GNSS Point Perfect help needed selecting a board

GPS/GNSS Development Boards
1

I am trying to understand the different GNSS boards and ways to get centimeter grade accuracy. There seems to be several different ways to do this and different boards. All these boards are pretty expensive ~ $450 w/antenna(s) and I want to make sure I understand the differences.

  1. SparkFun GPS-RTK2 Board - ZED-F9P (Qwiic) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15136

u.FL connector, Note: U.FL connectors are rated for only a few mating cycles (about 30) so we recommend you set it and forget it. You may need to secure the u.FL to SMA cable depending on your application. Otherwise, you could use the RTK-SMA version

  1. SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA Breakout - ZED-F9P (Qwiic) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/16481

SMA connector

Both boards are described as, high precision GPS requires a clear view of the sky and a stream of correction data from an RTCM source. We’ll get into this more in a later section but as long as you have two ZED-F9P breakout boards, or access to an online correction source, your ZED-F9P can output lat, long, and altitude with centimeter grade accuracy.

Question: are the these two boards identical except one has a SMA connector on it and the other a u.FL ?

Then I saw this tutorial https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ge … intperfect which seems to imply if I use one of the above boards along with a wifi connection I can get centimeter grade accuracy ?

I also saw this board on the SparkX site:

  1. u-blox ZED-F9P NEO-D9S Combo Breakout https://www.sparkfun.com/products/20167

It seems to have a built-in receiver for the correction data instead of using wifi ?

Questions:

  1. if I want to use the internet (wifi) connection I can use SparkFun GPS-RTK2 Board or SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA board and follow the tutorial “Getting Started with u-blox Thingstream and PointPerfect” ?

  2. if I don’t have access to wifi the u-blox ZED-F9P NEO-D9S Combo board would be a good choice since it has both the ZED-F9P and a NEO-D9S receiver for the correction data ?

  3. somewhere it said you need to have two ZED-F9P breakout boards if you want to receive correction data (non wifi), For that cost it would seem cheaper to buy the one u-blox ZED-F9P NEO-D9S Combo board vs two SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA Breakout boards ?

thanks

2

are the these two boards identical except one has a SMA connector on it and the other a u.FL ?

Yes.

which seems to imply if I use one of the above boards along with a wifi connection I can get centimeter grade accuracy ?

Yes. You’ll need an ESP32 to connect the ZED-F9P to WiFi, and a PointPerfect monthly subscription to obtain the corrections.

It seems to have a built-in receiver for the correction data instead of using wifi ?

Correct. The corrections are obtained over L-Band (~1.5GHz). L-Band and the NEO-D9s requires some more advanced software and configuration.

if I want to use the internet (wifi) connection I can use SparkFun GPS-RTK2 Board or SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA board and follow the tutorial “Getting Started with u-blox Thingstream and PointPerfect” ?

Yes.

if I don’t have access to wifi the u-blox ZED-F9P NEO-D9S Combo board would be a good choice since it has both the ZED-F9P and a NEO-D9S receiver for the correction data ?

If you’re just starting out, I would recommend against using the NEO-D9S. That’s really meant for systems integrators. But yes, once setup, it can provide correction data to the ZED-F9P.

somewhere it said you need to have two ZED-F9P breakout boards if you want to receive correction data (non wifi), For that cost it would seem cheaper to buy the one u-blox ZED-F9P NEO-D9S Combo board vs two SparkFun GPS-RTK-SMA Breakout boards ?

Yes, a 2nd ZED-F9P can be used as a base station: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/se … system/all Here is how you can setup a permanent base station (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ho … tation/all)

3

Thanks for the quick reply !