QUESTION

Question

I am using the M20050-1 as the GPS for our student built flight computer, following the design guidelines on the data sheet and from tech support. However during testing, we received commands such as “$GLGSV,1,1,00*65\n’” and “$GNVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*2C\n’” when interfacing the GPS with a Raspberry Pi Zero, and are not able to receive coordinates from the GPS. We suspect that the GPS is not fixing to the satellite.

I was wondering how would you recommend to approach the issue? I read on the data sheet about an external antenna, how should the external antenna be used and would it help fix to the satellite? 

Answer 1

Hi, I would recommend moving the RaspberryPi far away, it is unscreened so it's likely to be emitting lots of noise.  If the GPS starts working when the RPi is far away, then you could look into putting a screen over the RPi.  Could you change to the Pi Pico, as that should have lower noise emissions, and should be fast enough to record the data?

Michael

Comments

Hi Michael,

Thank you for the advice! I tried moving the raspberry pi far from the M20050-1, but was still unable to locate a satellite fix. I was wondering if you have any recommendation on attaching an external antenna or information of the external antenna module discussed in the data sheet?

Best,

Hong-Ye

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Hi, If it still does not track satellites when RPi is far away, then I think there is a problem with the on-board antenna, have you followed the suggested circuit for the antenna, there is a component on each side of the antenna, and the module should have a ground plane with a clearance area under the antenna. Also there is a capacitor between pin 4 and pin 6. Please could you send some pictures of the design to techsupport@antenova.com . Michael