Description
Why camera synchronization is so important
Usually autopilot triggers the camera and records the coordinate it has at that moment. When the drone is flying at 20m/s and GPS works at 5Hz, that means your autopilot will have position readings only each 4m, which is not suitable for precise georeferencing. In addition, there is always a delay between the trigger and the actual moment the photo is taken.
Reach eliminates the delay
Reach solves the problem of positioning by connecting directly to the camera hot shoe port, which is synced with the shutter. The time and coordinates of each photo are logged with a resolution of less than a microsecond. This method allows GCPs to be used only to check your accuracy.
PPK workflow
1. Connect Reach to a hot shoe port on a camera
Every time a photo is taken camera produces a pulse on a flash hot-shoe connector which is synced to a shutter opening.
2. Fly a drone, Reach will record photo events
Reach captures flash sync pulses with sub-microsecond resolution and stores them in a raw data RINEX log in the internal memory.
3. Download logs from Reach and base station
After the flight, get the RINEX logs from your airborne Reach module and a base station (Reach RS, CORS or another receiver).
4. Process logs and get a file with geotags of photos
Process RINEX files using free Emlid Studio software. The produced file with precise coordinates of the photos can be used for georeferencing.
NTRIP or another Reach as a base station
To calculate centimetre-precise coordinates in PPK and RTK, Reach needs corrections from a base station. It could be either another Reach receiver or an NTRIP service. VRS is also supported.
RTK
Up to 10km
PPK
Up to 20km
Time to fix
1-2 minutes
RINEX logging update rate
Up to 14Hz
Comes with the Emlid Flow app
The most user-friendly software for data collection that is available both for Android and iOS. Supports thousands of coordinate systems and is translated into multiple languages. With Emlid Flow, you can control all the features of Reach receivers, such as setting up a base station, logging RINEX data, and configuring NMEA output.
Camera control
The Emlid Reach M+ can trigger cameras as well as register events. The event mark feature is a must for aerial mapping as it allows the precise time when the shutter was activated to be registered.
Simple log management
Logs are automatically recorded directly to RINEX in the internal memory. View a list of the logs and download them using the Emlid Flow app.