SparkFun Qwiic - GPS-RTK-SMA Breakout, ZED-F9P

With GPS you are able to know where you are, where you are going and how to get there within 30 seconds anywhere on earth. That means the higher the accuracy, the better! GPS Real Time Kinematics (RTK) has managed to get the accuracy of their GPS modules down to the millimetre, so we had to put it on this board!

Based on the SparkFun GPS-RTK2 designs, the SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA raises the bar for high accuracy GPS and is the latest in a series of high performance RTK boards incorporating the ZED-F9P module from u-blox. The ZED-F9P is a leading-edge module for high-precision GNSS and GPS positioning solutions including RTK, offering a three-dimensional accuracy of 10 mm. With this card you will be able to determine the X, Y and Z position of your (or any object) within the width of your fingernail! The ZED-F9P is unique in that it can be used as both a rover and a base station. By using our handy Qwiic system, no soldering is required to connect it to the rest of your system. Nevertheless, we have broken out the pins at 0.1" spacing in case you prefer to use a breadboard.

We have included a rechargeable backup battery to keep the current module configuration and satellite data available for up to two weeks. This battery helps to "warm-start" the module and significantly reduces the time to first troubleshooting. The module has a "survey-in" mode that allows it to operate as a base station and generate RTCM 3.x correction data. Based on your feedback, we have replaced the u.FL connector and added an SMA connector to this version of the board.

The number of configuration options on the ZED-F9P is incredible! Geofencing, variable I2C address, variable update rates, even the high precision RTK solution can be increased to 20Hz. The GPS-RTK2 even has five communication ports that are all active at the same time: USB-C (which enumerates as a COM port), UART1 (with 3.3V TTL), UART2 for RTCM reception (with 3.3V TTL), I2C (via the two Qwiic connectors or broken out pins) and SPI.

We have also written an extensive Arduino library for u-blox modules to make it easy to read and control the GPS-RTK-SMA via our Qwiic Connect system. Leave NMEA behind! Use a much lighter binary interface and give your microcontroller (and its one serial port) a break. The SparkFun Arduino library shows how to read latitude, longitude, even heading and speed via I2C without the need for constant serial polling.

Features:

• Simultaneous reception of GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou
• Receives both L1C/A and L2C bands
• Voltage: 5V or 3.3V, but all logic is 3.3V
• Current: 68mA - 130mA (varies with constellations and tracking status)
• Time to first fix: 25s (cold), 2s (hot)
• Max navigation rate
  • PVT (basic localisation via UBX binary protocol) - 25Hz
  • RTK - 20Hz
  • Raw - 25Hz
• Horizontal position accuracy
  • 2.5m without RTK
  • 0.010m with RTK
• Max. Altitude: 50km (31 miles)
• Max. Speed: 500m/s (1118mph)
• Weight: 6.8g
• Dimensions: 43.5mm x 43.2mm (1.71in x 1.7in)
• 2x Qwiic connector

Documents:

• Instructions for the SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA card
• Circuit diagram
• Eagle files
• Mounting holes and dimensions
• Connection instructions
• Data sheet (ZED-F9P)
• UBX and NMEA protocol manual (ZED-F9P)
• Integration manual (ZED-F9P)
• Product overview (ZED-F9P)
• Release Notes - FW1.00 (ZED-F9P)
• Example RTCM output from ZED-F9P
• U-blox ECCN
• Arduino library
• GitHub