Learning Center

Switch the app to Ditch Assist Lite

The Mode setting picks how the app runs: Ditch Assist (control module or DIG) or Ditch Assist Lite (an Emlid Reach, guidance only). Every tap to switch, with pictures, what the Switch mode? window means, the Set up your Reach window, and what changes on screen.

  • Ditch Assist Lite

In the app Settings › Mode › Ditch Assist Lite

The Ditch Assist® app runs in one of two modes:

  • Ditch Assist: for a control module (Full Automation or Guidance Only Kit) or the DIG™ excavator module.
  • Ditch Assist Lite: for an Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 receiver on the implement. Guidance only: the screen shows you where, and you move the blade.

A new install starts in Ditch Assist. Switch once and the app stays in Lite mode, through restarts and app updates, until you switch back.

Before you start

  • The Ditch Assist app is installed and open (Install the app)
  • Guidance isn't running. If it is, tap Stop on the Grade screen first. The app won't switch while you grade.
  • Switching disconnects whatever is connected and closes the open workflow. Saved jobs, surveys and designs on the tablet are not touched.

Time: about a minute.

Switch to Ditch Assist Lite

Tap Settings

Look at the column of big buttons down the right-hand side of the screen. Settings is the fourth one down, with a gear icon. Tap it.

The Settings screen opens. (If someone moved the buttons to the left side of the screen, it's the same button on the left.)

Home screen in Ditch Assist mode: nine big squares, one per workflow. Down the right-hand side, big buttons: Home, Survey, Grade, Settings with a gear icon, Manual, and an orange Pre-Flight Checks button.
  1. Settings. Fourth button down the right-hand side, with a gear icon.

Tap Ditch Assist Lite

The first box at the top of Settings is called Mode. In it is a two-part button. The left half, Ditch Assist, is orange now. Tap the right half: Ditch Assist Lite, with a small satellite icon.

Settings screen in Ditch Assist mode. The Mode box at the top has a two-part button: Ditch Assist on the left in orange, Ditch Assist Lite on the right in white.
  1. Ditch Assist Lite. The right half of the button in the Mode box.

Tap Switch, if a window asks

If anything is connected (a control module, DIG, a Reach, a Bluetooth GPS or the simulator), a window asks Switch mode? Switching mode disconnects the current source.

Tap Switch, the green button at the bottom right of the window. Cancel leaves everything as it was.

With nothing connected, there's no window and the app switches straight away. Go to the next step.

Switch mode? window: Switching mode disconnects the current source. Buttons Cancel and Switch at the bottom right. 1 2
  1. Switch. Disconnects what's connected and closes the open workflow.
  2. Cancel. Nothing changes.

Tap OK in the Set up your Reach window

A window called Set up your Reach opens by itself every time you switch to Lite mode. It lists three jobs: on the Reach, on this tablet, and in Ditch Assist. The next guides walk you through each one, so you don't need to remember it.

Tap OK, the green button at the bottom right of the window.

Set up your Reach window with three numbered parts: 1. On the Reach (Emlid Flow app), 2. On this tablet, 3. In Ditch Assist. A green OK button at the bottom right.
  1. OK. Bottom right of the window.

Part 1 of the window has you set up the receiver by hand in Emlid's own app. You don't have to: Ditch Assist can do it for you. Where the window and our guides differ: Get the Reach ready. To see the window again later, tap Setup guide in the Ditch Assist Lite box in Settings.

Check the Settings screen

You should see the right half of the Mode button in orange: Ditch Assist Lite. The line under it reads Guidance only — no hydraulic control. Emlid Reach receivers only.

A new box, Ditch Assist Lite, appears under Mode. It holds your activated receivers and the Activate a receiver and Setup guide buttons. It only shows in Lite mode.

Settings in Lite mode: the Mode button with Ditch Assist Lite in orange and the line Guidance only — no hydraulic control. Emlid Reach receivers only. Below it a new box, Ditch Assist Lite: Activated receivers, None yet, Activate a receiver, Setup guide.
  1. Ditch Assist Lite. Orange: Lite mode is on.
  2. The Ditch Assist Lite box. New. Activated receivers reads None yet until you activate one. Only there in Lite mode.

