RTX Engine

The RTX Engine module takes receiver observations and connects to the Trimble CenterPoint™ RTX™ service (using the Ephemeris Manager module). The module provides station positions derived from RTK solutions which are based on highly accurate clock and orbit messages provided by the Trimble global tracking network. It does not need a network of reference stations providing VRS data.

The RTX Engine module should be used,

if very fast reaction (real-time) together with medium accuracy is required,
if network-independent stations are to be monitored,
and if access to the very precise, globally available Trimble RTX corrections is permitted. The Ephemeris Manager module must be set up to use real-time orbits and clocks from the Trimble global server.

The RTX Engine is located below a Synchronizer module that outputs synchronized receiver observations. The number of stations processed therefore depends on the stations selected in the Synchronizer and on their availability. The RTX Engine uses the Trimble CenterPoint RTX orbits, if these are made available by the Ephemeris Manager module, which requires an internet connection. It can run in parallel with other processor modules.

Adding the module

When the module is being added, the RTX Engine Properties dialog appears. It lets you define and select module configurations. Each configuration holds information on the processing parameters, such as the system of satellites to be processed or filtering options. You also may remove a configuration from here, if you do not need it anymore. You can change the settings of the selected RTX Engine configuration at any time, but changing the settings restarts the calculation.

Data input and processing

The processing functionality of the RTX Engine module is very similar to that used by the RTK Engine in VRS mode. The difference lies in the method of how corrections are derived and in the quality of those corrections. When starting up, the RTX Engine module uses the Ephemeris Manager module to connect to the Trimble CenterPoint RTX Service, obtaining current clock and orbit corrections. Additionally, the observation data may be corrected by a code bias calibration for the used receiver firmware, if calibration files are found in their default folder. (Code bias calibration files are, for example, available from the automatic data file download.) However, if no such calibration data are available for a satellite or for a receiver, the satellite or the station occupied by that receiver will nevertheless be processed.

The module determines the current positions from the observations for all stations, and compares them to the known positions. It calculates the position offsets (DN, DE, Dh, D 2D, and D 3D) and their 3-s errors. If the known positions of the stations are periodically updated to the current epoch due to known velocities, the processing re-starts with the new positions.

You can apply several filtering methods with user-specified settings to remove outliers and to smooth the position estimates.

Resetting the calculations

To restart the processing of all stations select the module shortcut menu command Reset All Stations. For resetting selected stations go to the RTX Engine Processing Status module view.

Output of results

The results of the estimation process are displayed in numerical form at the RTX Engine Processing Status view. For an overview on applied code bias calibration files and excluded satellites use the Code Bias Calibration Status view. You can configure the Alarm Manager module to trigger alarms, if any station has no RTX solution. In combination with the Integrity Monitor module, alarms can be triggered if offsets or errors exceed specified thresholds.

The RTX Engine makes the results of its estimation process available to depending Integrity Monitor modules.

Tip - Use the Integrity Monitor module to display the offsets between the known coordinates of a station and its estimated position in numerical and graphical form.

Logging into the database

The RTX Engine module writes the positions of fixed solutions for all stations into the central database. The database contains the following tables referring to the RTX Engine system:

Table name	Contents	More information
MeanPos_RTXEngine_<config name>	Position vector and covariance matrix components; DOP, and number of satellites.	One row for each epoch and each station. *
MeanPos_RTXEngine_Filtered_<config name>	See above	Positions depend on applied filter. *

*By default, the data of these tables is reduced depending on settings of the TableLifeTime table.