Hi

There are a variety of demo boards out there. Some have
WiFi / Bluetooth on them. The uBlox F9x products would be
one of the prime candidates. They are multi band / multi
constellation devices. You might also look into the Septentrio
Mosiac demo boards.

For a full up module with , the Septentrio AsteRx-M3 boards look like
some of them would likely fill the bill. They are more than a bit
expensive.

How any of this would interface with specific nav software is very
much a “that depends” sort of thing. Unless multi GNSS / multi
band gear is commonly available for this application …. I’d bet
it’s not going to drop right in.

If indeed what you are looking for is a robust solution based on
multi band and multi constellation comparisons, that is a pretty
significant software undertaking. There is software that works with
multi this and multi and they simply averages thing. If one input
goes a bit bonkers, so does the average. The “how do I decide”
stuff isn’t always there ……

Bottom line : I’d take a pretty good look at the software before I
put a few thousand dollars into this or that bunch of electronics.

Bob

You could use a Single Board Computer (SBC) that had Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth
and USB ports to read one of the multi-GNSS receivers for location.  That
would allow you to run whatever software you want and still get
multi-constellation positioning.

Todd

On Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 12:54 Brian Lloyd via time-nuts <
time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

Brian Lloyd via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com writes:

The things I will mention have PPS pins so they count as on topic :-)

I'm not sure why you think single-constellation GPS is worse than
single-constellation for the other 3.

I know of two product families.  Very roughly they are an F9P with an
ESP32 that has wifi and/or bluetooth.

iOS is difficult as Bluetooth SPP requires paying some kind of special
Apple licensing fees, as I understand it.  The things I am pointing to
don't do that.  SPP works fine on computers and Android.

Besides data plumbing, it can be nice to have a battery which can hold
ephemeris and RTC.

You may not be thinking about RTK, but the following have on-module RTK.

• Ardusimple

This was available first.  It can come no case, no battery, and thus
smaller size/weight.  Arduino form factor with native serial and
serial-over-USB.  It has a daughtercard socket and a wifi interface is
one option.  I believe bluetooth is available too.

One big downside is a lack of software maintenance/development on the
WiFi daughterboard.  The code is open soure, but I just don't see much
happening.

Besides F9P, which is L1/L2 and 4 constellations, there is a version
with a Septentrio part which adds additional bands.

https://www.ardusimple.com/simplertk2b-receivers/
https://www.ardusimple.com/simplertk3b-receivers/

• Sparkfun

This is more recent, and is more of a case/battery/display/UI with a
receiver.  There is an ESP32 builtin (vs daughtercard) and the firmware
will do WiFi (to fetch RTCM3, and maybe to provide nav solutions) and
Bluetooth SPP, and I have seen traffic about BLE.  The ESP32 software is
open source and it is under very active development; I've asked for
features and seen them happen.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18442

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18590 (F9R: IMU fusion, no RTK base)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/19984 (integrated antenna)

Overall I would lean to the sparkfun because of the software situation,
unless you need the lighter weight and smaller size.  If you're
using an antenna like one of

https://www.ardusimple.com/product/calibrated-survey-gnss-multiband-antenna-ip67/
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/17751

and a prism pole, the size/weight difference doesn't matter, and the
battery, status display, and better software tips the advantage to
SparkFun.