I have been working on a PCB thats uses the MAX-M10S chip based off the Sparkfun schematic, everything seems to work but it wont get a fix. When it runs it says its getting no satellites. I have this antenna attached. Here is my schematic and PCB layout, FB3 on the schematic is this. The PCB layout is a little tricky to see due to other chips near by. Only the bottom layer is visible. The boxes labeled P are contact points so i can solder to them if i find a need.
Hi,
The only thing that jumps out at me is that you are missing the small DC-blocking capacitor on RF_IN. 47pF is the usual value. Some of our u-blox designs include it, but some don’t.
Your antenna is active. It won’t work if the VCC_RF is missing or low. Try measuring the voltage on the SMA center pin when the antenna is connected. If it is around 3.0V, you should be OK.
And do test it outdoors. You will struggle to get a signal indoors.
I hope this helps,
Paul
I did measure VCC_RF and its at about 3.18V. I have a speculation that it might be a bad power supply, i accidentally killed the normal power regulator on the board so i hooked up an AMS1117 - 3.3V which is not a very good power regulator. C18 doesn’t appear to be on the Sparkfun breakout, i probably should have looked at that schematic too. For C14 i think its normally 10nF and i’m using 47pF so that might be something.
Still have not had any luck, i now am running the power regulator the board is meant to run on. I have the hot start coin cell in as well.
