Trimble SPS985 GNSS Smart Antenna

Trime has released a new type of GNSS Smart Antenna called SPS985.

More tough than the SPS88x we are used to by now it said on the Trimble web page to “survive repeated 2 meter pole drops onto concrete and the harsh conditions of the job site”. This sound great as per my experience this was the buggiest cause or repairs of the SPS88x’s. This will be a great feature.

Another great hardware feature is the quick release connector which will a a nice change fromt he screws we are used to. Now I wonder if this will require just an attachement to the existing poles or this will be a total new range pole for the antennas.

Wifi is integrated in the athena and when used as a base it should be able to connect to the new SNRx20 via wifi but I can not say how much range it will cover. Only testing will show us that.

As fas as the applications for use go we will be able to do the same things and use it at the same job-sites as before. The precisions are the same as per our standart GNSS receivers Horizontal 8mm + 1ppm and Vertical 15mm + 1ppm. Operational time is written to be 4.6 hours as a rover  and 3.5 as a base station.

Over all it seems that there has been lot of improvement done and I can not wait to get my hands on one of those.

Here is a link for the DATASHEET and Trimble has a nice promo video on the youtube.