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3d - Printworx

APM / MPNG config for u-blox NEO-6M based GPS (Crius CN-06 v2.0 etc.)

Started by QuadBod, Monday,January 21, 2013, 01:13:02

Previous topic - Next topic

QuadBod

This file is a NEO-6 version of 3DR';s 3DR-Ublox.txt config file.

It was configured from scratch on a stock u-blox NEO-6M GPS, so shouldn';t cause the errors seen using the 3DR LEA-6 version.

Like the original, it enables only the features needed by ArduPilot (Mega) / MegaPirate (NG) etc, minimising the overhead of both sending unused messages to, and processing them on, your flight controller.

Key settings:

  • Protocol set to ublox (binary)
  • NMEA child messages disabled
  • UBX > NAV: POSLLH, STATUS, VELNED enabled
  • UBX >CFG > SBAS : disabled
  • Measurement Period to 100ms (this gives a 10 Hz position update)
  • Filter to pedestrian (for more stable hover)
  • Baud rate is 38,400 (for compatibility with the default settings of most controllers). You can change this after applying the configuration if you prefer.

I recommend enabling "Autobauding" on the "Receiver" menu in u-center, as this will switch baud in u-center if your GPS is not currently set to 38,400 and it changes during uploading of the configuration.

Apply this configuration file with "Tools > GPS Configuration" in u-center, set retries to 2 (to let autobauding catch up), and select File >> GPS. Then "Receiver > Action" and click "Save Config" to commit it.

If you ever want to reset to the default configuration (perhaps to use with a flight controller that doesn';t support the ublox protocol), click on the "View > Configuration View" menu, click "CFG (Configuration)", Select "Revert to default configuration", then click "Send".

Any problems or suggestions, please post here.

Gaza07

I uploaded the 3dr version to my cn-06 v2 and it did have errors but once I switched to 38400 baud and re uploaded it there were no errors, so im thinking the errors where created because I didn';t have auto baud setup, I will give your file a try with the auto baud setting and see how it goes, thanks for posting it  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

KK1W

Quad,

I received an FTDI cable yesterday from eBay, put together a cable this morning and updated my Crius CN-06 v2.0 with your file and instructions. Everything went perfectly, thanks a lot for creating both the file and the step-by-step instructions.  ~~

My first attempt, without checking the ';autobaud'; item in the receive menu was full of errors. Rather than save that one I ran another upload with ';autobaud';, checked, set retries to two and it worked like a charm (just like you said it would, did I say I suck at reading instructions?). Plugged the GPS into the APM, fired up Mission Planner and wham - GPS is up and looking good.

I';m glad I updated the GPS right away this morning. Once done you can';t see all the cool stuff in the u-Center program. That';s a good thing as I would have spent the rest of the day trying to understand all the different screens in there.  :banghead:

-15C and 15 MPH winds today - a good day to play inside with my toys :smiley:
Jim/KK1W

QuadBod

Glad to hear that  ~~ - thanks for letting me know how it went for you!  If you ever do want to play with the other graphs in u-center (The "Sky View" is fun to watch if you leave it for a few hours), or to use your GPS with a flight-controller that doesn';t support this configuration, it';s easy to reset it. I';ll update the guide with instructions.

Cheers,
Matt.

neagron

Thank you Matt,for taking the time to write this,it will help a lot of people,MARTY. :scotland:

KK1W

Quote from: QuadGod on Wednesday,January 23, 2013, 19:37:47
Glad to hear that  ~~ - thanks for letting me know how it went for you!  If you ever do want to play with the other graphs in u-center (The "Sky View" is fun to watch if you leave it for a few hours), or to use your GPS with a flight-controller that doesn';t support this configuration, it';s easy to reset it. I';ll update the guide with instructions.

Cheers,
Matt.

