Flora Wearable Ultimate GPS Module

Description

This GPS module is part of the Adafruit Flora series, designed for wearable electronics with Flora motherboard. The chip soldered on the board is the same as the "Ultimate GPS" breakout board, that is a small GPS module with data logging capability:

sensitivity -165dBm, updates to 10Hz, 66 channels
designed for use with the Flora system
current consumption 20mA
integrated datalogging
usable with a button battery to create a real time clock with atomic precision
altitude> 25Km
internal antenna + u.FL connector for external antenna
LED to indicate the status of the position calculation

This breakout board is built around the MTK3339 chipset, a high quality GPS module that can track up to 22 satellites on 66 channels, with an excellent high sensitivity receiver and an integrated antenna. It can perform up to 10 position updates per second for high-sensitivity, high-speed logging or tracking. The power used is incredibly low, only 20mA while sailing.

The LED flashes about once every second while it is searching for satellites and once every 15 seconds when it has calculated a valid position, this to save battery. If you need an external LED lit all the time, you can use the FIX pin breakout, which signals the status of the position calculation.

Two of the features that make the MTK3339-based module really effective are the ability to be connected to an external antenna and the ability to perform integrated data-logging. The module also has a built-in antenna that offers a sensitivity of -165dB, but if you need a larger antenna, you could connect it via the uFL connector, the module will automatically detect its presence.

As for the integrated datalogging function, it is possible thanks to the microcontroller inside the module, which has some empty flash memory and with the new firmware it is possible to send commands to store data. The only thing that the microcontroller, Flora or Arduino for example, has to do is send the “Start logging” command. Once the command has been sent, your microcontroller can go back to sleep mode and does not need to wake up to communicate with the GPS: the time, date, longitude, latitude and height are in fact stored every 15 seconds and only when there is a valid position. The internal flash memory of the modular stores approximately 16 hours of data. It is not possible to change what is stored and how often.

If you want to use the module as an RTC, you can also buy a CR2032 battery and a battery holder in our store.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
MTK3329 / MTK3339 command set sheet
Datasheet
MT3339 GPS PC Tool (windows only) and PC Tool manual
Mini GPS tool (windows only)

TUTORIALS:
Flora Wearable GPS

Product information