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Mediatek Problems

Posted by Chris Roberts on September 29, 2010 at 11:33am

I am having problems with my recently purchased mediatek GPS, i'm quite new to this so there is probably something obvious im doing wrong....

 

I have the mediatek GPS module and the adaptor bought as bought from the DIY drones store and the basic arupilot board and shield.I have been running through the debug options in the code (2.7) and all is well apart from the GPS.

 

I have installed the library folder "GPS_MTK" inside the Arduino IDE "libraries" folder "\arduino-00XX\libraries\\", and set the code to debug the gps output and monitoring through the serial monitor. The monitor keeps returning "no gps, last 10s" and the blue led on the gps board and shield is still flashing. I have had the gps outside for the best part of an hour and its still the same.

 

Any ideas?

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Replies

  • Andre S November 7, 2010 at 9:23am
    Hi all,

    I had another test with the APM + MTK today and had some problems. I don't know if anybody has experienced the same but I get a lock inside at home on the window board usually within several minutes (but also sometimes it takes 30min or so). However, I'm unable to get a lock outside! This is after waiting for longer than 30 minutes and on two different days (one cloudy, the other one clear sky). The GPS has clear view of the sky.

    Here my wild guess: could it be that the temperature affects the battery on the adapter board? We now have around 3-4 degrees Celsius (around 38 degrees Fahrenheit) and the first time it was not much warmer than that.

    Is there a way to use the GPS without the battery?
  • Chris Roberts October 8, 2010 at 1:09pm
    Managed to get the GPS to get a lock. I think I was too close to buildings. When I get a lock now and view my GPS location (either in the groundstation or just putting the lat/long out of serial monitor into the web) the location is incorrect. From the serial monitor i get the following:
    Lat:514827850 Lon:2034897896 Alt:280m, gs: 0 COG:0 SAT:6 FIX:0 TIM:194200000
    but with my iphone I get my location to be 51.481020 N 2.431370 W which I know is correct.

    Any ideas?
  • Rupert Kent October 5, 2010 at 1:23pm
    OK, I pulled the ears away from the battery to negate any shorting issue but accidentally busted the +ve part of the battery mount off the board...! I have ordered a new GPS, meanwhile I'll try get this one going.
  • Rupert Kent October 3, 2010 at 8:32am
    Perhaps I am having a similar issue. My GPS did lock (I think) yesterday before I uploaded the APM code (unit was freshly built). The LED on the GPS then changed a fter a few minutes to alternating between a bright blue and dim blue.

    Today, after uploading the APM beta code, my GPS simply blinks on and off slowly. My APM and Oilpan are connected to my PC via USB. I am using the test -> gps in the serial monitor.

    It's been sat outside with a near 360° view of the sky for around half an hour now...

    Perhaps I am doing something dumb.

    Any thoughts appreciated.

    Thanks in advance,

    Rup
  • Ken September 29, 2010 at 2:07pm
    Is the blue LED on on the GPS blinking fairly slowly, less than 1x per second?

    Check Vcc on the GPS module itself (not the 5v into the adapter). I'm going to guess that your Vcc is less than the spec of 3.2v.
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