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TEQC — The Toolkit for GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/SBAS Data

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Contact: UNAVCO teqc guru

Index:

teqc: the toolkit
teqc publications
teqc examples (translations, editing, qc)
teqc qc mode
Example teqc qc mode (short report)
Current plans for teqc support
Executables for teqc
Documentation for teqc
teqc FAQs
teqc development & release log
teqc "bug" report
teqc email forum: Subscribe, unsubscribe, search email archive

Last modified: 14 Nov 2011

Teqc: The toolkit

Teqc (pronouced "tek") is a simple yet powerful and unified approach to solving many pre-processing problems with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and SBAS data:

  • translation: binary data reading/translation of native binary formats (optional RINEX file creation for OBS, NAV, and/or MET files or optional creation of BINEX)
  • editing and cut/splice: metadata extraction; editing, and/or correction of RINEX header metadata; or BINEX metadata records; as well as cutting/splicing of RINEX files or BINEX
  • quality check: quality checking of GPS and/or GLONASS data (native binary, BINEX, or RINEX OBS; with or without ephemerides)
These three main functions (from which teqc gets its name: translation, editing, and quality check) can be performed altogether, in pairs, or separately.

Translators (with varying limitations*1) are included in the current development for:

  • Trimble RT17- and RT27-structured DAT, MES, ION, EPH download fileset
  • Trimble RT17- and RT27-structured RS-232 real-time stream format
  • Trimble 4700, R7, 5700, NetRS BINEX
  • Trimble TSIP format (very limited)
  • Topcon TPS/Javad JPS format *2
  • Ashtech "Version 3" B/E/S/D download fileset
  • Ashtech MBEN/PBEN and DBEN RS-232 real-time stream format
  • Ashtech Z-12 CGRS R-file format
  • Ashtech micro-Z BINEX
  • Ashtech micro-Z CGRS U-file format
  • AOA ConanBinary
  • AOA TurboBinary
  • Leica System 500 and 1200 MDB binary format
  • Leica System 500 and 1200 LB2 binary format
  • Leica MC1000/SR9600 LB2 binary format
  • Leica DS fileset format
  • Septentrio Binary Format (SBF)
  • Navcom binary format
  • JPL Soc format
  • IGS RTigs format
  • u-blox UBX format
  • Canadian Marconi binary
  • Rockwell Zodiac binary
  • Motorola Oncore binary (limited: no phase)
  • Texas Instruments TI-4100 GESAR & BEPP/CORE formats
  • Texas Instruments TI-4100 ROM format
  • ARGO .dat and .orb format

    • *1 Support of these formats is on a best-effort basis, subject to the knowledge of the formats that UNAVCO is able to obtain, and may be subject to non-disclosure agreements UNAVCO has with the manufacturers. Development of teqc may lag newer modifications of a format by the manufacturer if the manufacturer has not shared with UNAVCO intended format changes well in advance of these changes in operational receiver firmware or possibly other manufacturer software.
    *2 If a set of TPS/JPS messages to be used is other than the default one or if the adopted order of messages in the default set of messages is changed in some way, make sure that the updated set of messages maintains the "epoch synchronization", i.e., the messages [~~] and [RD] precede the messages containing code, carrier phase and other types of measurements collected at the current epoch. Should the user violate this condition, he or she may not be able to correctly process corresponding raw data files with teqc or with Topcon's Pinnacle™ and other TPS post-processing software.

Teqc is designed to handle mixed satellite constellations, such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and SBAS; it is 100% non-interactive — to aid in using it with automatically executed scripts — with a command line interface.

Teqc publications

There is currently one publication about teqc:

  • TEQC: The Multi-Purpose Toolkit for GPS/GLONASS Data, L. H. Estey and C. M. Meertens, GPS Solutions (pub. by John Wiley & Sons), Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 42-49, doi:10.1007/PL00012778, 1999.
which includes an outline for the QC linear combinations used in teqc and the original QC software. We have a few re-prints, so if you are interested, please contact us.

