What's New

Recent changes to Ditch Assist, newest first. Each version is the app you are running now or one you may have just updated to.

Version 1.5.4 — October 15, 2026

The production release. Version 1.5.4 replaces 1.4 and every 1.5 build (1.5.3 was built but never published — everything in it is included here). If you are updating from 1.4, the 1.5.2, 1.5.1, 1.5 and 1.4.1 notes below are new to you as well.

• New: Flow lines, depressions and ponding are worked out on the tablet. Prepare Field still downloads the LiDAR over the internet, but the drainage layers are now computed on the tablet itself with the same method as Geo-Surface Pro — nothing is uploaded or sent away for processing. Ponding is a Wet first … Wet last ranking with its own cutoff slider; depressions are drawn by depth, with shallow ones hidden, and start switched off in Map Layers; flow lines are black, thicker for paths that drain more ground, and clipped to the field. Fields prepared with an earlier version keep drawing exactly as before.

• New: Drainage Planner. For a field prepared on the tablet, tap Open Drainage Planner (on the Prepare Field completion screen, or on the field's row in Saved Fields / DEMs) and drag the minimum drainage area slider (0.1 to 20 acres) to thin the flow network down to the paths that drain at least that much ground. Plan lines are purple, wider for bigger drainage areas, with arrows pointing downstream. Save plan keeps it as a named plan; saved plans load from Map Layers → Add Layer → Drainage plan. See the LiDAR & Mapping chapter.

• New: Image overlays from a .zip — add a georeferenced image and its world file from a single .zip, as well as by picking the two files together.

• Fixed: LiDAR elevations are read correctly. Some US (3DEP) and Canadian (HRDEM) downloads had wrong or missing cells along the edges of the data — on a Canadian field, part of the field had no drainage layers. This also affected contours and the map elevation check for those fields.

• Fixed: Cached satellite imagery shows as soon as the map opens; LiDAR & Mapping opens on the tablet's own location; the ponding cutoff slider no longer moves the layer to the bottom of the list; and there is no red connection lost banner when LiDAR & Mapping sends you off the control module Wi-Fi to the internet.

• New: Ditch Assist Lite is now available. The Settings → Mode selector (Ditch Assist | Ditch Assist Lite) is back. Lite is made for machines Ditch Assist can't automate — dozers, motor graders, self-propelled scrapers, and skid steers with grading attachments. It is a guidance-only Mode for an Emlid Reach RS3 / RS4 receiver connected over its own Wi-Fi hotspot, with no hydraulic control module — every survey, design, chevron, and coverage tool works the same; you move the blade yourself. Each receiver is activated once with a 10-digit unlock code. See the Ditch Assist Lite chapter.

• New: Every workflow works in Lite — Excavation, Tiling, Contour Tiling and Land Forming included, and saved jobs from any workflow resume. Lite differs from Ditch Assist in two ways only: it works with an activated Reach, and the app never moves the blade — no Raise / Lower, Hold / Resume or automatic grading. Auto-Nudge (staged passes) works in Lite too, because it only sets the target you steer to. Excavation in Lite follows the Reach antenna, not the bucket tip; a reminder explains how to check grade from the same stick and bucket position each time. Rock Hit Detection stays off in Lite.

• New: LITE MODE banner on Home — while Lite is the app mode, a LITE MODE banner heads the Home screen (it replaces the small LITE tag beside the build number).

• New: Map orientation button — Track-up or North-up. The arrow button above the GPS follow button switches the map between turning with your direction of travel and keeping north at the top; the app remembers your choice.

• Improved: Backing up no longer spins the map. In Track-up the map keeps facing the way the machine faces while you reverse, instead of swinging round a few seconds in — useful on dozers, skid steers and graders. The simulator now drives a proper turnaround at the end of each pass instead of reversing in place.

• Improved: Image overlays load fully opaque. A JPG + world-file overlay used to load at 70 % and could not be changed, washing out detail; it now loads at 100 % and has its own opacity slider in the layer list (the right-hand end is exactly 100 %).

• Changed: The Emlid Reach Base setup sends GPS, GLONASS and Galileo corrections every second (1 Hz). A lost radio packet now costs about a second instead of two or more. In Settings → Emlid Diagnostics → Configure → Base you can send any of them at 0.5 Hz instead. If the receiver says its radio cannot carry the rates, the setup now lowers GLONASS, then Galileo, then GPS to 0.5 Hz by itself and tries again, instead of stopping. It also switches the radio off before it changes the corrections and back on after — the order the Reach requires. A base set up with an earlier version still shows as matching; nothing to redo.

