ZOE-M8Q (GPS) blank Nmea data

Other Miscellaneous
1

Hi,

We are using the GPS module with the Sparkfun Ublox Arduino library to get the cureent lat/lng.

Unfortunately that is not happening with our hardware, after uploading the Example2 from the library, https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_Ub … arsing.ino all we could see was “No Fix” and “Satellites in view: 0” even after waiting for 10 mins.

After that we tried to run a couple of other examples and one of them was printing the NMEAData, which is;

$GNRMC,,V,,,,,,,,,,N*4D
$GNVTG,,,,,,,,,N*2E
$GNGGA,,,,,,0,00,99.99,,,,,,*56
$GNGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,99.99,99.99,99.99*2E
$GNGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,99.99,99.99,99.99*2E
$GPGSV,1,1,00*79
$GLGSV,1,1,00*65
$GNGLL,,,,,,V,N*7A

what could be wrong?

Note:

We are using a passive antena https://www.adafruit.com/product/2460

photo_2019-12-26_19-50-15.jpg
photo_2019-12-26_19-50-15.jpg1280×720 163 KB

2

Hi prathik_jain,

Based on your photo, it looks like you may be testing the ZOE-M8Q indoors. This almost certainly will not work. In order to get a GPS lock, the antenna needs a clear view of the sky so testing outdoors (away from large buildings and other things that can interfere with the antenna’s view) is ideal. You could also potentially test next to a window that, again, has a clear view of the sky.

3

Hi Mark,

We tried pointing the ZOE-M8Q to the sky, left it there for a couple of mins; We don’t see anything yet.

We also used the saleae (Logic analyzer) to look at the I2C communication happening, and for sure we see a lot of it.

Is there any other way to debug this apart form printing the NEMA data?

Thanks :slight_smile:

4

Hi Mark,

So looks like it was the problem with the antenna which we were using. We got another antenna and its working as expected.

Thanks for the support :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for updating and I’m glad to hear it was just an issue with an antenna and you are able to get it working properly with a new one. It may have just been an issue with the u.Fl connector not being fully connected or possibly the antenna was not able to get a good view of enough satellites to get a GPS lock. Regardless, it looks like everything is working properly and you can keep going with your project. Let us know if you have any other questions or run into any other issues with your ZOE-M8Q or any other SparkFun products in your project and we would be happy to help as much as we can.