GLONASS on U-blox ZED-X20P

[Christian_Kohler]

I have the SparkFun Allband GNSS RTK Breakout - ZED-X20P. I know the specs show that it does not support GLONASS, but I’ve seen a couple of suggestions that this chip is capable of receiving GLONASS, and I wonder what it takes to unlock this capability.

1. In the “How to get started with the u-blox EVK-X20P evaluation kit with u-center 2” video on the official u-blox Youtube channel, you can see that their X20P is receiving (and using) a bunch of GLONASS satelites.

2. Emlid just released their RS4, and when you look on their specs page, they mention a 672 channel engine and that they support GLONASS. I believe Emlid has traditionally used U-Blox chips, I have their original Reach from 2015, and it was based on a NEO-M8T. The ZED-X20P also has 672 channels.

Any idea what is going on here?

Thanks

[PaulZC]

Hi Christian (@Christian_Kohler ),

Here is my personal take on this:

I have an X20P running 2.02 firmware. It is receiving GLONASS and the MON-VER says that GLO is supported. BUT, this was originally an engineering sample from u-blox. I upgraded to 2.02 only recently.

The latest X20P datasheet does not mention GLONASS in the Supported GNSS constellations.

The X20P engine is certainly GLONASS-capable. I believe the decision to not support GLONASS was made for geopolitical reasons, not technical ones.

I can only assume that GLONASS is enabled / unlocked on my engineering sample and on the module u-blox used for the EVK-X20P video. And that the initial production / mass production parts have GLONASS disabled / locked.

It may be possible to unlock GLONASS on these parts, or purchase unlocked parts, but you would need to talk directly to u-blox about that and have a strong business case for needing to do so.

I hope this helps,
Paul

[Christian_Kohler]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.

[clive1]

The Prototype EVK-X20P list GLO, and the subsequent, post webinar, ones do not.

I have HPG 2.00 on both, I’d assume the options track over too HPG 2.02