• Changed: RS4 rover setups set the radio to 500 mW — RS4 radio power is always 500 or 1000 mW. An RS4 rover set up with an earlier version shows one setting different; tap Configure to update it.

• Changed: Base and rover setups also reset receiver settings Emlid Flow no longer shows — GPS AR mode fix-and-hold, GLONASS AR off, acceleration limits — and turn off tilt-compensated GGA output, so every receiver ends up set exactly the Ditch Assist way.

• New: Emlid Diagnostics warns when a receiver's firmware is older than the version Ditch Assist was checked on (RS3 33.1, RS4 34.8). Update it in Emlid Flow.

• Changed: The Home LITE MODE banner reads Guidance only — no hydraulic control.

Everything else is the same as 1.5.2 alpha.

Version 1.5.2 alpha — September 22, 2026

The 1.5.1 build published as an alpha with one change: Ditch Assist Lite is not available yet. The Settings → Mode selector is hidden in this build and the app always runs as Ditch Assist. Lite arrives in an upcoming update; everything in the 1.5.1 notes below applies.

Version 1.5.1 — September 22, 2026

Fixes for the Raise / Lower hold and for control modules that would not connect, the new Emlid Diagnostics tool, and Emlid Reach fixes. Version 1.5.1 replaces 1.5; everything in the 1.5 notes below still applies.

• Fixed: Raise / Lower stopped after a few seconds while the button was held (Pre-Flight valve test and the grading sidebar, every control module). The tablet treated a finger that drifted a few millimetres on the button as a cancelled tap and sent the valve stop. A held button now keeps the valve moving until your finger lifts, and the panel no longer scrolls under a held button.
• Fixed: Some control modules could not connect on version 1.5 — Auto-Detect skipped them. Auto-Detect now finds and connects every Ditch Assist control module again, and remembers the module between sessions so its valve settings are kept.
• New: Emlid Diagnostics — Settings → Emlid Diagnostics finds an Emlid Reach RS3 / RS4 on its hotspot, shows its settings against the Ditch Assist Base, Rover and Lite Rover presets, and can program the chosen preset for you, section by section, with a live Programming / Verified / Retrying line for each. It tries each section three times, then stops and tells you what to finish in Emlid Flow. Your LoRa channel and RS4 radio power are remembered; an RS4 base gets a one-tap 500 ↔ 1000 mW switch. Available in both Modes.
• Improved (Lite): A Reach that is not yet sending positions can still be activated — the app reads the receiver's serial number directly, so you can enter its unlock code before position output is set up, and the activation screen links to Emlid Diagnostics to finish the setup.
• Fixed: Emlid presets — programmed position outputs always use the standard GP talker so every application reads them; a rover preset no longer touches base coordinates (the Reach rejected that); the LoRa radio is released before a rover preset claims it; and the Reach's own error message is shown when a step fails.
• Improved: Support diagnostics — every manual Raise / Lower press and release is now written to the session log with how long the valve was driven and why the hold ended, so a blade that stops on its own can be told apart from a released button.
• Fixed: Small-unit settings (nudge amount, tile depths, blade height) snap to whole tenths; the Lite chapter's workflow list is corrected.

Version 1.5 — August 2026

Ditch Assist Lite, a DIG firmware updater, a clearer benchmark and calibration flow, and a long list of fixes. Version 1.5 replaces the 1.4 release, the 1.4.1 beta, and the 1.4.2–1.4.4 test builds — if you are updating from 1.4, the 1.4.1 notes below are new to you as well.

