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.

1 Like
#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

1 Like
#10

Dear yckim,

Firstly, I want to thank you again for the notification of this problem between the Shakes and the GPS antennas that were not working. Also, thank you for your patience and understanding while our software team was working to create a solution for this issue.

We have come up with two different avenues:

  1. GPS Shake OS update (easier): a new Shake OS image will be released in the coming days, and it will contain this fix inside it.
    If you prefer this option, all you will need to do is re-burn the updated Shake OS on the microSD card of your Shake(s). Keep an eye on this page (raspberryShake-public / Raspshake Sd Img · GitLab) and you can proceed as soon as the update will be released.

  2. GPS Fix manual application (more complex). You will need to follow these instructions:

  1. upload the attached pl2303.ko (22.6 KB) pl2303.ko file to the Raspberry Pi
  2. copy to the kernel modules directory
  3. add to the /etc/modules file
  4. reboot
# from desktop:
> scp pl2303.ko myshake@raspberrypiIP:/tmp/
> ssh myshake@rs.local

# on Shake-Pi:
> sudo cp /tmp/pl2303.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/serial
> sudo nano /etc/modules
... # add "pl2303.ko" as the last line in the file, no quotes
> sudo reboot

When the Shake restarts, it will be capable of interfacing with the GPS module, and you will be able to proceed from there.

#11

I’m glad that I came across this post. I’ve spent a substantial amount of time trying to work out what was going on with this problem.

It is good that you have got straight onto finding a fix and published a temporary fix prior to the new image. I think that you could have done better on the communication though. It would have been good if you had identified all the affected customers and contacted them via email to make them aware of the situation. Please consider this for future situations like this.

I also think that I could have done better by highlighting the issue when I found it some months ago, but I was rushing to get this and another project done so didn’t. Sorry.

1 Like
#12

Dear Stormchaser,

I copied pl2303.ko file to /lib/modules/4.14.79-v7+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/ directory according to your instructions and reboot the system, but, this does not fix the issue.
I’ve attached a log file. Please, check this up.
RSH.RBB78.2022-09-14T07_53_18.logs.tar (238 KB)
(Please note that this system is not time synchronized.)
If you need more information, please, let me know.

#13

FYI, This is the log I got after the second reboot after copying the files.

#14

My coworker tell me that I should add “pl2303” into /etc/modules file.
Now it is working correctly.
Please refer to this.

1 Like
#15

instructions have been updated, thanks for the feedback

richard

1 Like
#16

Hi, I have this problem. I copied the pl2303.ko file to the kernel directory and added the line to the modules file. Here is a screenshot of cgps output and the gpsd-mgr.log.
This unit does not have time or location. It thinks this month is June of 2022.
Please advise. Thanks.
RSH.R77D2.2022-06-08T22_13_05.logs.tar (1.7 MB)

cgps output
cgps output1895×999 42.2 KB
gpsd-mgr.log (2.9 KB)

#17

Hello rowden9, welcome to our community!

Could you please tell us where did you buy the GPS module? Was it from our store or another source?

Thank you.