A GPS antenna is not working

Technical Support
#1

Hello.
I bought 4 RS&BOOMs in this April, and I bough 4 GPS antennas in May.
RS&BOOMs work fine with NTP servers, but, they cannot recognize GPS antennas.

To be a little more precise, if I check /var/log/messages, the GPS antenna is recognized as a USB device, but, /dev/ttyUSB0 is not created.

My colleague also have your GPS antennas which bough in this March with RS4Ds, and they work fine with my RS&BOOMs.

From your website, it says “Fully tested with the latest software updates”.
According to the manual, I connected my RS&BOOMs to the Internet and rebooted once.
But, they still cannot recognize GPS antennas I bought in May.

How can I check my RS&BOOMs are updated or not?
What more should I check?

#2

I found out how to check current version of RS&BOOM.
And it says System Version: 0.20.
From the manual, it is the latest.

What more should I check?

#3

Hello yckim, welcome to our community.

Thank you for contacting us regarding the issue you are experiencing. It seems indeed unusual that all GPS antennas are not working properly with your RSBOOM units.

Could I please ask you to reboot one of the RSBOOM Shakes with the GPS antenna attached, wait around ~30 minutes, and then download and post the logs that unit, so that I can take a more in-depth look?

Instructions on how to do so are here: Please read before posting!

Thank you.

#4

Dear Stormchaser,

I’ve attached a log file I downloaded from the web page.
Please, check it for me.
RSH.R536D.2022-09-15T04_42_54.logs.tar (1.3 MB)
Thank you.

#5

Thank you for the logs yckim!

From what I can see, it appears that the Shake is indeed updated to the latest OS version, and is also seeing the GPS module connected, but it is not using it as an NTP time data source, which is unusual.

As I have seen some other minor inconsistencies, I would advise having a quick re-burn of the Shake OS on the microSD card, so that we can start again with a clean system. I will leave the burning instructions here for your convenience:

After completing this, please try again to connect the GPS unit to the Shake, and after waiting for the usual ~30 minutes, please download and send me the logs again, in case the problem continues to appear. Also (I’m sure you have already thought about this), please ensure that the GPS antenna has the most possible uninterrupted view of the sky.

#6

Dear Stormchaser,
I re-burned the Shake OS, but, the result is same.
I’ve attached the log file. Please, check it.
RSH.R083C.2022-09-19T23_46_23.logs.tar (339 KB)

FYI, my another coworker bought 6 set of RS&BOOM and GPS unit this July.
He just unpack it last week, so I’ve checked just two of them and the result is same.
There is no /dev/ttyUSB* and gpsd cannot recognize a GPS unit.

It seems the new GPS units are not compatible with RSs.
These are my test result.
A GPS unit bought in March works with RS4D bought in March together.
A GPS unit bought in March works with RS&BOOM bought in April.

A GPS unit bought in May does NOT work with RS4D bought in March.
A GPS unit bought in May does NOT work with RS&BOOM bought in April.

A GPS unit bought in July does NOT work with RS&BOOM bought in July together.
A GPS unit bought in July does NOT work with RS&BOOM bought in April.

#7

Hello yckim,

Thank you for the re-burn and the new logs. From them, (gpsd-mgr.log in particular) it indeed appears that the OS is not successful in finding the GPS stream from the expected port.

Could you confirm that all GPS units (the ones that you and your coworker bought) were all acquired from our website? I need this information for cross-reference purposes.

#8

Dear Stormchaser,

Yes, those are all from your company.

The quote number of 6 set of RS&BOOM and GPS my coworker bought in July is “QUO2022062466”.
(I cannot see the order number for this order. The buyer might be KIGAM.)
The order number of 4 GPS unit I bought in May is 12650. (I bought through the agency and the person who ordered was “Yeongmi”.)

Please, check the orders.

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#9

hello yckim,

after investigating this sudden mysterious problem, it all came clear yesterday:

our most recent shipment of GPS modules from our supplier are not software compatible with the current version of the Shake operating system.

the solution (at the moment) looks like it will be a new release of the Shake-OS; i anticipate this will be available for download sometime next week. be assured that this is now our highest priority and that we are doing everything possible to have this addressed as soon as possible.

apologies for any inconveniences this has caused, we appreciate your understanding; keeping multiple elements provided by multiple suppliers all working in sync over all time is always an interesting challenge.

i will update this post once any relevant news becomes available.

warm regards,
richard

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