Looking for a mRo GPS NEO-M8N upgrade

[vsasolutions]

So it appears the mRo GPS NEO-M8N is out of stock. I am looking for one for another Solo that I have. Does anyone out there have a spare they are wanting to sell or one they replaced with the external GPS? If so, message me. Thanks.

 

[DJMc]

I registered for an email me when it back in stock yesterday on reading this. It's back in stock - qty 6.

mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade

store.mrobotics.io

 

[vsasolutions]

I registered for an email me when it back in stock yesterday on reading this. It's back in stock - qty 6.

mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade

store.mrobotics.io

Thanks for the heads up. I signed up and just got the email as well.

 

[Rotorwing]

Although mRobotics website indicated “out of stock”, and after requesting notification when back in stock, I received mine yesterday and installed it today. All started off fine. Acquired 10 sats, take-off, hover, test a little stick input in all axis, yaw, roll, pitch and back to hover......no problems. Then ,with no stick input, she made a hard left roll. I quickly countered with right roll and cut the throttle. Luckily, I was only 3 feet off the ground. Bad landing, but no damage. So after a little research, I found some info that would indicate this module shouldn’t be treated as plug-n-play. From what I gather, it would seem this M8N module is capable of receiving from at least four sat constellations, and if all are enabled, that’s too much for the Solo CPU to handle. Need to turn-off the Chinese and European gps, and use just the US and Russian (GLONASS). Also, I’d recommend IMU and compass calibrations after upgrade and before first flight.

 

[Rotorwing]

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[DJMc]

Hello Pedro,

Could you clarify something please? Is this true plug and play as shipped, or do we need to use the uBlox software to disable / enable any of the GPS service options?

How may GPS service should be enabled - I believe Solo can only cope with a certain amount of data (see above).

Is 2 systems the best number?

I'm in Northenr Europe so I guess GPS and Galileo for me?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

It's not too much for the Solo CPU to handle. It is too much for the M8N GPS itself to handle by design. UBLOX makes this very clear in their own technical documentation that enabling 3 constellations at a time on the M8N will slow the solution rate below 5hz and generally bog things down. And the documentation does not explain what it will do during that lag, when it is still sending updates to the copter at a rate greater than the solution rate. It is not a recommended practice, it gains you nothing useful compared to having two enabled. And this is why UBLOX, who designs and manufactures the GPS, ships the M8N from the factory with only two enabled, and why everyone except mRo ships the M8N GPS to customers with still only two constellations enabled.

mRo decided to reprogram and enable all three constellations as a deceptive marketing strategy several years ago. They ramble about how they have done this marvelous thing by enabling all three constellations, as if they're the first ones to have this stroke of genius, because more is better. They are aware of the technical issues behind this. They are not actually stupid or oblivious to this. They are smart people. But they do it anyway because they make money off marketing it to people who don't know. It's deceptive and dishonest. And they don't get my money due to these deceptive practices. It's a shame too, because they actually make some decent hardware and fill a need in the community. But they are just dishonest liars, and it is a pattern in many of their product's marketing, not just the GPS.

Unfortunately, they are the only plug-and-play GPS for the Solo. So if you need it and choose to buy it, you should plug it into USB and restore it to the default settings of two constellations before installing it on the solo.

 

[DJMc]

Many thanks Matt, much appreciate the quick response.

Clear and comprehensive as ever - and as usual I learned something new.

I bagged a second Solo - not so easy this side of the pond - and wanted a second GPS upgrade - my first was the old mRo sans USB.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Their older ones were not shipped with three constellations activated. it was in one of their newer batches with the USB port that they started that deceptive marketing ploy. Which is good since you can easily plug it in and use UBLOX ucenter software to undo mRo's bad practices with a few mouse clicks.

 

[DrPop]

@Pedals2Paddles - at this point, would you choose to do an external Here GPS upgrade or one of these mRO GPS modules setup for only the 2 constellations?
Thanks for your insight. I'm a new Solo owner - not new to Pixhawk or Ardupilot, I've built up several DIY quads and hex rigs over the last two years, but I just got a great package deal on several solos. Not sure what GPS version is in each one, and guessing I will probably have to do at least a couple upgrades.

 

[BRBpromotions]

It's not too much for the Solo CPU to handle. It is too much for the M8N GPS itself to handle by design. UBLOX makes this very clear in their own technical documentation that enabling 3 constellations at a time on the M8N will slow the solution rate below 5hz and generally bog things down. And the documentation does not explain what it will do during that lag, when it is still sending updates to the copter at a rate greater than the solution rate. It is not a recommended practice, it gains you nothing useful compared to having two enabled. And this is why UBLOX, who designs and manufactures the GPS, ships the M8N from the factory with only two enabled, and why everyone except mRo ships the M8N GPS to customers with still only two constellations enabled.

mRo decided to reprogram and enable all three constellations as a deceptive marketing strategy several years ago. They ramble about how they have done this marvelous thing by enabling all three constellations, as if they're the first ones to have this stroke of genius, because more is better. They are aware of the technical issues behind this. They are not actually stupid or oblivious to this. They are smart people. But they do it anyway because they make money off marketing it to people who don't know. It's deceptive and dishonest. And they don't get my money due to these deceptive practices. It's a shame too, because they actually make some decent hardware and fill a need in the community. But they are just dishonest liars, and it is a pattern in many of their product's marketing, not just the GPS.

Unfortunately, they are the only plug-and-play GPS for the Solo. So if you need it and choose to buy it, you should plug it into USB and restore it to the default settings of two constellations before installing it on the solo.

Do you know when they started doing this? I did mine in October of 2018 but I thought the documentation said only 2 constellations were enabled. I never plugged it in to check. Should I?

 

[Kevodayzz]

There back in stock i just odered 1 2day 7 leftin stock

So it appears the mRo GPS NEO-M8N is out of stock. I am looking for one for another Solo that I have. Does anyone out there have a spare they are wanting to sell or one they replaced with the external GPS? If so, message me. Thanks.