Tap Home

It's the top button in the column down the right-hand side, with a house icon. The Home screen opens.

Settings screen. The top button in the right-hand column is Home, with a house icon.
  1. Home. Top of the right-hand column.

Check the LITE MODE banner

You should see an orange banner across the Home screen, above the big squares: LITE MODE Guidance only — no hydraulic control. It tells you, and anyone looking at a screenshot, which mode the app is in.

All nine workflows are there, Excavation and LiDAR & Mapping included. Next: Connect to the Reach.

Home screen in Ditch Assist Lite: an orange banner, LITE MODE, Guidance only — no hydraulic control, above all nine workflow squares.
  1. LITE MODE. The orange banner above the workflow squares.
The whole switch on the tablet: tap Ditch Assist Lite, the Set up your Reach window opens, then back to Ditch Assist.

Switch back to Ditch Assist

  1. Tap Settings

    Fourth button down the right-hand side, with a gear icon.

  2. Tap Ditch Assist

    It's the left half of the button in the Mode box at the top. It turns orange. The line under it changes to For machines with a Ditch Assist control module or DIG excavator module — including guidance-only use with any RTK receiver connected through the module. The Ditch Assist Lite box disappears.

    Mode box close-up in Lite mode: the two-part button with Ditch Assist on the left in white and Ditch Assist Lite on the right in orange. 1
    1. Ditch Assist. The left half of the button.

  3. Tap Switch, if a window asks

    Only when something is connected. Same window as above.

What changes in Lite mode

Lite mode runs the same surveys, designs, grade arrows, profile chart, coverage map and saved jobs as Ditch Assist. Only the parts that drive hydraulics, or talk to a control module or DIG, are gone.

WhereIn Ditch Assist Lite
Home screenAn orange LITE MODE banner. Every workflow works.
The connect windowTwo buttons: Emlid Reach and Simulate. No control module, DIG or Bluetooth GPS, and no Manual Options.
Grade screen buttons (right-hand column)Start / Stop, Reset, Nudge Up / Nudge Down (Pass + / Pass − with Auto-Nudge™ on). No Raise / Lower, and no Hold / Resume for the blade. (The orange Resume that can show before you start reopens a saved job, the same in both modes.)
Banner on the Grade screenGuidance Active while guidance runs. RTK LOST — GUIDANCE PAUSED or GPS STALE — GUIDANCE PAUSED when the fix or the positions drop out.
Starting guidanceNo Pre-Start Safety check and no Tiling operator notice: they protect a hydraulic start.
SettingsHidden: CONTROLLER, DIG Module Firmware, Pre-Start Safety, the Rock Hit Detection row in GRADING and the Send Commands row in DEBUG. Added: the Ditch Assist Lite box under Mode. Everything else stays, including Auto Nudge, Max Cut Depth, chevron scale, nudge increment, alerts and the excavator rows.
Pre-Flight ChecksThe top row reads Emlid Reach RS3 · Lite active (or · Not activated, with an Activate button), and Guidance only — no hydraulic control along the bottom. No raise and lower tests.
ExcavationA Designed for a different kit reminder: the app follows the Reach antenna, not the bucket tip. See Ditch Assist Lite on an excavator.

Rock Hit Detection is off in Lite mode because it raises the tiling target by itself when the plow rides high. With you on the controls, that would move the target without you asking.

Switch back to Ditch Assist and all of it comes back.

If it doesn't work

  • Stop grading before switching mode. Guidance is running. Tap Stop on the Grade screen (top of the right-hand column), then switch.
  • No Emlid Reach button when you connect: the app is still in Ditch Assist mode. The Reach is only offered in Lite mode. Do the steps above. More.
  • No Raise / Lower buttons: that's normal in Lite mode. You run the blade with the machine's own controls: Working in Ditch Assist Lite.

Related

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