I purchased the RTK Surveyor Kit with the antenna and cables last week. I am having problems getting any GPS data to display. RTK Surveyor does connect to my phone via Bluetooth and to my computer via USB.
The pair light goes solid blue when paired and the ON night goes solid green, yellow, and white as it should. No other lights have lit up though. The Red base light flashes red when the setup switch is flipped to base. I have left the unit on for over 10 minutes in an unobstructed outdoor view of the sky, but nothing.
I then started scouring the forum for help and to see if anyone else has had similar problems. I have already checked the antenna cable with a multimeter and all appears good. Continuity through center wire and continuity through shield and no short between signal and shield, so I believe the cable is good.
I then came across this topic:
https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=58087
Tried everything mentioned there. The switches inside appear to be in the correct position, both are up. Then hooked to my computer and opened the terminal and did a reset, but still no GPS fix. Then downloaded u-center and connected computer directly to the UBLOX receiver and no satellites are shown.
Attached are several screenshots and pictures, hopefully something there will help.
I am suspecting a faulty antenna. Is there a way to test it? I don’t have another antenna I could connect to the RTK Surveyor.
Thanks in advance for any help figuring this one out!
Here is another screenshot from u-center.
I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I read you can check an antenna with a multimeter. It said there should be continuity from the center signal pin to the connector housing where the threads are, where the cable shield would be connected. I checked that and it is completely open, infinite resistance.
Apparently I misunderstood the article I read about checking the antenna with a multimeter, but none the less there is still an issue with the antenna. I connected a plain old WiFi antenna off of a router to the RTK Surveyor and got a GPS Fix in <30sec. All be it a poor fix with low signal strength and only one band, but none the less still works in a pinch apparently.
Connected the sparkfun antenna back and it worked this time. Got a dual band fix with RTK. Started taking survey points and lost the GPS fix after about 5 minutes. Apparently its an issue with either the connector on the antenna or the cable because if I wiggle it and get it in just the right spot it works fine. Figured this out after I went to unscrew the cable from the antenna and saw the skyplot of satellites popping in and out.
Guess I’ll be calling Sparkfun since no one has responded here yet.
I am having similar problems with my RTK Surveyor kit delivered yesterday. Curious if you found a solution?
I still never received a response from Sparkfun. After my last post where I realized it appeared to be a connection issue of the cable, I took a small screwdriver and VERY GENTLY bent the tabs on the antenna and on the cable in VERY SLIGHTLY to try to ensure they made good firm contact on the mating pins and it has been working fine since. It doesn’t take much force to bend them and if you bend them too much the plugs may not go together or you may break them, so be gentle.
Thanks! I bought a cheap GPS antenna from Amazon with the same connector. Tried it, still nothing. Tried bending the connection on it as you described, still nothing. I also tried full debug messages and debugging via u-center, including configuring the antenna. Still no response, but everything behaves exactly the same as if there was no antenna connected. Very strange.
Did your Amazon receiver screw directly into the RTK surveyor or did it connect to the sparkfun supplied cable? Perhaps the cable itself is bad?
If you have tried everything else above that I did, I don’t really have any other ideas.
Are you seeing any satellites at all pop up in ucenter or is the skyplot completely blank?
And the two switches inside the surveyor are set correctly?
I have a pair of RTK Express units. They worked flawlessly running static and NTrip for a couple of months. Then I tried pairing them with LoRa serial radios and lost the antennas on both units.
Everything seems to work fine with the exception of the units showing the radio icon (without radio connected) and no satellites in view.
I then checked the antenna sma connector with a voltage meter and found no power going from the receiver to the antenna.
Maybe the units are trying to receive a signal after all but no power. Not sure but hope you have luck with yours.
