Coweeta GPS Protocol, May 2004

Coweeta GPS Protocol

1. GENERAL MENU AND KEYPAD USE .......................................................................................................... 2

2. CONFIGURING THE TRIMBLE ASSET SURVEYOR™/PATHFINDER® PRO XRS (MODEL TSC1) GPS

RECEIVER AND DATALOGGER SYSTEM............................................................................................... 3

3. COLLECTING GPS DATA ......................................................................................................................... 4

4. DOWNLOADING GPS DATA TO PC .......................................................................................................... 5

5. DIFFERENTIAL CORRECTION OF .SSF FILES.............................................................................................. 7

6. CREATING ARCVIEW SHAPEFILES (.SHP) .............................................................................................. 10

7. VIEWING OR PRINTING SHAPEFILES ....................................................................................................... 11

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 Coweeta GPS Protocol, May 2004

Coweeta GPS Protocol

1. General menu and keypad use

Press the green key to turn on the TSC1 datalogger. The Asset Surveyor software starts and
the Main menu appears. To display the Main menu screen regardless of which window is
active, press the Menu key.

To stop the Asset Surveyor software and turn off the TSC1 datalogger, press and hold the
green key for a few seconds.

To move between items on a menu, use the multi-directional arrow key.

To select a menu item, use the arrow key to highlight the item and then press the Enter key.

To change or enter a value for an item, select the item and then type or select the desired
value.

To close a menu or return to a previous menu, press the Esc key.

Some items require you to make a selection from a preset secondary menu rather than type
in a value. To open the secondary menu, press the right-arrow on the arrow key. When there
are more menu items at the bottom of a list (indicated by an arrow or a scroll bar at the right
of the menu), press the down-arrow on the arrow key until the last item is highlighted, and
then continue pressing the down-arrow to scroll the list and display hidden items. See below.

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2. Configuring the Trimble Asset Surveyor™/Pathfinder® Pro XRS (model

TSC1) GPS receiver and datalogger system.

(See TSC1 Asset Surveyor Software User Guide.pdf for more detailed information.)

From the Main menu select Configuration. Use the large round button with arrows to
navigate to desired selection, then press Enter.

From the Configuration menu select GPS rover options.

Select Logging options and confirm or set the following:

Logging Interval
• Point feature - Set at 1s (1 second).
• Line/area - Should match base station interval. May also depend on speed: if walking
set at 5s; if driving set at 1s
• Not in feature - None
• Velocity - None (If your project requires information pertaining to velocity, set
accordingly).
Confirm end feature - No
Minimum positions - 60
Carrier phase
• Carrier mode - Off
• Minimum time - 10 mins.
Dynamics code - Land
Audible click - Yes
Log DOP data - Yes
Log PPRT data - Yes
Log QA/QC data - Yes

Select Position Filters and confirm or set the following:

Position mode - Manual 3D (Uses 4 or more satellites to calculate a 3D position)

Elevation mask - 15° (Restricts the receiver to using only satellites above a certain elevation
in the sky)
SNR mask - 6.0 (Signal to noise ratio. As the proportion between the signal and the noise
decreases, data is distorted by the noise.)
PDOP mask - 6.0 (Position dilution of precision. Lower values indicate an even distribution of
satellites throughout the sky, thus a higher probability of accuracy.)
PDOP switch - 6.0
Apply real-time - Auto (The Autonomous position has no differential process applied.
Differential correction will be applied using Pathfinder Office software after data
collection.)
RTK code (if shown) - On

Select Antenna Options and confirm or set the following:

Height - 3.15m (If using the orange and white pole extended one length.)
Measure - Uncorrected (Measured as designated by Measurement method selected below.)
Confirm - Never (You will not be prompted to enter the antenna height.)
Type - Integrated GPS/Beacon/Satellite
Part number - 33580-50
Measurement method: To - bottom of antenna mount

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From the Configuration menu select Coordinate system, then select Universal Transverse
Mercator and press Enter and confirm or set the following:

Zone - 17 North
Datum - NAD 1983 (Conus)
Altitude units- Meters (m)
Coordinate units - Meters (m)
Altitude reference - MSL
Geoid model - DMA 10x10 (Global)

3. Collecting GPS data

• Connect the Trimble hand-held datalogger, the two external batteries, and the antenna to
the GPS receiver (see figure below). If you are using the orange and white extension pole
for the antenna and extending it one length, antenna height should be set at 3.15m. If you
are using a different antenna height, enter the correct antenna height under Antenna
Options (described above).

• Create or open a rover file. From the Main menu select Data Collection.

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When collecting feature positions, you can start a new file for each feature or collect
numerous features in one file. When collecting more than one feature in a single rover
file, it is important to enter an identifying comment (e.g., plot number) for each feature.

• From the Data collection menu select Create new file or Open existing file.

Note: When a rover data file is created, the Asset Surveyor software suggests a
default filename according to the following formula:

R MM DD HH x

where the initial letter ‘R’ identifies the data file as being a rover file, MM is the
current month, DD is the current day of the month, and HH is the current hour of the
day. The final letter ‘x’ increments within this hour, starting at ‘a’ for the first file in that
hour, then going to ‘b’ for the second file and ‘c’ for the third file, and so on.

When creating a new file:

Filename - Accept the default or enter a different 8-character filename.

Data dictionary - Select Generic unless you have created a data dictionary for this
collection session
Storage disk - TSC1
Free space - Shows available space remaining on the datalogger.

When reopening an existing file, select the desired rover file from the list of existing files.

• Start feature - Select feature type and press Enter. The Asset Surveyor software will
automatically start to collect data when it has connected with at least 4 satellites and the
PDOP is 6.0 or less.