• New: Ditch Assist Lite — a guidance-only Mode for an Emlid Reach RS3 / RS4 receiver connected over its own Wi-Fi hotspot, with no hydraulic control module. Every survey, design, chevron, and coverage tool works the same; you move the blade yourself. Choose it at the top of Settings → Mode (Ditch Assist | Ditch Assist Lite). Each receiver is activated once with a 10-digit unlock code — the app shows a request code and a QR that opens an email to sales@ditchassist.com. Activating a receiver also unlocks LiDAR & Mapping. See the new Ditch Assist Lite chapter.
• New: Update DIG module firmware from the app — Settings → DIG Module Firmware reads the module's installed version and updates it over the module's Wi-Fi, with the firmware packages built into the app (no internet needed in the field). Updates go in the required order, one at a time, and the app confirms each before moving on. Works even on a module too old to connect to the app. The final update to 1.7 changes the module's Wi-Fi password — the app tells you when to rejoin with the new one.
• New: Keep My Progress when revising a design (Ditching, Excavation, Terrace Simple Maintenance) — implementing an edited design over a job in progress now asks: Start Fresh Job (as before) or Keep My Progress. Keeping it preserves your worked surface and coverage map — coverage recolors against the new target so on-grade status stays truthful — while pass number and nudge restart. In Simple Maintenance both the channel and berm worked lines survive, and coverage recolors per side.
• New: Import a survey or design from an XYZ / XYZP file (Ditching, Excavation, Tiling) — an Import file link on both tabs of the Load picker, for Geo-Surface Pro exports. Surveys tab: the first three columns become a survey and the designer opens on it. Designs tab (4-column XYZP): survey plus best-fit design, previewed in Freeform before you implement. The calibrate prompt fires on implement because the elevations come from another system.
• New: Benchmarks and calibration are now two separate things. The BM badge opens a Calibrate Elevation sheet that says in plain words what you are calibrated to and when, then lists what you can calibrate to right now — saved benchmarks (nearest first), a loaded survey, or a loaded design — one row each. Rarely used actions (typing a known elevation, zeroing to the current GPS, clearing) moved under Advanced and ask you to confirm. Managing benchmarks (Set Benchmark here, rename, delete, move to field) lives in its own Benchmarks panel, reached from the sheet's Manage benchmarks link.
• New: The BM badge has three colors: green = calibrated this session, amber = restored from a previous session — recalibrate before working, grey = not calibrated. A days-old restored calibration no longer looks identical to a fresh one.
• New: Field Mode benchmark routine — entering a field that has a benchmark prompts you to drive to it and calibrate (Go opens the drive-to card); a field with no benchmark asks whether to set one. Surveys, designs, and jobs remember which benchmark they were aligned to, so loading earlier work in the same field is silent when it already lines up and only asks you to calibrate — and says why — when it doesn't. Outside Field Mode nothing changes.
• New: Your tablet may drop this Wi-Fi — on Samsung tablets with Switch to better Wi-Fi networks turned on, the tablet leaves any hotspot that has no internet, which is every Ditch Assist module and the Emlid Reach. The app now checks that setting when a Wi-Fi source connects and, only if it is on, shows a notice once with an Open Wi-Fi settings button that takes you straight to the switch.
• New: Decimal Feet display mode — Settings → Units now offers a third choice alongside Feet + Inches and Metric. Small measurements that used to show in inches (cut/fill error, nudge amount, blade height, chevron step, tile depth settings) now show as decimal feet instead — for example a 2.0″ cut/fill error reads 0.17 ft, a 24″ blade height reads 2.00 ft. Elevations and distances were already shown in feet and do not change. Switching between Feet + Inches and Decimal Feet never changes a stored value — only the display.
• Improved: RTK Filter is honoured everywhere it should be. With the filter off — needed for receivers such as John Deere StarFire SF-RTK that report DGPS while on RTK — blade-height Auto Measure and benchmark averaging previously stayed greyed or collected nothing; both now accept the same fix Start Survey does. When START is disabled before a survey, the card now says why (RTK filter — tap to open Settings; stale position; no fix).
• Improved: Send Logs is honest about failure. If the upload cannot reach the server, the app still offers the share sheet but now says the logs were NOT sent and stays open with Retry — it no longer shows Sent! for a file that only reached the share sheet.
• Improved: Pre-Flight Checks is a proper modal — only its ✕ closes it; a stray tap outside no longer hides it mid-test.
• Fixed: Pre-Flight Checks — a connected DIG module now shows a green check on the Controller row, the same as a control module. It used to show an amber warning triangle even with a perfect RTK fix, which looked like a fault when every other row was green.
• Improved: When a DIG module is reachable but sends no GPS data for 10 seconds, the red message now says DIG module is connected but sending no GPS data — check power and the cable to the GPS receiver instead of connection lost. The Wi-Fi link was never the problem in that case, and the old wording sent operators to check it.
• Changed: RTK Sensitivity → Low now holds only when the RTK Fixed solution is lost or positions go stale, and ignores HDOP entirely; it also waits about a second of steady RTK Fixed before resuming, so a fix that flickers no longer toggles the valve. Mid and High are unchanged. Pick Low when your receiver's HDOP sits at 1.0 or above all day — usually a base sending fewer constellations than the rover tracks — where Mid could pause and never resume. A receiver that sends no HDOP at all now shows -- in GPS Info and Pre-Flight instead of a green 0.00, and no longer trips or blocks a hold on Mid and High.
• Improved: When Auto-Hold stays on after the fix looks fine again, an amber pill now says what it is waiting for — for example AUTO HOLD - WAITING FOR HDOP ≤ 0.9 (NOW 1.10) - SENSITIVITY MID — instead of a silent HOLD beside a perfect-looking GPS Info.
• Improved: Small-tablet layout — the survey and grading stats bars wrap to a second row instead of clipping controls off the right edge on 960×600 tablets (Samsung SM-T290), and the pre-survey card goes compact on short screens.
• Improved: Fewer false connection lost banners — a disconnect that happened while the tablet was asleep is no longer flashed the moment you wake it, and the banner hides as soon as the controller reconnects.
• Improved: Diagnostics for support — session logs now record the tablet's Wi-Fi signal strength, link speed, and network name on connect, on every connection-loss event, and in each periodic snapshot, plus the RTK-filter setting and position-stale state, so link problems can be told apart from app problems from the log alone.
• Improved: Manual — the Benchmark Reference is rewritten for the new calibration flow, and fix-quality guidance now states plainly that only true RTK Fixed is endorsed for survey and grading; Float / DGPS and satellite PPP services that some receivers label as RTK are at your own risk.
• Changed: Settings → Benchmark Offset is now read-only with an Open calibration button (typing an offset there bypassed GPS entirely).
• Changed: The Pre-Start Elevation Mismatch Check (Target Far From Current Ground) is now a switch under Settings → Pre-Start Safety, and it is off by default — it fired at every deep-cut station and whenever the machine was parked off the design line, causing more confusion than it solved. Switch it on if you want the warning; its threshold now defaults to 30 in (76 cm). The Manual Grade reference-distance warning is unchanged.
• Changed: The LiDAR & Mapping card subtitle is now Field Prep.
• Fixed: A rare crash (red screen until restart) when saving a design — confirming a design-name prompt or a typed parameter value while the on-screen keyboard was still closing could crash the app. Easiest to hit implementing a Terrace Simple Maintenance design.
• Fixed: Garbled arrows and minus signs in the Land Forming cut/fill legend and depth readout — they read "+793 mm → +924 mm" and "−10 mm" again instead of stray symbols.

