Connecting external GNSS antenna to Thingy91x

[Nadjib]

Hi

We are looking into connecting an external GNSS antenna to the Thingy91x board. The drawings metion 2 ports J1 and J2 but can't find anything in the docs if these are meant to be used for external antenna connections. Can you please explain how an external gnss antenna can be connected to the thingy91x board.

Many thanks

[Michal]

Hello,

You cannot use an external GPS antenna on Thingy:91 X. For that you will need an nRF9151 DK.

J1 connector is for LTE and J2 connector is for WiFi/BLE, as shown on schematic (that can be found in Hardware Files) and there is no connector for GPS.

Those connectors are also technically not antenna connectors, but more for measuring the performance with test equipment, though I think you could solder on a U.FL. connector instead.

This is the connector used: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/murata-electronics/MM8130-2600RA2/1775922

Best regards,

Michal

[Nadjib]

Thanks for your reply Michal ...

It's a pitty that the thingy91x doesn't support external antenna, because the internal antenna is not really good. I tested it on outdoor settings I barely get a fix. The thingy 91 supports external antenna, I'm surprised nordic removed for thingy91x.  Anyway, we'll switch over to using the 9151 DK then.

Kind regards

[Michal]

I understand the issue, sorry that I am unable to provide a better solution at this time.

Thank you for the feedback, I have shared it internally.

Best regards,

Michal

[Michal]

Hello again,

We have some questions about your setup, since there shouldn't be any issues with the internal antenna from our testing.

Are you testing it with an out-of-the-box firmware, or something else?

If it's custom firmware, what are your CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_* KConfigs in the build/zephyr/.config file?

Best regards,

Michal

[Nadjib]

I'm running the nordic gnss sample. The sample reports tracking satellites, but I assume it's where I'm testing it from. I tested outside our office with clear skys but it's still surrounded by some buildings.

We are building a prototype for a customer and we thought we can base it on Thingy91x as a start. Now we're switching to base our prototype on the 9151DK.

Thanks for your support