Teqc examples (translations, editing, qc)

The following links show examples of teqc translation, editing, and quality checking on real data files. Each link brings up a page for that particular format with one or more command lines. On these pages, many links to data files are to binary data files, so be sure to use ftp in binary mode. Most of the sample files were selected at random, except for the ConanBinary file--which is partially corrupted--and the Trimble download fileset--which was selected because of its interesting qc situation (time-variable RFI at the site). The teqc commands used are fairly typical, using only a small number of editing or extra qc options. Download the input files and try the commands yourself. (Note: For the Ashtech and Trimble downloads, remember to get the entire fileset: B-, E-, and S-files for Ashtech and the DAT and MES files for Trimble). ASCII files will look best if viewed with a non-proportional font like Courier.

Teqc qc mode

Qc'ing a RINEX OBS file (say, foobar.obs) is as easy as typing 

	
		teqc +qc foobar.obs
Additionally, if a foobar.nav exists, this is automatically included as part of the input and used for position calculations. This automatic RINEX NAV search also applies for names ending in .YYo -> .YYn and .YYO -> .YYN to allow for Berne-convention RINEX names.

A list of all possible qc settings can be obtained by executing 

	
		teqc +qc ++config
By examining 
	
		teqc +help
the user can find which qc option to modify to achieve a specific change in the qc option configuration. For example, to suppress plot files, the report file, include a symbol table in the short qc report (stdout), and change the elevation mask to 15 degrees: 
	
		teqc +qc -plot -report +sym -set_mask 15 foobar.obs
A concise qc symbol table can also be generated anytime with just 
	
		teqc ++sym
Most other qc options have been tuned to settings and values to yield an optimized qc run under most conditions for the most users.

Example teqc qc mode (short report)

Examine a "teqc +qc +sym" example. Here, only the short report, usually available via stdout, is given.

Current teqc support

  • Solaris Sparc 5.9 and 5.10
  • Solaris x86 5.9 and 5.10
  • HP-UX (PA-RISC) 11.00 or later
  • Mac OSX (see note for teqc on OSX 10.7 "Lion")
  • x86 Linux, 32- and 64-bit
  • Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/7

Executables for teqc

The executables for the current development version of teqc (11 Oct 2011; see development & release log) for the following OS/platforms can be downloaded (sizes in kilobytes below are for the downloaded .tar.Z for .zip file):

UNIX compressed tar files …


    *1 machine time supplied by NRCan
    *2 Viper development and PC-104 machine time supplied by U. of Luxembourg

    *a 64-bit build is not available
    *b crashes of one or the other build have occurred on various Linux releases; if you have tried the statically-linked build and it crashes, try the dynamically-linked build, or vice versa

… or Microsoft Windows zip files:

If you don't have a 32-bit zip and unzip utility on your PC for Window 95/98/NT/2000/XP/7, be sure you also download 32-bit zip and unzip.

Note to Microsoft Windows users: None of the teqc.exe executables available are MS Windows GUIs; they are all command line programs. Clicking on teqc.exe will only result in a window popping up for a fraction of a second. You must use a DOS emulation window and run teqc.exe on the command line. For example, on MS 2000 or XP, click on Start and then Run, and in the Run window type cmd and click on OK to bring up a DOS emulation window.

Documentation for teqc

See also accumulative release notes for the current and previous versions:

Subscribe to teqc email forum

If you want to be included in the teqc email forum, please go to the

    ls.unavco.org / mailman / listinfo / teqc
support page and subscribe. (Remove spaces from the above italicized address. We have not hyperlinked the preceding URL to help prevent spammers, web-bots, and harvesters from learning about mail addresses at UNAVCO.) Once subscribed, emails about teqc questions and issues should then be sent to: 
	 teqcunavco.org
You will be notified of new teqc releases, critical bug reports, development plans, etc.

Comments or questions about this page? Send e-mail to Lou Estey (louunavco.org).

"You will be assimilated."

Last modified Monday, 14-Nov-2011 20:07:57 UTC

 
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Monday, November 14, 2011

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