NTRIP for Your Tractor From Your Own Base

If you already have an RTK base near your fields, a hosted NTRIP caster can make its corrections available to your tractor without running caster software yourself.

RoboGNSS Free supports one base and two simultaneous rover connections. The caster fee is zero; the receiver, installation, internet connection, and upkeep still belong in your budget.

Start with the correction source

Before building a base, check whether a suitable public or commercial correction service covers your fields. Confirm its access rules, correction format, and suitability for your receiver.

Your own base becomes useful when you want control over the source or repeatedly work within a suitable area around it. It also makes you responsible for its installation, coordinates, power, and connection.

An internet link does not remove the physical distance between base and rover. The receivers, observations, and field conditions still affect the RTK result.

What the caster adds

Your base uploads its correction stream to RoboGNSS. A compatible NTRIP client on the tractor connects to that stream and passes the corrections to the rover receiver.

You get a place to manage access and check the stream without maintaining the caster at the farm. The base and tractor both need a working internet path for this arrangement.

The base connection guide and rover guide hold the current setup details.

Connect one base and one tractor

Start with the base fixed in its intended position and configured to produce the RTCM observations your rover needs. In RoboGNSS, open Bases and choose + Add base. Enter its name, mountpoint, coordinates, datum, and station ID where applicable. Use the coordinate types in the base guide: decimal degrees and ellipsoidal height in metres.

Creating the base record does not configure the receiver or change its broadcast coordinates. Those settings must agree with the actual receiver installation.

The upload and rover connections use the same host but different credentials:

Copy the base settings from Connect your receiver (base upload). Enable RTCM output and check that data and observation messages appear at the caster.

Next open Rover access, label the tractor, and choose Mint. Copy that credential's connection box into the tractor's NTRIP client. Do not use the base upload token or an account API key as the rover password. AUTO selects the base assigned to that login; it does not find the nearest base.

Port 48449 uses plain TCP, so this connection is not encrypted. Keep the credentials private and use the current rover connection guide when configuring the client.

Check delivery at both ends

Choose test beside the rover credential. “Receiving correction data” means the service's test connection received a valid RTCM frame. “Connected and waiting” means the login worked but no corrections arrived during the test.

Then check the tractor itself: its internet connection, incoming corrections, correction age where available, and receiver solution status. The service test does not exercise the tractor's cellular connection or the final link into its GNSS receiver. Check the result against the requirements of your fieldwork before relying on it.

If you use AgOpenGPS

Identify how your AgOpenGPS setup brings NTRIP data into the GNSS receiver. Match the caster address, port, mountpoint, and rover credentials to the values from your RoboGNSS account.

Then check the whole path at the tractor. A client connected to the caster does not, by itself, prove that corrections reached the receiver or that the receiver achieved an RTK fixed solution.

Keep application-specific setup instructions with the documentation for your version. The goal is a known data path from your base to the receiver doing the positioning.

Plan for the machines you actually run

The Free plan includes two rover credentials and up to two simultaneous connections for one base. Separate credentials make it easier to manage access for individual machines.

If more machines need the stream at once, compare the paid limits. Pro supports three bases with up to ten simultaneous rover connections per base; Fleet supports ten bases with up to twenty-five per base.

Check current plans before assigning connections across the operation.

Check the base before the field day

Look for incoming observations, a stable stream, and any warnings that need investigation. The base's satellite display describes the base's observations; the rover's own status tells you what is happening at the tractor.

Where the rover sends fix information upstream and recording is enabled, RoboGNSS can show reported fix states and connection history. Missing reports are unknowns, not proof that the rover failed.

Keep the base installation and reference coordinates consistent, and verify the result against your work's requirements. Owning the base gives you control, not an automatic accuracy guarantee.

Put an existing base to work

If the hardware and site are already suitable, start with one base and one rover. Confirm the stream reaches the receiver before adding the next machine.

Start a free RoboGNSS caster and follow the connection guide.