But that wasn’t a new-product request. I think it should be.
Here’s why I think it’s belongs at SFE:
- Newark carries it, but they want *me* to pay $20 extra because *they* don't feel like stocking any in the US.
- Besides, I'd rather send my markup-money in SFE's direction.
- It's multi-constellation, for folks who want to move beyond GPS alone
- And, as of this spring, the new NV08C firmware **supports raw-observables output**. It's (by FAR) the most affordable module to do so. ([http://www.nvs-gnss.com/news/65-nvs-tec ... eries.html](http://www.nvs-gnss.com/news/65-nvs-technologies-ag-releases-a-raw-data-output-enabled-firmware-for-its-nv08c-multi-gnss-receiver-series.html))
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- which makes it suitable for RTK and post-processing
- Anyone want 5cm positioning? Get two and run RTK. This is like the only module *ever* where owning two won't break the bank.
- the Piksi is sweet but not cheap and doesn't exist yet.. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swi ... s-receiver](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swiftnav/piksi-the-rtk-gps-receiver)
An SFE-designed breakout would be extra nice too. There are some others around, but…
If the module is $48, I’d rather not pay $160 for one on a breakout board. I understand, hackers gotta make money too, but c’mon.
- Populate-as-needed pads to supply power to an active antenna, or not.
- But supply the appropriate inductor and capacitor, so they don't have to be ordered separately?
- bridge-as-needed pads in the RF path for u.fl or SMA antenna connector.
- Both UARTs out to FTDI-friendly pin rows.
- Big silkscreen right under 'em "I/Os ARE NOT 5V TOLERANT!"
- Charging circuitry to use a supercap as backup power.
- Or pads for a con-cell holder.
- 1PPS signal brought out to its own GND-SIG-GND pin header.
- LEDs on ant_flag and sleep_flag.
- LEDs on VIN_A and VIN_D
- Separate regulators for VIN_A and VIN_D and VCCIO
- Populate-if-needed pads for a reset pushbutton. Or just stuff that on.
- pullup/pulldown jumpers on the five config pins
I’d like to spin one as a Beaglebone shield, but realistically I’ll probably never get around to that, so I’m mentioning it here in hopes that someone else sees a market and makes a buck by jumping on it.
I agree that three times the price of a module is not fair, but I never had a single big enough order to have a reason to build those in quantities and therefore cut costs. Until now, I assembled by hand almost all the modules I sold.
I am planning a bigger production as soon as the new hardware revision of NV08C-CSM is available to me. HW revision 4.x should have full Galileo support and should have appeared on the shelves last Summer already (that is why I keep delaying my production).
By the way, pretty soon NV08C-CSM will not be the only multi-constellation receiver with carrier phase measurements.
It’s a matter of a couple of months and I am expecting Skytraq and Geostar-Navigation to catch up.
Let go uBlox, which still manages to sell single-constellation modules by cleverly advertising a “PPP” feature which has very little to do with PPP.
ST-Microelectronics will also be capable of carrier phase with their new engine. STM works closely with ESA and the EC on Galileo as well. CSR has killed the most innovative GNSS firm of the last decade, what a pity. Furuno and Mediatek do not seem interested in carrier phase at the moment, but the MTK3333 is IMHO the most advanced standalone receiver out there.
By the way, I am really interested about Galileo (and Beidou2 for that matter) since those are the two systems racing now to become the second constellation capable of enabling low cost RTK. Glonass, as is, does not offer low-cost RTK as calibrating the phase measurements of a FDMA receiver is not cost effective for mass market modules.
And hi, I’m the guy behind http://forre.st/nv08c-csm. All the ones I sell are hand-assembled too, which is why the price is high. However, I did just drop the price to $120, which may help. I’m not making much money off this - the cost of parts alone is about $100. I primarily started selling these to make them more accessible to others that want to experiment with raw GNSS measurements - for example, I’m working on developing a GPS/INS system with them.
Michelebavaro, speaking of GLONASS code phase calibration, are all NV08C-CSM modules factory-calibrated, or do you do something special?
