Enabling GPS external antenna on thingy91

[engineerN]

Hi,

I am using Thingy91 v1.6.0.

SDK : v2.2.0

I want to use an external antenna for GPS. The antenna I am using is: robu.in/.../

I connected the external antenna to the UFL connector labelled GPS on thingy91 board.

In the sample gnss, I modified below configuration:

"CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA=y

CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_GNSS_ONBOARD=n

CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_GNSS_EXTERNAL=y

CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_AT_COEX0="AT%XCOEX0"

"

Now, when I build the code and flash to thingy91, I am not able to see any improvement in GPS receiving.

So, are above configurations correct or am I missing something?

How should I confirm if the antenna was switched to external sucessfully ?

Regards,

engineerN

[Simonr]

Hi

Please check out this thread where my colleague Heidi explains in detail how to use an external GPS antenna on the Thingy:91. 

Best regards,

Simon

[engineerN]

Hi,
I went through the thread.
From the thread I can see that the antenna configuration suggested was:

• For Thingy:91, is it ok to use an external antenna with this configuration:
  • passive antenna with LNA enabled
  • active antenna with LNA disabled

The antenna I am using is a passive antenna with LNA. 
And I tried the above configuration. This is what I was able to understand from the thread.

Am I missing something here? 

Please help me in summarizing the solution for the external antenna thing, I am not able to get to a proper conclusion from the data.

Your help will be appreciated.

Regards,

engineerN

[Simonr]

Hi

Due to Easter holiday we are a bit short on staff, and the cellular HW experts are out of office until the 11th of April, but I'll do my best to help you out until then.

There shouldn't be any big problems connecting external antennas to the connector on the ANT pin. Since it's a passive antenna with LNA it should be possible as long as the LNA is turned on. To do so, make sure that COEX2 is pulled high to turn on the DC bias needed to power the external LNA. Let me know if you have further issues.

Best regards,

Simon

[pax93]

Simon, I work with my colleague @engineerN (creator of this ticket). We are still figuring out way to make this work.

Can you please suggest/point us the changes to be done in latest firmware code to make sure Thingy91 starts using external antenna? We tried couple of changes; however it's not working as expected. 

[pax93]

Simonr Following up on this, Can you please help us with the same?