The Lefebure NTRIP Client is an Android utility that sits between a Bluetooth GNSS receiver and the apps on your device. The developer offers it free, and the Google Play listing declares in-app billing for a premium subscription, so some features are paid. It does two jobs. It streams NTRIP correction data from an internet caster to your receiver over your phone’s data connection, and it shares the receiver’s corrected position with every other app on the device through Android’s mock location feature. It can also log the full NMEA output to file for post-processing.
The result: any Android app that uses location, from GIS packages to simple mapping tools, suddenly works with centimetre-accurate positions instead of phone GPS.
How the Lefebure NTRIP Client works with marXact
De UNI-GR2 GNSS-ontvanger outputs standard NMEA over Bluetooth, which is exactly what the Lefebure NTRIP Client expects. Pair the receiver with your Android device, point the client at your correction service, and enable mock locations in the developer settings. From then on, the whole device positions itself with the UNI-GR2, centimetre-accurate on an RTK fix.
Worth knowing: the UNI-GR2 also has its own 4G connection and works with the UNI-RTK correction network, so for our own apps you do not need a separate NTRIP client. The Lefebure app earns its place when you want to feed centimetre-accurate positions into third-party Android apps that only read the device location.
A concrete example
An ecologist maps protected plant locations with a specialised recording app that has no GNSS settings of its own. With the Lefebure NTRIP Client running in the background and the UNI-GR2 on the pole, every record in that app gets an RTK position instead of the rough position a phone or tablet manages on its own. No changes to the app, no exports, no workarounds.
Van start gaan
You need an Android device, the Lefebure NTRIP Client from Google Play, free to install with paid premium features, a UNI-GR2 and an RTK correction subscription. Receiver, app, cloud environment and corrections come as one package: the UNI-Collect Survey Package.
For dedicated field apps with direct receiver support, see mapit GIS met marXact or our 2019 walkthrough of marXact with Collector for ArcGIS. Esri has since retired Collector in favour of ArcGIS Field Maps; the receiver connects to that over Bluetooth in the same way. Questions about connecting your Android workflow? Contact us.