DESCRIPTION

With GPS you are able to know where you are, where you’re going, and how to get there anywhere on Earth within 30 seconds. This means the higher the accuracy the better! GPS Real Time Kinematics (RTK) has mastered dialling in the accuracy on their GPS modules to 25mm, and that’s why we had to put it on this board!

The SparkFun GPS-RTK Board is a powerful breakout board for the NEO-M8P-2 module from u-blox. The NEO-M8P-2 is a top-of-the-line module for high accuracy GNSS and GPS location solutions including RTK. With this board, you will be able to know where you (or any object) are within one inch! The NEO-M8P-2 is unique in that it is capable of both rover and base station operations. Utilising the handy Qwiic system, no soldering is required to connect it to the rest of your system. However, there are broken out 0.1″-spaced pins in case you prefer to use a breadboard.

There is even an included rechargeable backup battery to keep the latest module configuration and satellite data available for up to two weeks. This battery helps ‘warm-start’ the module decreasing the time-to-first-fix dramatically. This module features a survey-in mode allowing the module to become a base station and produce RTCM 3.x correction data (as opposed to the previous version of the module which is not able to produce RTCM data).

The number of configuration options of the NEO-M8P-2 is incredible! Geofencing, variable I2C address, variable update rates, and even the high precision RTK solution can be increased to 4Hz. The GPS-RTK even has four communications ports: USB (which enumerates as a COM port), UART (with 3.3V TTL), I2C (via the two Qwiic connectors or broken out pins), and SPI.

FEATURES

• Voltage: 5V or 3.3V but all logic is 3.3V
• Current: ~35mA (varies with constellations and tracking state)
• Time to First Fix: 29s (cold), 1s (hot)
• Max Navigation Rate:
  • PVT (basic location over UBX binary protocol) – 10Hz
  • RTK – 5Hz
  • Moving Baseline RTK – 4Hz
  • Raw – 10Hz
• Horizontal Position Accuracy:
  • 2.5m without RTK
  • 0.025m with RTK
• 2x Qwiic Connectors
• Weight: 6.3g
• Dimensions: 40.6mm x 33mm (1.6in x 1.3in)

RESOURCES

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Hookup Guide
• What is GPS RTK?
• Datasheet (NEO-M8P-2)
• Product Summary (NEO-M8P)
• Hardware Integration Manual (NEO-M8P)
• Receiver Description (u-blox 8 / M8)
• u-blox ECCN
• Example RTCM Output
• Arduino Library
• GitHub