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SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, SMA (Qwiic)
The SparkFun NEO-M9N GPS Breakout is a high quality GPS board with equally impressive configuration options including SMA. The NEO-M9N module is a 92-channel u-blox M9 engine GNSS receiver, meaning it can receive signals from the GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations with ~1.5 meter accuracy. This breakout supports concurrent reception of four GNSS. This maximizes position accuracy in challenging conditions increasing, precision and decreases lock time; and thanks to the onboard rechargeable battery, you'll have backup power enabling the GPS to get a hot lock within seconds! Additionally, this u-blox receiver supports I2C (u-blox calls this Display Data Channel) which makes it perfect for the Qwiic compatibility so we don't have to use up our precious UART ports. Utilizing our handy Qwiic system, no soldering is required to connect it to the rest of your system. However, we still have broken out 0.1"-spaced pins in case you prefer to use a breadboard.
The NEO-M9N module detects jamming and spoofing events and can report them to the host, so that the system can react to such events. A SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) filter combined with an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) in the RF path is integrated into the NEO-M9N module which allows normal operation even under strong RF interferences.
U-blox based GPS products are configurable using the popular, but dense, windows program called u-center. Plenty of different functions can be configured on the NEO-M9N: baud rates, update rates, geofencing, spoofing detection, external interrupts, SBAS/D-GPS, etc. All of this can be done within the SparkFun Arduino Library!
The SparkFun NEO-M9N GPS Breakout is also equipped with an on-board rechargeable battery that provides power to the RTC on the NEO-M9N. This reduces the time-to-first fix from a cold start (~24s) to a hot start (~2s). The battery will maintain RTC and GNSS orbit data without being connected to power for plenty of time.
This product requires an antenna: Be sure to check out the related products/hookup accessories and pick a suitable SMA antenna for your project.
The SparkFun Qwiic Connect System is an ecosystem of I2C sensors, actuators, shields and cables that make prototyping faster and less prone to error. All Qwiic-enabled boards use a common 1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector. This reduces the amount of required PCB space, and polarized connections mean you can’t hook it up wrong.
The NEO-M9N GPS Breakout can also be automatically detected, scanned, configured, and logged using the OpenLog Artemis datalogger system. No programming, soldering, or setup required!
- Integrated SMA connector for use with antenna of your choice
- 92-Channel GNSS Receiver
- 1.5m Horizontal Accuracy
- 25Hz Max Update Rate (four concurrent GNSS)
- Time-To-First-Fix:
- Cold: 24s
- Hot: 2s
- Max Altitude: 80,000m
- Max G: ≤4
- Max Velocity: 500m/s
- Velocity Accuracy: 0.05m/s
- Heading Accuracy: 0.3 degrees
- Time Pulse Accuracy: 30ns
- 3.3V VCC and I/O
- Current Consumption: ~31mA Tracking GPS+GLONASS
- Software Configurable
- Geofencing
- Odometer
- Spoofing Detection
- External Interrupt
- Pin Control
- Low Power Mode
- Many others!
- Supports NMEA, UBX, and RTCM protocols over UART or I2C interfaces
SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, SMA (Qwiic) Product Help and Resources
Getting Started with U-Center for u-blox
September 13, 2018
Learn the tips and tricks to use the u-blox software tool to configure your GPS receiver.
SparkFun GPS NEO-M9N Hookup Guide
December 19, 2019
The u-blox NEO-M9N is a powerful GPS unit that comes with a chip antenna, SMA connector, and u.FL connector. We will quickly get you set up using the Qwiic ecosystem and Arduino so that you can start reading the output!
How to Upgrade Firmware of a u-blox GNSS Receiver
March 26, 2021
A few steps and you'll upgrade to the latest features on a u-blox GNSS receiver.
Core Skill: Programming
If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.
Skill Level: Competent - The toolchain for programming is a bit more complex and will examples may not be explicitly provided for you. You will be required to have a fundamental knowledge of programming and be required to provide your own code. You may need to modify existing libraries or code to work with your specific hardware. Sensor and hardware interfaces will be SPI or I2C.
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Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
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Customer Reviews
4.5 out of 5
Based on 8 ratings:
A very good GPS breakout board
The board has a lot of interfaces, a build-in PPS LED and an SMA antenna connector. It's binary protocol can provide a lot of information in addition to the standard textbased NEMA messages.
Works as intended, but not quite bread-boardable
This worked pretty well out of the box with my active antenna.
However, I gave up trying to integrate this module whole-sale into my prototype rig, simply because the two rows of pins are way too far apart. A relatively simple fix to this problem is to move the PPS output to the TX/RX side, although the thicc USB-C connector probably needs to go (how about right next to the QWIIC?). This way I can single-row mount it on the edge (corner?) of a breadboard.
It'd be even better if there's a model with auto-switching on-board vs. external antenna...
Excellent Ublox module and nice little board.
I have only connected so far via the USB-C port, but this is a very nice multi-constellation receiver and giving you an SMA connector so you can use a good patch antenna instead of building in a crappy chip antenna is exactly what I was looking for. I can get GPS, Glonass, and Beidou satellites with excellent C/N0's with this module (50 dBHz when using a Taoglas antenna with a ground plane).
It's a very good component.
With OpenLog Artemis, I could get GNSS information almost without soldering. Only I did was soldering a slide SW to OpenLog Artemis which can OFF the system. I used Active GPS antenna " SparkFun GPS Embedded Antenna SMA (GPS-00177)". Qwiic system is quite easy to construct the measuring system. To get GNSS information with LiPo battery, I changed the rate to get GNSS information from 10 Hz to 1 Hz on OpenLog Artemis.
Some of the disappointing points are, (1) the board is a little bit large, (2) configuration with "u-center" software for u-blox GNSS chips is not easy to understand.
Anyway, this GNSS board is good one !!
GPS
1st GPS Board I have worked with. Very easy to set up and had it working in about 10 minutes.
Well worth the money.
Had it up and running in a matter of minutes. Very accurate with a lot of features. Can receive over 15 satellites while developing with it inside my metal pole barn shop. Very pleased with it.
Hi,
we got the item packed well and in time.