Hi everyone! I'm very happy to announce our new u-blox based GPS board. The development teams and 3D Robotics have been working on this GPS unit for some time, and we have seen very good results on ArduPlane, ArduCopter and ArduRover. The Sparkfun AVC and the Quadcopter Rodeo were excellent opportunities to observe this GPS in action, and it helped Team Overhead win first place at AVC.
The device is pretty straight-forward. It has active circuitry for the ceramic patch antenna, rechargeable backup battery for warm starts, and I2C EEPROM for configuration storage. The units will ship pre-configured for ArduPilot Mega use, and the configuration file is available in the repository if needed.
Features and Specifications:
It's on sale now, price is $75.99 USD. It starts shipping on Monday, July 9th.
Design files and links to the board's main component data sheets can be found in the product listing.
We look forward to hearing your feedback!
Comment by Hans Jakob Bosshard on July 9, 2012 at 1:28am Chris: Thanks for your information! I use the APM 1 (v. 2.049) with an extended kit (second platform) from http://www.snelflight.co.uk/QuadPod.htm as a very small quad "Ardupilot + QuadPod) for experiences! Other people are perhaps also interested in as a second version of the "Tyni Quad") also for indoor use. APM v. 2.049 is not yet compatible with the ublox GPS?
Comment by Greg on July 9, 2012 at 8:24am
Comment by Martin Mueller on July 9, 2012 at 10:32am Sam, u-blox says that it is 2Hz for flash (LEA-6H) and 5Hz for ROM, just as printed in the data sheet. The link you gave is currently not available.
Chris, why did you silently modify your post from 10Hz to 5Hz (instead of correcting it)?
[The LEA-6H initially gives position updates at 5Hz. That can change into a
stuttering output if the processor load increases with more satellites visible]

Comment by Michael Pursifull on July 9, 2012 at 1:20pm @Greg - why wouldn't it be compatible? Both the minimosd and 3DR remzibi tap into the mavlink flow, and the mavlink flow comes from the APM, not the GPS. GPS messages are included in the mavlink flow, but they are formatted the same way irrespective of the GPS used. Of course the classic remzibi and many other OSD units also have their own inputs for a GPS, but often these are not used when connecting to an APM. In any case, you are almost surely going to be happy with either GPS unit, I just didn't want you to feel like you weren't getting any answers.

Greg: it is compatible with the MinimOSD. I don't know about the Remzibi.
Comment by Greg on July 10, 2012 at 9:38am 
Comment by Michael Pursifull on July 10, 2012 at 10:01am 
Comment by Michael Pursifull on July 10, 2012 at 10:04am
Comment by Greg on July 11, 2012 at 1:49pm 
Comment by Michael Pursifull on July 11, 2012 at 2:42pm Greg - mine has just shipped, should be waiting for me when I arrive in Texas. So I cannot tell you about this GPS, but I can tell you I had the old uBlox5 for my quads. I had a more reliable sat lock in more flight conditions, near buildings, etc. But the biggest benefit for using my uBlox5 over the stock MTK was that I used a battery backed GPS. You can battery back both, but at the time 3DR sold a battery backed adaptor for the uBlox and not for the MTK. That is one upgrade, irrespective of the GPS you decide to use, that I can really get behind. You can DIY or buy, this GPS form factor has a battery, and jDrones sells a battery unit for the their MTK, and there are at least two blog/forum posts showing users how to DIY add batteries to MTK and APM2-mounted MTK GPSes. Definitely worth taking the time to do, I believe. Besides saving time at boot, it might also save you a crash or bazaar behavior when you accidentally launch w/o a lock.
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