EHS8 and GPS Configuration (JSR179 Java Location API) | Thales IoT Developer Community
May 18, 2019 - 7:41pm, 17327 views
Hello,
For testing the GPS Engine on the concept board using the JSR179, do we need to configure any settings via AT commands before using JSR179? If not, what sort of GPS configuration does it configure to if its not using A-GPS? Is it using Local GPS?
Also, do we need to buy an external antenna when using GPS on this concept board?
Thanks,
Jason
Hello,
Generally the antenna power circuit is not the part of the module. It ***** to be provided in customer application. Here you can find the example schematics (which include GPS) for EHS8: https://iot-developer.thalesgroup.com/documentation/example-schematic-eh...
GPIO12 line can be configured as a switch for powering the antenna according to the configuration made with AT^SGPSC. You do it with AT^SCFG="GPIO/****/GPSANT" command. And then (if configured as "auto" by SGPSC) the antenna should be powered on when GPS engine is on. I have confirmed this by measurements with my EHS8 module placed on DSB75 with adapter. But I have also found the schematics for the concept board where it looks like that this circuit does not take the information from this special line but from power indication. So the behavior you have detected is normal for concept board.
So to sum up it seems that your antenna is correctly configured and the power is provided. So now it may be the case that the antenna is bad (maybe this long cable is the problem - I don't have any specification for the cable *** length) or it has not the sky visibility (it's not outside of the building, it's upside down or not directed to the sky). Or we cannot also exclude that the device is not working correctly.
So the only advice now could be to again make sure that everything is connected and positioned correctly, then try to delete the assisted data, start the connection for A_GPS and then activate GPS engine with A-GPS (1). If it stops without a fix, please try a few ***** more. Could you paste the pictures of the concept board and the antenna?
Regards,
Bartłomiej
It works! The antenna was the problem. Not sure if its the antenna itself or the cable length is the problem, but changing to another brand with 3m cord (down from 5m) works now. I guess I want to try with a smaller passive one later on, but picking up GPS signal was quick, less than 10 seconds without AGPS :).
This is a great news! Thank you for the update. I was already running out of ideas.
Best regards,
Bartłomiej
What is the recommended way to collect GPS data when using AT commands in Java? From an example that comes with WTK, it demonstrates writing the data to a file and reading it from there. However, in the ATC doc, I do not see "file" being an option for the Nmea output interface. Is the example correct or is outputing to file not supported on the EHS8?
Regards,
Jason
Hello,
You're right - there's no option to redirect NMEA to a file.
Can you specify where you have found this? Was it in Cinterion SDK package?
Regards,
Bartłomiej
Yes, the example was installed during the setup of the drivers from the installer.
this one to be precise:
..\EHS5 WTK Examples\EclipseSamples\GPSATCmd_Demo
Btw, I found some articles that can help me:
https://iot-developer.thalesgroup.com/showcase/demo-parsing-commands-serial-asc0-and-sms
This one the link is dead.
https://iot-developer.thalesgroup.com/threads/how-send-commands-asc0-interface-midlet
I haven't read this one yet, but it looks promising.
Are these sufficient for what I need or are there better examples? Also, are there any ATC or configs I need to pay attention to when working with ASC0?
Thanks!
Hello,
I have checked the 'GPSATCmd_Demo' example. And I have verified the documentation and the product again.
I must apologize for misleading you. The option to redirect NMEA output to a file was added to the product but the document was not updated on extranet where I have checked it. I have found the newer document and it contains this option.
However there is a note that because excessive writing to the ME's flash file system decreases the life time of the flash memory, it is recommended to use the "FILE" device only during development phases. I think that the purpose why this note was added here is that GPS engine can produce a huge amount of outputs, especially with the default settings, and it is generally advised to avoid extensive flash usage, for example in case of storing the application logs, as every flash wears off and can withstand a limited number of write cycles.
Anyway please check if your AT commands specification contains the file option. In case not I can send you.
As for the links they both open the same forum thread which was probably not your intention.
Best regards,
Bartłomiej
Sure no problem, thanks for helping out nevertheless. I am using the AT Cmd set for EHS8. Doc version is 03.001, dated 2015. The GPS AT example is dated 2016. Is there a newer version of the AT Cmd doc? I did read caution about excessive writing to flash from the RecordMidlet tutorial so I want to learn reading from ASC0 instead.
Thanks!
Hello,
I have the document with the date April 15, 2017 - I'll send it to you.
Best regards,
Bartłomiej
I wanted to write NMEA to file for a short interval. I issued the following AT commands and got errors:
Testing on concept board, EHS8, firmware version 03.001. Perhaps I overlooked at the Command manual. Not sure excatly where I went wrong.