Navio2 with M8Q-5883 external GPS+Compass setup issue

Navio2 with M8Q-5883 external GPS+Compass setup issue

I use the arduplane 4.0.5 firmware on large scale plane with affordable project budget.
Unfortunately isn’t have enough space between Navio2 and high current cables which is affect the Compass accuracy, also in some case I always have (blinking) “Unhealthy GPS signal” error however I have HDOP 0,7 with 15-16 satellites.
I decided to add a new GPS and Compass module, far away (40cm - 50cm) from the cables and the Navio2 board.
I planned to use the Navio2’s I2C and UART (while I send Telemetry data via 4G USB modem) connectors to connect the M8Q-5883 module’s Compass, GPS.
Compass successfully installed, it’s fully working, but I’m not able to connect the GPS over the UART connector, the Navio2 board can not communicate with it.
Already tried to change multiple baud rate on both (Navio2 + M8Q-5883 GPS) side without any success.
I tried to set GPS_TYPE2 as AUTO, uBlox also I tried to turn off the first GPS use only the second GPS, set GPS_AUTO_SWITCH to Disabled, UseBest, GPS_GNSS_MODE2 65, GPS_RATE_MS2 100 (with
high baud rate), 200, but without success.
Of course I checked the GPS module with u-center software and it’s working fine.

At this point I have no idea “why” don’t want to work, probably I missed some documentation about this problem.

Hi Lessie,

Have you edited the /etc/default/ardupilot file?

External GPS is on Serial4 - UART E. You need to add the following option to ARDUPILOT_OPTS:

-E /dev/ttyAMA0

Here is the instruction on how to edit the launching options.

Hi Svetlana,

Thanks for your help, I already tried and not works.
It’s have any way to check the data flow on ttyAMA0 device, please?

Looks like the Navio2 board don’t process the serial data from their UART port.

I already checked the external GPS module with a CP2102 USB to UART adapter on a Windows notebook with u-center software. However the M8Q-5883 module haven’t any non-volatile memory, the default baud rate is 9600 and the refresh rate 1000ms but works well and also if I re-configure for 115200 baud and 100ms refresh rate also working well.

I tried to add the USB/UART adapter into the Raspberry Pi but I wasn’t able to configure to get the serial signal anywhere.

I also read the following articles:

…without any luck.

Hi Lessie,

Can you please post the lines from your configuration file here?

You can do it by using the screen command. It should look similar to this: screen /dev/ttyACM0 38400 where 38400 is a baudrate. Please make sure that the port is not occupied by something else like running ArduPilot firmware.

Can you please specify how do you indicate that this GPS module doesn’t work correctly with Navio2? Do you check the readings in Mission Planner?

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