Version 1.4.1 — August 10, 2026

A Terracing release: a one-survey maintenance workflow, editing the active design mid-job, and bigger cab-friendly grading controls.

• New: Terrace Simple Maintenance — maintain an existing terrace with a single channel survey. The berm target simply follows the finished channel design at an adjustable offset (18″ by default), so there is no berm to drive and survey. Start a new survey, design from a saved survey, load a saved design, or resume a saved Simple Maintenance job — all from the Terracing menu. The full channel-plus-berm survey workflow is still there for new construction or when you want berm terrain and rebuild volumes.
• New: Edit the active design — an Edit Design button on the grading profile chart reopens the design you are working to. Adjust it and apply it as a new revision; the earlier version stays on disk, and grading progress restarts against the revised target.
• New: Bigger grading controls — HOLD / RESUME is now the same size as START / STOP, and the terrace Channel / Berm selector is larger with a clear ACTIVE tag. You can also tap near a target line on the profile chart to switch the terrace target.
• New: A Stopping… indicator shows while the controller finishes halting after you confirm a stop (about a second).
• Changed: Terrace designs now start at a 0.10% minimum grade (previously 0.05%). Re-running a design on an existing survey may give a slightly deeper upstream cut than version 1.4 did with untouched settings.
• Changed: Switching Channel / Berm during automatic grading now requires the operator HOLD. A hold the app engages by itself during RTK loss no longer allows the switch — it waits until you press HOLD yourself or stop grading.
• Fixed: Simple Maintenance berm passes with Auto-Nudge on no longer cut to full depth in a single pass — the berm now grades straight to its final design.
• Fixed: A Simple Maintenance selection no longer carries over into Contour-Guided Terracing if you back out and change workflows.
• Fixed: The profile chart in Slope-IQ, Simple Grade, and Tiling no longer stretches its elevation scale with leftover terrace data from a previous job.
• Fixed: The excavator START / STOP button is back to full size.
• Fixed: On deep designs needing more than 10 Auto-Nudge passes, the profile chart lost the bold current-pass line and PASS label past pass 10, and Pass + / Pass − appeared to do nothing. The pass preview now follows your current pass — the bold line is always your live target, with the next passes shown faded behind it. Display only: grading accuracy was never affected.