• Comment - Enter a comment by typing letter and/or numbers on the keypad (e.g. Plot 1).
Press Enter when done.

• After the datalogger has recorded at least the minimum number of positions (i.e., 60),
press Enter to save the feature. If prompted to save the feature, then press the key below
the Yes option (usually the F1 key).

• If no other features will be added to the current rover file at this time, then press Esc and
confirm exiting data collection. Otherwise press Enter and continue from the Start feature
menu.

If it is going to be several minutes between collections, it is best to turn the datalogger off
to save the batteries and then create a new rover file or reopen an existing file once you
arrive at the next location.

When you are finished, return to the Main menu and turn off the datalogger.

4. Downloading GPS data to PC

Note: It is important to retrieve your rover files from the datalogger because files left on the
datalogger take up valuable disk space and, therefore, may not be saved by the next user.

• Disconnect the Trimble datalogger from the GPS receiver.

• If you have the yellow data cable and the null modem and gender-change adapters
(stored in the blue bag in the GPS case), then connect one end of the yellow cable to

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the datalogger, connect the null modem and gender-changer adapters to the other
end, and then connect to a serial port on your PC. See figure below.

If you have only the yellow data cable without the null modem and gender-changer
adapters, then use the yellow cable to connect the datalogger to the front of the GPS
battery charger in the equipment locker in the lab. Then connect the black cable
attached to the back of battery charger to a serial port on the reservations PC in the
lab.

• Turn on the datalogger and wait while it attempts to connect to the GPS receiver, then
select "No" when prompted to connect to the GPS receiver.
• From the Main menu select File manager.
• From the File manager menu select File transfer.

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• Open the GPS Pathfinder Office software on the PC and select Utilities / Data Transfer.
• From the Device list, select the device name that represents the TSC1 datalogger if it is not
already selected.
• Click on the Receive tab.
• Click Add and select Data File to open the Open dialog box and display a list of available
files.

• If necessary, in the Files of type field, select the format of the files to transfer.
• Highlight the file(s) to transfer and, if desired, use the Browse button to change the
destination directory, then click Open. The Open dialog closes, and the files you selected
appear in the Files to Receive list.
• Click Transfer All.
• After files are successfully transferred, the Transfer Completed dialog box shows summary
information about the transfer. Click Close to close it.
• Click Close again on the Data Transfer dialog box.

5. Differential Correction of .ssf files.

The data collected by GPS receivers is subject to errors. The vast majority of these errors can be
removed from the data by differential correction. First, obtain the correct base station data from
the National Geodetic Survey website, then use GPS Pathfinder Office to perform differential
correction.

a) Obtain the correct base station data

To determine which base station data you need for differential, you must know the beginning
and ending times of the rover file(s) to be corrected. This can be determined using GPS
Pathfinder Office.

• Open the file(s) to be corrected in GPS Pathfinder Office.

• Select View/Time Line. Note the start and end time of data collection. See figure below.

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• Go to the National Geodetic Survey website at http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/cors-

data.html.
• Select Downloads / Customized Files.

• Select the correct time zone, starting day, and start time.
• Enter the appropriate number of hours of data to receive.
• Click Continue.
• For GPS data are available for the following sites for your specified time interval, select frkn.
• Click Submit.
• The File Download dialog box opens and you can save the zip file to your specified
destination. After a successful download, open the zip file and extract all files to a folder
on your PC.
• Close the National Geodetic Survey web page or continue downloading the required
base data.

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b) Perform differential correction

• Open the GPS Pathfinder Office software on the PC and select Utilities / Differential
Correction.

• In the Rover Files and Base Files sections, browse and select the uncorrected .ssf and .##o
base files to use.
• Browse and select an output folder for the corrected files.
• Click OK.

A dialog box will open showing if the selected base files provide coverage for the selected rover
files. If coverage is not 100%, then return to the CORS website to obtain the correct files.

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• Verify the reference position data and click OK to accept these settings.

6. Creating ArcView shapefiles (.shp)

• Open GPS Pathfinder Office.

• Select Utilities / Export.

• In the Export dialog box select the corrected rover files to convert to shapefile format.
• Browse and select the desired output folder.

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• Choose New ArcView Shapfile (1) for the export setup.

• Click the Properties button.
• Data tab - Select Features - Positions and Attributes. Select Export All Features.
• Output tab - Select the desired option for the output files.
• Attributes tab - If using point features select all options under Point Features. If using other
feature types, select all desired attributes to include in the shapefile.
• Units tab - Verify that all units are as desired. Use the Change button to change units if
desired.
• Coordinate System tab - Verify that the coordinate system is correct. For Export Coordinates
As select XYZ.
• Position Filter tab - No action is required.
• ArcView Shapefile tab - No action is required.
• Click OK to close the Export Setup Properties dialog box.
• Click OK to close the Export dialog box and complete the process.
• Click OK to close the Export Completed dialog box.
• To rename a shapefile you must change the names of all 3 associated files (.dbf, .shp, .shx)
to the same name.

7. Viewing or printing shapefiles

Appropriate software is required for viewing and printing shapefiles. ArcView

and ArcInfo are examples of these. There is also a free version of an appropriate software
program that allows you to view or print ArcView shapefiles. This program,
ArcExplorer, is available for download from the ESRI website (http://www.esri.com).

From the ESRI home page enter "ArcExplorer" in the search box and click the search
button.

Select ArcExplorer 4.0.1 Download Instructions. This is the latest version as of 30

April 2004. In the event there is a newer version, select the latest Java Edition.

Follow the instructions for downloading. See screen shot on next page.

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