Matt,

Thanks for the update (how to reset) too! I actually may buy another GPS just so I can run it on u-Center for my techi geek friends when they come over. It could pay for itself quickly if it keeps them out of the beer fridge while they';re playing with the program  :smiley:

Seriously though, one thing I';ve seen mentioned a few times is the possible effect of putting the gps in shrink wrap or an enclosure on the antenna. If you have the gps running on u-Center you can watch the effect and make your decisions based on fact instead of supposition. It';s on my list to do - I';m new to this stuff so I';m thinking I need some ';crash protection'; for my NEO.

Nice work Matt!
Jim/KK1W

KK1W

I had time on my hands today so I did an experiment with my u-blox Crius CN-06, v2.0 GPS. I reverted it to the default configuration, powered it up in the u-center application and after it achieved lock experimented with different environments around the antenna.

While looking at the satellite RX graph and the HDOP/PDOP numbers I tried the following:

Bare board sitting on the table
Bare board with ground plane underneath
Board inside heat shrink
Board inside heat shrink and on the ground plane
Board on ground plane with a little plastic dome over it (not touching the antenna)

I fully expected to see ';some'; differences but my unscientific method yielded pretty much the same results. I guess the conclusion is we shouldn';t worry too much about how we mount the GPS as far as the antenna performance is impacted. Getting it up and away from all the noisy electronics (ESC and APM) is probably the best thing to do.

Graphs are below for your viewing enjoyment :smiley: I should add the last one, even though it looks better, wasn';t much different when I went back to a bare board. I had a phone call in between and apparently the satellite constellation improved. - now on to doing something useful before my wife comes home from work  ;)

Jim/KK1W

Gaza07

I would of thought a ground plane would of made a difference did you connect the ground from the gps to the ground plane would that make a difference  :rolleyes:
I seem to recall reading some where that the ground plane has to be connected to the ground of the gps but I';m not 100% sure  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

KK1W

Quote from: Gaza07 on Wednesday,February 27, 2013, 22:27:32
I would of thought a ground plane would of made a difference did you connect the ground from the gps to the ground plane would that make a difference  :rolleyes:
I seem to recall reading some where that the ground plane has to be connected to the ground of the gps but I';m not 100% sure  ~~

You know I didn';t do that. Not sure what just a wire would look like as an RF ground at that frequency. I could use a short piece of braid instead. I';ll try that the next time and see if it makes a difference - the way the weather has been around here there';s not much else to do. It would be nice to try it outside too where there';s a stronger/steadier sat signal but today was not the day for that!

More to come, some time.
Jim/KK1W

Gaza07

[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

rbreuss

Quote from: QuadBod on Wednesday,January 23, 2013, 19:37:47
Glad to hear that  ~~ - thanks for letting me know how it went for you!  If you ever do want to play with the other graphs in u-center (The "Sky View" is fun to watch if you leave it for a few hours), or to use your GPS with a flight-controller that doesn';t support this configuration, it';s easy to reset it. I';ll update the guide with instructions.

Cheers,
Matt.
Hi Matt, I have two questions:
1) How to make that change of configuration, to be all those graphs in Ucenter live again?
2) Why is SBAS (EGNOS) disabled? I thought, Europe is covere by EGNOS signal sufficient way. It doesnt improve our GPS accuracy?
Thanks
Radek

QuadBod


@rbreuss, there are instructions for resetting to factory defaults in the original post.

Regarding SBAS being disabled, the main reason is the effect of SBAS shift. It can take up to 5 mins for the first SBAS update to be received, at which point you multi will reposition itself accordingly (could be a several meter shift in both direction and height). This may not be desirable in flight, and could even be dangerous. Also for RTL, it won';t land where it took off from.

Since we';re more concerned with relative rather than absolute position, SBAS isn';t particularly useful.

If you';re happy to wait 5 mins for your GPS to sync before taking off, by all means re-enable SBAS, but I think disabled is best as a safe default.

wildernessbob

this link for the sketch doesn';t work. is there a problem with it, or is it somewhere else?

