GPS with 4G

Technical Support
1

Hello there,

I’d like to use the GPS Antenna with a 3G/4G receiver to use the RPi Shake without WiFi and receive timing from the GPS.

I read in the docs the following warning:

Warning
If you are using the GPS USB solution, other USB port(s) should remain unused. The reason: The Raspberry Pi is most likely using a common buffer for all USB ports, this is standard. So, to avoid any competition created when reading from more than one port, which can cause the PPS to fluctuate, only the GPS antenna should be connected. If you connect other devices, we cannot guarantee that the timing will remain within the advertised specifications.

How should I proceed?

Thanks.

2

Can something like this, that connects to the RPi pins, be used?

3

Hello jimalex,

This is a very interesting question! I have passed it to our hardware/software teams, they will be able to crosscheck if your solution is viable and, if not, possibly give some advice.

4

Hi @jimalex

Thank you for your support.

I wrote that warning to be on the safe-side. You are probably OK, but this would require you to “test and see”. My recommendation, however, is not to use the GPS antenna. If you have an Internet connection, then you will get the same timing quality using the standard mode of operation (NTP) as you would with GPS. If you are interested you can read more about why here.

Whether or not this hat can be used will depend on which pins it requires. Note that nothing can be stacked on top of the Raspberry Shake and the Raspberry Shake needs access to these pins. Tx/Rx, for example, cannot be shared. But again, this would be “test and see”.

We are always curious to learn what technologies work harmoniously or not with our system. So please report back sharing the results of your experiments!

Yours, branden

2 Likes
5

Hello,

I am curious if using this product was successful? I am looking at setting up the RS3D outdoor for remote monitoring in Canada. I see the manufacture of the mentioned modem also has a slightly different version they recommend for telemetry applications. I am considering these modems but am unsure if it is compatible with the RS3D outdoor.

Alternately are there any cellular modem recommendations that are known to work in Canada?

Thanks,
Jack

1 Like
6

Hello Jack, welcome to our community!

Thank you for your interest in this particular 4G and GPS approach. Let’s hear if @jimalex has managed to do some testing and reach some conclusions.

From memory, I don’t remember any specific indications for Canada, but maybe someone else in our community has experience in this! Please feel free to add any information you may deem relevant/helpful to jackcar.