How to request data from GPS010?

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Actual answer appears to be that the u-Center software does not modify the 'reserved' field.
Excellent sleuthing and it looks like you are well on the way to becoming the forum expert on the u-blox module and GPS010.

Please do post anything you discover which would be useful or interesting for other members, any handy test programs etc.
 

Armp

Senior Member
Please do post anything you discover which would be useful or interesting for other members, any handy test programs etc.
Will do...
Right now I'm exploring the u-Center software. It has a rather neat Google Earth plug-in so you can easily see where you are in real time - helpful when you get to my age <g>.
 

rossko57

Senior Member
It has a rather neat Google Earth plug-in so you can easily see where you are in real time - helpful when you get to my age <g>.
That's all very well, but what I need now is one to tell me what I went there _for_ ...
 

Armp

Senior Member
Polling requests with checksums for the messages we disabled. Not all tested ...

$IEGPQ,GGA*27
$IEGPQ,GLL*21
$IEGPQ,GSA*33
$IEGPQ,GSV*24
$IEGPQ,RMC*3A
$IEGPQ,VTG*23
All tested and functional. I just store them in a Table, point to the appropriate msg, and send the string.

I used uCenter to configure my module to output only the GLL sentence, once per second, and just get anything else I need on demand.

Note that the GPQ does not return data immediately, but waits until the next internal update - 1 sec by default.
Not a problem if you have a FIFO buffered Uart, but if using serin you may sit there waiting for a second.
You can increase the update rate, but that increase the power requirements.

This is one nice module.... But do use the uCenter software.
 

Armp

Senior Member
It's also worth noting the the Timepulse/PPS signal has a period of 1,000,000.0 microseconds +/- 0.1 microseconds (3 sigma).
I can't confirm the tolerance, but it is less than +/- 5 counts on my 24Mhz clocked logic analyser

Makes a very fine calibration source for the bench.
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
So it would appear the only significant area of the GPS010 which hasn't so far been explored is using the I2C interfacing.

I'm not sure how difficult or useful I2C interfacing would be but, while you're on a roll, it might be worth investigating.
 

Armp

Senior Member
So it would appear the only significant area of the GPS010 which hasn't so far been explored is using the I2C interfacing.
Unfortunately my Neo 6M card does not bring out the I2C pins, so I can't help there.
However I can probably help if anyone has problems.
 

MFB

Senior Member
The contribution of Armp and Hippy in making the GPS010 easer to use with the PICAXE is most impressive and typical of the level provided on this forum. Thanks!

The only problem with distributing this type of information in a thread is that it may be difficult to find and interpret it in the future, which I think makes a case for a tutorial. Of course this would be asking yet more work from Armp/Hippy but would make more use of their development efforts.
 

Armp

Senior Member
I'd like to thank Hippy for the help received. I would think that the PAXE code he provided is all that the typical PICAXE user would ever need. Maybe add it to the GPS010 example set?

Looking at the number of views of his code over the last 3 weeks would suggest there is not much interest here for GPS.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
... Looking at the number of views of his code over the last 3 weeks would suggest there is not much interest here for GPS. ...
Given that just about every mobile phone now has GPS I can not see there being a great surge of interest in fitting GPS to PICAXE.
There are obviously some projects, such as autonomous boats or flying robots, where GPS on a MCU is needed, but these projects are few and far between.

I've got a GPS module, and one day I might need to interface it to a PICAXE, so I for one am very appreciative of the work you and hippy have put in, even if I don't need it just now !.

Cheers,

Buzby
 

Armp

Senior Member
What is the current consumption of this module? :confused:
Can't speak for the GPS010, but for my similar module I see about 45mA for the receiver, 12mA for the active antenna.
There are a number of low power and sleep modes available to reduce this significantly.
 

Armp

Senior Member
There are obviously some projects, such as autonomous boats or flying robots, where GPS on a MCU is needed, but these projects are few and far between.
My project is to add GPS to the existing control system of a flying camera platform to supplement the gyro/accs already there. This will be a 'Go Home' feature, to bring it back should we lose communication (again! :( ).

Using a 20M2 to quickly develop the algorithms, and bench test the GPS. Then migrate I'm afraid....
 
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