QuadBod

Quote from: wildernessbob on Tuesday,August 06, 2013, 20:38:20
this link for the sketch doesn';t work. is there a problem with it, or is it somewhere else?

I just downloaded it and it seems fine. What error are you getting? Have you tried a different browser?

Regards,
Matt.

wildernessbob

i get a 404
404. That's an error.

The requested URL /git/libraries/AP_GPS/config/3DR-Ublox.txt was not found on this server. That's all we know.

QuadBod

Looks like the 3DR version has moved so the link was broken (now removed), but you want the file linked at the bottom of the post, which is fine.

felixrising

Hi,

I noticed there are some "v3" Crius GPS around now.. anyone had some experience with the new version yet? What are the major differences?

I saw it on GLB and DX: CRIUS NEO-6 V3.0 GPS

jasdall

Hi I am having problems with my GPS on my apm 2.5 which I am not getting gps lock. I am trying to sent the new ublox config firmware but I am getting a lot of errors. I tried to see and read what to do and I followed the above instructions but no success. Anyone can guide me pls?

HowDoIfly

Quote from: jasdall on Sunday,February 16, 2014, 10:06:56
Hi I am having problems with my GPS on my apm 2.5 which I am not getting gps lock. I am trying to sent the new ublox config firmware but I am getting a lot of errors. I tried to see and read what to do and I followed the above instructions but no success. Anyone can guide me pls?

Don';t try and get lock indoors, you need to be outside with all round view of the sky unobstructed.

Don';t worry about error messages as the ublox config is loading, that';s normal. But if you get a pink error page that stays up after it';s loaded - that';s a problem.
Ifly4 no more, Hubsan X4, R550v2, X650F-V4

jasdall

Quote from: HowDoIfly on Sunday,February 16, 2014, 10:38:30
Don';t try and get lock indoors, you need to be outside with all round view of the sky unobstructed.

Don';t worry about error messages as the ublox config is loading, that';s normal. But if you get a pink error page that stays up after it';s loaded - that';s a problem.

I managed to do the upload to the ublox gps .txt but I am not getting any satelites on the ublox centre. I attached the gps back to the APM and still no fix.  :angry: I dont know what to do more. Maybe someone can point me into the right direction.

HowDoIfly

Quote from: jasdall on Sunday,February 16, 2014, 19:36:41
I managed to do the upload to the ublox gps .txt but I am not getting any satelites on the ublox centre. I attached the gps back to the APM and still no fix.  :angry: I dont know what to do more. Maybe someone can point me into the right direction.

Not too experienced with trouble shooting these, but have you checked the wiring, specifically is rx at one end going to tx at the other (times two)? Can';t recall if they should be crossed or straight through due to internal wiring but worth swapping them as they only contain signals - don';t cross the ground or positive wires though!
Ifly4 no more, Hubsan X4, R550v2, X650F-V4

jasdall

Quote from: HowDoIfly on Sunday,February 16, 2014, 20:42:03
Not too experienced with trouble shooting these, but have you checked the wiring, specifically is rx at one end going to tx at the other (times two)? Can';t recall if they should be crossed or straight through due to internal wiring but worth swapping them as they only contain signals - don';t cross the ground or positive wires though!

No problem with connections of wiring as if I didnt connect them right I didnt manage to upload the firmware to the GPS ;) just now downloaded another file for APM+MPNG_config.txt and as described for some has worked. I still have some doubt on the ublox center, should I get the number of satelites and the signal?

