Glonass in Ukraine

Welcome
In different countries we have partners with whom it is pleasant not only to work, but to invent and engineer something new. After analyzing the market for GPS devices in Russia, we came to the conclusion that you need to create a device with the Glonass module, the main criteria of which will be: interesting price, reliability of the module, small size, relative to devices on the market. For the development of new equipment, which will go into mass production, Geos-1M was chosen. Why? Read on. (A lot of pictures).

Introduction or official data

GeoStar Navigation CB received two Live Electronics of Russia -2011 awards in the nominations: Global Business and Audience Award, and on October 21, 2011, the manufacturer was given the status of a participant in the Skolkovo Innovation Center as part of the Development of , production and sale of multisystem GLONASS / GPS / Galileo / Compass / SBAS commercial and specialized navigation modules ”(c) taken from the Internet news .

Those data of the module itself (basic and official):

• The number of channels - 24
• Cold start - 36 sec
• Hot - 4 sec
• Current consumption - 110 mA (!!!)
• Module dimensions - 33mm * 35mm
• The price of the module for the purchase of 1000 pieces is $ 35. The price of a debug board with an antenna is $ 400.

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Opening the box

The debug board itself comes in a beautiful (by the standards of the industry) box, on which there is not a single word in Russian, and in the corner the inscription Made in Russia, from myself I can say - it was done decently, neither the trendy European Telit, not a single “Chinese” packaged.


Inside the box we have: a debug board (REV 1.0), an antenna (GPS + Glonass), instructions and software download via the Internet (logical, 21st century in the yard). Photo board taken from the official site.

Fail # 1

We connect USB - reaction zero. We connect the power supply - the reaction is zero. We look. There is power, but it does not go further than the switch. When you strongly press your finger on the board - the magic LED - lights up. The total on the fee for $ 400 savings on the detail for $ 0.5. Well, it happens.

Fail # 2

Nowhere in the documentation does not indicate that the USB on this board is used only as power. Why is not clear. To get data from the debug board, we had to look for a USB-Som (well, you put it in the box).

Fail # 3

The antenna that came with was not working. Just shorted. Issue price (according to the official price tag - $ 50 ). There are no comments here.

Soft

Software - download from the official site. A small softphone with a size of 3.5 mb opens up completely the functionality of the chip itself. Made well. In this category I put an honest five in order to begin to deal with the work of the module - software is beyond praise.
As you can see, there is access to all the information that comes from the module, there are diagrams that show analytics by data (scatter of coordinates, accuracy, number of satellites that were involved in the process, etc.)

General form.


The window of reception and transmission of messages between the receiver and the computer.

Receiver operation

The first thing that was done was to update the firmware of the module and the test software in order to immediately remove all the questions. As the native antenna wrote was inoperative initially, and I had to order another one (the Moscow-Krivoi Rog train delivered it extremely quickly). All tests were made in the conditions of direct visibility of the "sky" without overlaps and other interferences.

So, let's begin:

1. Cold start is almost two times different from the stated:

2. Hot start - exactly 4 seconds (as indicated).
3. We were pleased with the ability to position on the Glonass and GPS separately, and use the joint mode.

4. 2 ports (configurable) - binary (the protocol allows sending control commands + firmware) and NMEA.


5. The current consumption is 110 mA, well, there is a lot of it - adding as many more here (gsm module in transmission mode), then there is no need to talk about mobility. (68 channel gps receiver which we use now consumes 5 (!!!) times less).

An antenna or a question that tormented you for a long time.

All tests were carried out on a “certified” antenna from the manufacturer GLONASS \ GPS T-106 Antenna (the price has already been mentioned), but the idea that these antennas are in Ukraine:

• Hard to find
• The price is very high

did not give me rest. We decided to connect the cheapest Chinese antenna (they are all used, the price is $ 7 including VAT in Ukraine). I attach a screen with signal levels:



No comments.

Conclusion

Has the right to life? Even more. Will we use it in our gps trackers supplied in Ukraine - no . Will we use it in the delivery of equipment in the Russian Federation - yes.

The main disadvantages of the module:
- the size;
- nutrition;
- price (exactly twice as expensive as the Chinese industry, if you add the cost of the antenna, then three times).

pros
- the ability to work in three modes (GPS \ GLN \ GPS + GLN);
- two ports for data output (for example, for displaying a route on a PDA);
- normal software;
- adequate manuals;
- Russian manufacturer (controversial plus, but better than the Chinese manager from Alibaba, who disappears at the right moment);
- certificates for the Russian Federation (China can already offer a pricing policy lower than that of the manufacturer, but the question of certificates is acute, for obvious reasons).

Stay tuned!
www.gps-tracker.com.ua