Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 07:16:35 GMT

It was merged into master last week. I also added a simpler sample to my github: https://github.com/Rallare/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/tree/nrf9160_samples/samples/nrf9160/udp_gps

Kind regards, Håkon

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

ERIK — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 05:41:59 GMT

Håkon Alseth what is the status of getting a version of asset tracker that will support real GPS data? Is this something that is being worked on, to get the remaining issues noted elsewhere in this post resolved?

Thanks,

Erik

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

zigenz — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 14:14:21 GMT

Hi octvargas,

The link I supplied in my previous response referencing the Nordic blog post gives the official Nordic guidelines on compatible hardware. They state that "most any RF Bias-Tee will work", and provide some examples.

Good luck!

Best regards,
Z

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

octvargas — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 14:05:54 GMT

Hi zigenz,

Thanks, I have an active antenna but you're telling me I also need a bias-tee? Is there one you recommend? Thanks for your help

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

zigenz — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 04:24:10 GMT

Hi octvargas,

I wouldn't waste my time trying to debug two issues at once (GPS electrical + software function). First confirm you can get the basic GPS demo working (github.com/.../gps). Once you have this working, you at least know that any problems are only software.

Presumably you know that 0.8.5 is the earliest version of the board with the passive GPS antenna working? Any board revision prior to 0.8.5 requires a bias tee and active antenna to get a real GPS signal - see this Nordic blog post for more detailed info: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/cellular-iot-guides/b/hardware-design/posts/external-gps-antenna-on-nrf9160-dk.

Best regards,
Z

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

octvargas — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 16:10:57 GMT

Hello Håkon,

I was wondering what steps I would have to do to get real GPS working on my 0.8.2 DK when I try to build the asset_tracker application on the fw-nrfconnect-nrf branch it doesn't seem to use external gps.

Additionally when I run the GPS Sample on the same branch it doesn't really seem to output useful information

Any help is appreciated. Thank you

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:27:55 GMT

Hi Z,

Great to hear that you got it working! It is in a testing state, so not everything is as polished as it should be, unfortunately. There's a couple of things, like adding functionality to the lte_lc driver that is still needed.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

zigenz — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 07:36:38 GMT

So I've managed to get it building (which was not trivial), successfully locking onto my location, and reporting to the app in nRF Cloud. I'd say that the Asset Tracker demo works very reliably (ran it for about 18 hours flawlessly). Indoors adjacent to a window gives an accuracy within a radius of approximately 25m.

I did encounter one problem when bringing up the GNSS subsystem. The device would try to issue an AT%XSYSTEMMODE=1,0,1,0 which would fail with error 8 (presumably since AT%XSYSTEMMODE=1,0,0,0 was already issued in the LTE driver). Although not ideal, I omitted this command from the GPS driver and modified the command in the LTE driver to include GNSS support.

So at least from a functional level it all looks good!

Best regards,
Z

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

zigenz — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 14:47:52 GMT

Good man - thanks Håkon! It's almost 11pm here, so will give a shot tomorrow, put it through its paces and feed back.

Best regards,
Z

RE: Asset Tracker demo with working GPS on PCA10090?

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 11:48:52 GMT

Hi,

While the modem v1.0.0 supports concurrent LTE (in PSM mode) + GPS, the code base does not have an example for this, yet.

The branch that you link to is a work in progress, and it seems that you're lacking other commits.

This PR adds the gps driver: https://github.com/NordicPlayground/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/pull/943

However; it is work-in-progress, and might not work as intended yet.

Kind regards,

Håkon