HowDoIfly

Quote from: jasdall on Sunday,February 16, 2014, 20:56:15
No problem with connections of wiring as if I didnt connect them right I didnt manage to upload the firmware to the GPS ;)

Ooops, overlooked the ublox test, was thinking in terms of connection to APM.
Ifly4 no more, Hubsan X4, R550v2, X650F-V4

Belteshazzar

Thanks for posting the sketch.....thanks to you this was my first successful .txt file that I uploaded to my GPS';s.....never been able to get the original 3DR sketch into my LEA';s even though it is suppose to be designed for the LEA-6H

It was successful in my book, however it did loaded 99% of the sketch. The GPS module itself is working but I want to know what its missing.  (Still can';t get my APM 2.6 to Loiter but that"s a different story....I though this code would do it)

The very last command line did not load, even with "10 times" set.

Sending: CFG-CFG -  B5 62 06 09 0C 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 17 75 ...
... failed due to timeout!

What does this particular line do? What command did the GPS end up missing?

Thanks for your time.

Belteshazzar


Hands0n

Have you got uCentre set to AutoBaud. One of the lines changes the GPS serial port speed. As soon as that happens uCentre cannot send the remainder of the file. AutoBaud means uCentre will try all available speeds until it finds one that works, and then complete sending the configuration file.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

--
Danny
"Its better than bad, its good"

Current FCs: Pixhawk, APM 2.6, Naza M V2, Naze32, Flip32+ CC3D, KK2.1.5
Aircraft: miniMax Hex, DJI 550 (clone) TBS Disco, 450 Firefly, 250 Pro, ZMR250, Hubsan X4, Bixler 2

barneyg

I thought this wasn';t necessary anymore if you are using a UBLOX protocol GPS as the APM sends the right codes to the GPS on start up.  Assuming you connect both the RX and TX  that is.  Certainly MultiWii does this and I';ve found that MultiWii and APM have a tendency to incorporate each others features like this.

Belteshazzar

I set it to Autobauding and it goes to 9';600 at which none of the commands goes through. I get timeout on every line.

However, I left it on Autobauding and changed to 38';400. Everything comes alive again....even GPS live feed to the U-Center graphical displays.

Does Autobauding still have effect if I leave it marked (checked) and then change to 38';400.......meaning the commands lines start at 38';000 but changes if necessary as per the command lines instructions?

Anyway, this is what I did because it is the only way it works and again same exact response:

Every line goes through except one in the middle somewhere which is "rejected" by the GPS and the very last line that just fails after 10 attempts.

If it wasn';t for these 2, I would not have that nasty "Pink Screen" at the end.

Sending: CFG-DAT -  B5 62 06 06 02 00 00 00 0E 4A ...
... message rejected!
Removing this message now, because GPS receiver did not accept it.

Sending: CFG-CFG -  B5 62 06 09 0C 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 17 75 ...
... failed due to timeout!

Does one of this change the baud rate? If not, what is their command exactly?

Hands0n

Actually, Barneyg is right - the MultiWii and Arducopter software do auto-set up the GPS each time the system is powered up.  I had forgotten that - never used to happen in my day (early last year LOL).

So maybe the best thing is to simply hook it all up to the FC, make sure you';ve got TX and RX crossed over between the FC and the GPS module - and all should be good to go.
--
Danny
"Its better than bad, its good"

Current FCs: Pixhawk, APM 2.6, Naza M V2, Naze32, Flip32+ CC3D, KK2.1.5
Aircraft: miniMax Hex, DJI 550 (clone) TBS Disco, 450 Firefly, 250 Pro, ZMR250, Hubsan X4, Bixler 2

HowDoIfly

The APM-specific config file was produced due to the (different) default config loaded on previously supplied GPS systems. Nowadays, if you buy a GPS that';s aimed at APM etc, it will come usually come pre-configured with APM-specific settings.

The reasoning was the many features/functions enabled in default GPS systems were redundant for APM use and the config file was created to reduce the message overhead the APM had to parse.

While the APM will reconfigure the GPS when connected, it is a temporary setting which the GPS will "forget" on next power-up (unless it';s connected to the APM and therefore reconfigured again) if that makes sense?

Ifly4 no more, Hubsan X4, R550v2, X650F-V4