Comparing Emlid and Trimble GNSS Receivers
A recent study conducted by Chris Nichols from Brian Blakeman Surveys evaluated the performance of his existing Trimble GNSS equipment against Emlid Reach RS2 GNSS receivers. His work comparing Emlid and Trimble GNSS receivers was published as a detailed study titled GNSS Showdown in Position magazine. As Emlid dealers – we were very happy to see the results of his research!
Real World Survey Tasks
Equipment spec sheets don’t always tell the whole story. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to undertake common ‘real world’ survey tasks and compare a high-end current model ‘brand-name’ receiver with an affordable alternative, evaluating the differences in performance. The survey was completed during January 2021 in central Australia, where a mix of urban and remote environments supports a range of equipment testing scenarios.
Detailed Case Study
The full case study includes:
- RTK Performance (Easy, Medium, Hard & Urban Terrain)
- RTK Performance Comparison Against Government Survey Marks Using Local Base
- RTK Performance Against Government Survey Marks Using AUSCORS
- A Comparison of RINEX Logs Post-Processed on AUSPOS
Emlid vs Trimble Video Overview
Alistair Hart from Mangoesmapping, a reseller for Map Gear provides a brief overview in the video below. A link to the PDF comparing Emlid and Trimble GNSS receivers is in the resources link at the base of this page.
“Today I want to talk to you about our Emlid GNSS RTK products that we offer to the market.
A lot of you may not have heard of Emlid as it’s not one of the traditional big name brands. It doesn’t come with the traditional big name price either, yet it still offers comparable precision.”
Comparison Testing
“This was demonstrated recently by one of our users who compared Trimble hardware to Emlid hardware. They found that when they compared the RTK of observations of the equipment, they had good agreement with the local benchmarks when receiving corrections via local radios from the respective bases and also from AUSCORS. That was pretty encouraging.”
Static Logging
“They took it a step further they also did some static logging. They collected some RINEX files and post-processed these through AUSCORS and again they had good agreement with the benchmark over which they were observing.
Another difference between Emlid and Trimble gear is that with the Emlid gear you can download the RINEX file right off the receiver and process it directly in AUSCORS. With the Trimble gear you do need to download the TO2 file and on your desktop convert that to a RINEX file for use in AUSCORS.”
A different workflow
“The other feedback we got from this customer (who is a long time Trimble user), is that they found that the Emlid stuff took a little bit of getting used to. The survey workflow was a little bit different. Once they got their head around it they confessed that they sort of default to that hardware for its ease of use. They still go back to the Trimble gear when they really need it for a specific reason.”
Significantly more affordable
“Initially Trimble users can expect that there will be a little bit of learning involved. If you’re buying hardware that’s significantly more affordable, often that’s pain that’s worth adopting.
If you’d like to see the full case study and learn more about the differences and the similarities between Emlid and Trimble hardware please take a look at the in depth case study.”
