Can the Venus GPS module be reconfigure permanently for different settings? By default mine uses 4800baud + 1Hz update, I’d like to push it as fast as possible but any time I remove power all the settings reset.
Whatever method you are using to configure the Venus GPS module (manually sending commands via UART or using a config utility on the PC) make sure that it is setting the value of 0x01 to the Attributes field of the related configuration command.
The attribute field has the following values:
0x00 – Update to SRAM
0x01 – Update to both SRAM and FLASH
Therefore by using 0x01 in attributes it will apply the setting immediately and write to flash so that upon power up it will use that setting instead of the factory default.
Note that SkyTraq doesn’t say what the limited number of times flash can be written to, so use the update to SRAM and FLASH setting sparingly.
TRON, thanks for the reply. I’m using the SkyTraq software provided on the modules page to send the configuration and I am selecting “Update to both SRAM and FLASH”
Since you appear to be able to configure the Venus GPS successfully and get it working as to how you want it to operate, but cannot get it to remember settings after a power cycle then it sounds like there is something wrong with the flash writing procedure.
The only thing I can think of that would cause the write to flash procedure to fail is lack of power going to the chip.
How are you powering the Venus? If its via the [FT232RL breakout then I believe it barely has the amperage to power the GPS alone much less the required power for the flash write procedure.
For example say it takes 10mA to read a flash chip then most likely it’ll take 80mA to write to it or more. That is just an example, I haven’t actually measured a flash chip during a write vs a read. But I do know that from previous experience and reading various flash chip documentation the power requirements are quite a bit higher during a write than a read.
The really bad part is that SkyTraq hasn’t given us any power requirements for their GPS chip except during power-down mode for the battery operated save of the SRAM which is 10uA. I’ve read somewhere it appears to have a <80mA power usage during start time and goes to like 40mA during normal runtime. It would be nice to have the power figures from the vendor themselves though.](SparkFun USB to Serial Breakout - FT232RL - BOB-12731 - SparkFun Electronics)
So I’m powering the unit from the Logomatic which I can’t seem to find what regulator it uses. I went ahead and hooked it up to a seperate 800mA 3.3V supply and so far I’ve been able to change the baud rate but changing the position update rate seems to not work at all.
For instance even when connected directly to the venus module using the FTDI board, and telling it to update at 5 or really anything, it doesn’t change and then when I query the module I either get 0Hz or 1Hz?!
Sorry to dig up a old thread, but did anyone work out what power differences are between 1Hz and 20Hz ?