? Have you talked to Vertigo Drones or Yuneec sales?

I'm on the customer waiting list through my local Yuneec dealer. However, I did not pre-order it officialy because this would require pre-paid and I would not invest in a stuff that is not even in production. Furthermore, I called Yuneec Europe located in Germany to gather some information about H520 RTK - they do not have any news.

You could stop waiting for Yuneec and go with Emlid's RTK/PPK system and it would probably be cheaper than the Yuneec RTK upgrade. I've seen an H520 with one hooked up on it so it's definitely doable. You would then have the option to transfer it to another drone in the future, say Yuneec went belly up and you couldn't get replacement parts for the H520, then you're not stuck with dumping a bunch of money in a drone you can't use. Also, I've heard that you will still need to put in some GCPS in your flight even with an RTK upgrade as photogrammetry doesn't always get the elevations correct and it's good practice to double check these items, so I'm not sure if it is really worth the cost for the RTK upgrade. Just some food for thought.

Emlid Reach is a great option, and I did consider to modify H520 by myself (I do have some RC background based on Pixhawk multirotor builds) but I couldn't find any information about pairing it with E90 camera shutter to get precise timestamps for PPK processing. Regarding ground control and check points I do always use them, no matter if I fly RTK onborad drone or not - it is just necessary to control accuracy results. Simply put, RTK onboard is not mentioned to get rid of GCP points - it is just great option to improve your performance by reducing number of GCP and strengthen aerotriangulation on hard tasks e.g. corridor surveys.
 
Am I the only one who is still waiting for the H520 RTK units to be officially announced and delivery?

No, you are not. Hope it will still come despite of or paralelly to a launch of a new "E" version in mid Oct. Fingers crossed our "old" birds will not be completely forgotten and left aside by Yuneec.
 
waiting for the H520 RTK units to be officially announced and delivery?
It is my understanding the RTK unit for the H520 was to be supplied by 3DR. Apparently they have never been able to produce a usable product for the application. That would be the reason for the H520e RTK.
 
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It is my understanding the RTK unit for the H520 was to be supplied by 3DR. Apparently they have never been able to produce a usable product for the application. That would be the reason for the H520e RTK.
If this is going to be a case and old h520 will fail to be offered an upgrade to RTK I will consider selling my bundle. As for h520E I am not sure wheter I will go for it. Maybe a second hand M210 RTK could be an option.(?) Provided can find one.
 
I've got the news that RTK update will be possible before H520E release- If someone From Europe is interested PM me.
 
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I've got the news that RTK update will be possible before H520E release- If someone From Europe is interested PM me.
Are you talking about that one ?
Price is 660CHF module + antenna
 
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That option has been and always will be, but the most important thing is lost in my opinion. The integration of the whole system, that the photos come out of the camera already referenced exactly without depending on possible failures, that at least are given, making PPK or taking out of a register the timestamps of the RTK which is how I do it. The integration is a big time gain and you minimize the errors to the own capacity of the system and as we all know, time is gold ;)
Personally I'm not going to trust any RTK system on a drone until the L5 GNSS channel is ready for the public. I have seen too many RTK surveys with float conditions occurring to be able to accept it for our tolerances. One of the major contributors to this is the distance that the Drone gets from the base. Even survey grade GNSS systems have trouble carrying a radio link consistently over half a mile unless you run a caster and that capability would need to be added to the drone configuration.

Everything we do is PPK except for rare occasions with the Emlid system in which we can run RTK and log for PPK at the same time. This option is currently not available on any other drone systems including the new Matrice 300 RTK.
 
Are you talking about that one ?
Price is 660CHF module + antenna
I was thinking about this one
It should be available soon.
 
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Are you talking about that one ?
Price is 660CHF module + antenna
Yes, this is said to be the one.
I talked to the German service two weeks or so ago and they expected Fixposition would be ready in Nov.
Let's see.
 
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Yes, this is said to be the one.
I talked to the German service two weeks or so ago and they expected Fixposition would be ready in Nov.
Let's see.
That's really unfortunate. This chipset is going to limit which software is going to be able to be used for data collection and post-processing so basically they ignorantly went the way of DJI. Just put a huge damper on my excitement for this new model... I guess I'll get the standard E and stick with my Emlid.
 
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