This was an interesting question so I looked. Sparkfun says it can be used with their BOB-00718 USB converter board. But isn't the GPS 3.3V and not 5V which USB uses? Looking at the data sheet for the FT232RL is shows that it has a 3.3V regulator and somewhere is says you can draw 50ma for you own logic.Falcon X:
Go ahead and say RTFM if you need to, but for quick evaluation purposes… all I would need is the FT232 (serial to usb) connected to the GND, TX, RX, VCC pins of the GPS-09133, correct?
The GPS-09133 appears to draw “~28ma”, which is the only number I saw. At first glance it looks like you could use either GPS-00177 or GPS-00464 antenna. They say 12ma. So 12+28=40ma which is below the 50ma so it looks like it should work.
So it looks to me like you could connect those two boards together for evaluation purposes.
The SPI pins are for a flash part. The other pins are brought if you decide to use them. However, it looks to me like the VBAT pin should be labeled 3.3V instead of VBAT. The schematic shows VBAT tied directly to 3.3V. So it looks to me like you can't use the external battery to save the volatile data. (i.e., you will have to do a cold start every time you turn it on)Falcon X:
I’m assuming the SPI pins are for an optional SPI flash chip but what are VBAT, PPS, 1, 2, and 20 used for (i.e. why are they routed out)?
Falcon X:
I’m hoping to make a cool sky map tracking the az, el, and SNR of all acquired satellites over time.