Ekahau GPS Survey

 There are a few abilities with the Survey app out from Ekahau that I have found to be great improvements on the days I walked around with my connect-a-desk and my bulky laptop doing my wireless surveys with a SideKick. The light weight iPad is one such improvement, another is the ability to perform GPS surveys natively with the iPad. They have come in handy for those few outdoor areas the customer wants surveyed. I have used it both for APoS (AP on a stick) surveys and validation surveys. In this post I wanted to share how to set up a GPS survey, then a couple tips and tricks.

Starting a GPS Survey

To start a GPS survey is very simple you don't need a floorplan or a premade Ekahau file from Pro, all you need is your iPad with either a Wi-Fi connection or a dat plan and a good signal. You will not need a data plan or Wi-Fi connection to perform the survey, only needed for initial setup of the survey. 

To begin you create a new project in the Survey app on your iPad then select Apple Maps as your choice to add a map to the project. (See below). 



After you select Apple Maps you will be shown a map, you can choose to use Standard, Satellite, or Hybrid as your options. I personally have preferred Satellite or Hybrid. 


When you have centered the map on your desired survey location click the Add button on the top right. The map is added to the survey file and you are ready to survey. There is no need to set scale as Apple Maps provided the scale to the Survey app for you. Next when you are on site ready to survey you click on the far right option at the bottom of the screen for GPS survey.


The iPad screen will show your current location and will take a second to lock on to the iPads GPS. Then you can click start in the top right and be on your way!

That is all it takes to start a GPS survey with Ekahau's Survey app, and SideKick.

Tips and Tricks

So having used the GPS survey function a good deal I have found one or two things that can present challenges to your survey. Though a few of them have been alleviated in the recent Survey 2.0 update. 

Channel Scanning
When I first started the Survey app would not let you choose which channels the SideKick would scan, this meant that if you were performing an APoS survey that you would still be scanning all channels. Which means moving a little slower than you would like to make sure you can hear the beacons for your desired channels. This presented a problem for me when surveying since we were attempting to use a vehicle to survey in a rather dangerous truck drop lot where walking would have been a safety hazard. Luckily this little challenge has been rectified in Survey version 2.0. So unless you are doing a full validation survey I would trim the channels to only what you want to see. 

Weak GPS signal
One issue that still can present its self is a weak or lost GPS signal. This has shown to be an issue when I have tried to survey right up next to buildings. The iPad loses signal for a little bit and my survey path shows that I walked into and through the building like a ghost and back out again. (See below.)




I am not sure this is an issue that can be fixed through software updates or patches. This is just the nature of GPS. This is just something to be aware of while performing a survey near a building. You can always correct the survey path after you finish the survey. 


Overheating
Another issue that is not exactly something Ekahau can do anything about is the overheating of the SideKick on a hot summer day in the south eastern US. While performing a wireless survey most engineers are well aware of how hot the SideKick will get even in cold environments. While performing a GPS survey my SideKick was in direct sunlight during my vehicle survey, one can only imagine how nicely I could have cooked an egg on the metal grill of the SideKick after an hour or two of surveying. Just keep this in mind while performing those GPS surveys. If the SideKick overheats it will shut off mid survey to keep the hardware safe. 


I hope this has been a helpful post for you. Please feel free to add any additional tips or tricks in the comments. 





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