Ditch Assist Lite

What Ditch Assist Lite is

Ditch Assist Lite is a guidance-only version of the app, made for machines Ditch Assist can't automate — dozers, motor graders, self-propelled scrapers, and skid steers with grading attachments. Instead of a Ditch Assist control module on the machine, the tablet connects straight to an Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 GPS receiver over the receiver's own Wi-Fi hotspot. Every survey, design, chevron, profile chart, and coverage map works the same as in the mode chapters — the one difference is that the blade does not move by itself. You raise and lower the implement with the machine's own controls, keeping the chevrons centered.

Who it is for

• Dozers, motor graders, self-propelled scrapers, and skid steers with grading attachments — machines Ditch Assist can't automate, where you run the blade by hand.
• Operators who already own an Emlid Reach and want RTK guidance without a hydraulic kit.
• Contour guidance (Levee & Contour, Contour Tiling, Contour-Guided Terracing) — the lightbar steers you; there is no blade control in those workflows anyway.

Every workflow works in Lite

Every workflow on Home works in Lite — Ditching, Simple Grading (and Manual Grade), Leveling, Terracing (including Contour-Guided Terracing), Tiling (including Contour Tiling), Land Forming, Excavation, Levee & Contour, and LiDAR & Mapping. Saved jobs from any workflow can be resumed in Lite.

Lite differs from Ditch Assist in two ways only:

• It works with an activated Emlid Reach receiver instead of a Ditch Assist control module.
• The app never moves the blade — no Raise / Lower, no Hold / Resume, no automatic grading. You run the blade with the machine's own controls.

Auto-Nudge (staged passes) works in Lite too, in the workflows that use it (Ditching, Simple Grading, Terracing, Land Forming). It only sets the target you steer to.

Excavation in Lite follows the Reach antenna, not the bucket tip — there are no excavator sensors. When you open Excavation with a Reach connected, a Designed for a different kit reminder explains this: tap Continue Anyway to carry on, or Pick Different to go back to Home. After Continue Anyway it does not appear again until the app restarts. To check grade, stop and put the stick and bucket in the same position every time — the position you used when you calibrated.

Rock Hit Detection is off in Lite. In Tiling it raises the target by itself when the plow rides high, which would move the target you are steering to without you asking. Its row is hidden in Settings → GRADING while Lite is on.

What you need

• An Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 receiving RTK corrections. The app uses the position exactly as the Reach reports it — only RTK Fixed is endorsed for survey and grading, same as everywhere else in this manual.
• The Emlid Flow app on a phone, to set up the receiver's position output (once).
• This tablet joined to the Reach's Wi-Fi hotspot.
• A one-time unlock code for each receiver. Until a receiver is activated, the app treats it as a plain GPS: you can record surveys, but live grading guidance and contour guidance stay locked, and START opens the activation screen instead.

Mounting the Reach

Workflow at a glance:

1. Settings → Mode → Ditch Assist Lite. The Set up your Reach guide opens each time you switch to Lite.
2. Set up the Reach's position output in Emlid Flow (see Setting up the Reach).
3. Join the Reach hotspot in the tablet's Wi-Fi settings — password emlidreach.
4. On Home, tap a workflow card and tap Emlid Reach in the connect step.
5. First time on each receiver: tap Activate, email us the request code, and enter the 10-digit unlock code we send back (see Activating a receiver).
6. Survey, design, and grade exactly as the mode chapter describes — moving the blade yourself.

While Lite is on, an orange LITE MODE banner — Guidance only — no hydraulic control — heads the Home screen above the workflow cards, so a screenshot or a support call names the mode at a glance.

In this chapter

• Choosing the Mode
• Setting up the Reach
• Connecting to the Reach
• Activating a receiver
• Working in Lite
• Troubleshooting Lite