New 3D Robotics product: u-blox LEA-6H GPS

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:

ublox LEA-6H module
5Hz max. update rate, configured for 4Hz for APM
25 x 25 x 4 mm ceramic patch antenna
LNA and SAW filter
rechargeable 3V lithium backup battery
low noise 3.3V regulator
I2C EEPROM for configuration storage
power and fix indicator LEDs
ArduPilot Mega compatible 6-pin JST connector
exposed RX, TX, 5V and GND pads
38 x 38 x 8.5 mm total size
16.8 g weight

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!

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Comments

Developer

Randy July 4, 2012 at 2:25am

Tridge did some work to make it so the APM will automatically configure the gps to use the right settings at start-up. Hopefully that'll make it nice and easy for people to get working. We shall see when they start arriving in people's mailboxes I guess.
Greg July 4, 2012 at 1:53am

Nice to see this new gps. I originally bought a ublox over the media tek and it always seemed to be better until I killed it after an exepected engine failure. Not sure how long it will take to get this new GPS even if the store is still showing stock. Going by the usual store leadtimes even for in stock items, I am guessing 4 weeks from release date? Still there is always plenty to do in the interim. I just recieved my unassembled APM 2 and so will look forward to adding this new GPS. Congratulations to the developers on this new addition to the arducopter / ardupilot family.
Moderator

Michael Pursifull July 3, 2012 at 11:20pm

http://opensat.cc/wiki/balloon:gps - LEA-6H ceiling is reported as 50,000m
Andrew Rabbitt July 3, 2012 at 11:18pm

am I correct that the LEA-6H is "HAB-compatible"?
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson July 3, 2012 at 8:53pm

Adam: I'm not following. It works fine with the APM 2 hardware (yes, it comes with a cable). Or did you mean the version of APM 2 with the built-in MTK GPS?
Developer

Adam Rivera July 3, 2012 at 8:48pm

Sorry... I meant hardware. I am mobile and didnt see some of the early answers. Perhaps the resistor "hack" should get a wiki page. Does it come with a cable?
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson July 3, 2012 at 8:46pm

Adam: Both the ArduPlane and ArduCopter code will auto-recognize it. No setup required.
Developer

Adam Rivera July 3, 2012 at 8:41pm

Is there a wiki for getting the APM 2.0 setup with this chip?
DC July 3, 2012 at 8:21pm

I'm still waiting to have my APM2 shipped and i ordered a spare mediatek 3329 Board is there away I can pay the difference and have this shiopped with my order?
Cliff-E July 3, 2012 at 8:17pm

Interesting, put my request in one. For those that want the meat:

Acquisition down to 1 s, –147 dBm coldstart sensitivity and 5 Hz update rate

I just realize the Mikrokopters's are using this module in their latest offerings. And this with their latest firmware release is a world of a difference on position hold.

Now I know the Mediatek can run better (-165dBm, acq <1s), but LIRC the update rate was lower w/the APM/3DR fw (correct?). Could a big ground plane adapter on the MTK even things up?

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