Version 1.4 — July 17, 2026

A feature update: organize your work by field, carry a benchmark across days and base moves, survey runs you cannot drive, and get more control over tile designs.

• New: Field Mode (beta) — organize your surveys, designs, and benchmarks by field. Pick or create a field when you start work, and a whole-field map view shows every surveyed, designed, and graded run in that field at once. Turn it on in Settings → Fields; it is off by default and changes nothing until you enable it.
• New: Saved field benchmarks — save a benchmark at a spot you can return to (for example the field entrance), then on any later day drive back and recalibrate to it. This reproduces the same elevation reference across RTK base moves and multi-day jobs. Saved benchmarks show on the map, and the picker guides you to the nearest one.
• New: Calibrate to design grade — when re-benchmarking on a section already cut to grade, calibrate against the design elevation instead of the surveyed ground.
• New: Survey a run you cannot drive — pause and resume a survey to skip an obstacle like a water-filled ditch, or switch to Shot mode and take individual point shots; elevations between points are filled in for you. A two-point Grade Check gives a quick grade reading between any two shots.
• New: Tile designer Guided and Freeform modes — pin the tile line through chosen points, or shape it vertex by vertex, in addition to Best Fit. Depth-band shading shows where cover is too shallow (amber) or too deep (red).
• Improved: Tiling descent control — paced blade descent for smoother tile installs, a once-per-session pitch-sensor notice, and a start-at-the-outlet check.
• Fixed: Surveys are now recorded in the calibrated elevation frame, so a survey taken after calibrating lines up exactly with grading and with work from other days.
• Fixed: Saving a new benchmark no longer picks up a stale calibration offset.
• Fixed: The simulator no longer showed the blade slightly above target during design-follow (a display-only issue; real machine grading was unaffected).
• Fixed: Freeform design Undo now removes your last edit instead of a route end point.
• Fixed: Controller auto-detect keeps the controller type consistent with your manual selection.

Version 1.3.1 — July 13, 2026

Maintenance release.

• Fixed: Bug fixes and reliability improvements across grading, GPS handling, design import, saved jobs and surveys, and Bluetooth GNSS.
• Fixed: The elevation profile chart now shows your graded (green) line on top of the design line when you reach grade, instead of the design line covering it.

Version 1.3 — July 9, 2026

A reliability and safety update. A pre-release review found and fixed a set of bugs across grading, GPS handling, contour guidance, and saving your work.

• Fixed: In Terrace grading with look-ahead on, the blade could aim for the channel elevation instead of the berm while the screen still showed the correct target. The berm target is now sent to the controller.
• Fixed: A Bluetooth GPS receiver reconnecting in the background can no longer take over your GPS source while you are grading on a controller.
• Fixed: A contour-shape error at terrain saddles that fed slightly wrong steering in Levee, Contour Tiling, and Terracing. The Lightbar Full Deflection setting now actually changes the lightbar.
• Fixed: In Tile design, the Target Depth control could stop responding if Minimum Depth was set above Maximum Depth. The depth range now stays consistent and no longer crashes the guided setup.
• Fixed: Surveys, designs, and levee files are saved more safely — a crash mid-save can no longer leave a corrupt file that vanishes from the load list, and two surveys with the same name no longer overwrite each other. In-progress surveys are recovered after an unexpected shutdown.
• Fixed: The grade alert sound no longer keeps playing after you leave the grading screen, reset, or switch away from the app.
• Changed: LiDAR & Mapping now unlocks only with a real controller or excavator (DIG) connection, not a generic Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Version 1.2 — June 24, 2026

• New: This What's New screen — review what changed in each update, right inside the app, in your language.
• Improved: Support logs now record the exact app version and build date, so the service team can pinpoint your build faster.

Version 1.1 — June 21, 2026

• Fixed: Custom names you give a grading job now stick. If you save a job with your own name and reopen it later, the name comes back exactly as you typed it.
• Improved: In-progress grading jobs save themselves more reliably as you work, so less is lost if the tablet shuts down or the app closes unexpectedly.

Version 1.0 — June 15, 2026 (first public release)

• New: The core ditch-grading workflow — record an RTK survey, let Slope-IQ design the cut, and grade with automatic blade control.