"Field staff found the connection of the device to their phones through the app to be much faster, more reliable and less confusing"
— Ryan Hensel
Utilities GIS Analyst, City of Aspen, CO
Background
Here at the City of Aspen Utilities Department we collect data on new and existing water and electric distribution systems when changes occur such as new construction and repairs. We have an established workflow where we collect GPS points in Esri Field Maps and use those points to modify our GIS production data.
Ryan Hensel is the GIS Analyst for the Utilities Department and when he was sent to the Esri User Conference one summer, he met with the Bad Elf team along with other GPS suppliers to discuss options. Ryan discovered that in the time another unit was purchased, more options have appeared on the market that our department should consider. After some research, it was determined that the Bad Elf Mini had the product sheet that most fit our actual needs.
Past Mapping/GIS Workflows
We do want high accuracy with our GPS point collection, at least more than a mobile device or cheap GPS device level. However, we didn't feel the need to pay for survey level GPS devices if something in between were available. Since we have access to the Mesa County RTVRN network, it did seem that the Bad Elf Mini with RTK capabilities enabled would be the perfect blend of cost to performance for us, at least on paper.
There was a question of compatibility with the Mesa County RTVRN network, so we ordered just one Bad Elf Mini without RTK capability enabled to start. I was interested to see how accurate a non-corrected GPS device could be in the challenging conditions we have here in the City where we commonly collect data in alleys between buildings and under trees. After testing for a while, our field staff said they would like to activate the RTK capability for our Bad Elf Mini unit, which was an easy process. Once activated, we found the unit to be much more accurate – well within the tolerance required for our purposes.
Our field staff found the connection of the device to their phones through the app to be much faster, more reliable and less confusing. The time from cold start to collecting a sub 10 inch GPS point made them very happy and more motivated to collect reliable data rather than skipping points or messing with Bluetooth connections and non-responsiveness.
Geospatial Solutions Deployed Today
There was a question of compatibility with the Mesa County RTVRN network, so we ordered just one Bad Elf Mini without RTK capability enabled to start. I was interested to see how accurate a non-corrected GPS device could be in the challenging conditions we have here in the City where we commonly collect data in alleys between buildings and under trees. After testing for a while, our field staff said they would like to activate the RTK capability for our Bad Elf Mini unit, which was an easy process. Once activated, we found the unit to be much more accurate – well within the tolerance required for our purposes.
Our field staff found the connection of the device to their phones through the app to be much faster, more reliable and less confusing. The time from cold start to collecting a sub-10-inch GPS point made them very happy and more motivated to collect reliable data rather than skipping points or messing with Bluetooth connections and non-responsiveness.
Improvements — Accuracy, Efficiency, Field Workflows
The value provided by the Bad Elf Mini was such that our team decided to order two more for different kinds of field data collection. This has been a big help in my position as well. I have seen data quite lacking in our different areas, and now more data has been collected than in past years. This is data we can rely on, a very important point for the integrity of our mapping and planning. Curb boxes, main line failures, new customer taps, and new electric lines all have good data since we adopted this new system.
We are grateful that our setup allows us to take full advantage of the Bad Elf Mini devices and intend on continued use into the future. We anticipate little change in our workflows for data collection and maintenance, and these nice little devices are just a part of that, but quite an integral part nonetheless.