Low Cost GPS Signal Level Meter Part 1; Concept, Schematic, Details, Overview

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This Video Series is about the Design of a GPS Relative Signal Level Meter, with additional GPS Data. I had (and have) often the necessity to check how good the GPS Reception at a specific area is, but I do not have the necessary High Cost specialized RF Equipment for it.
Of course it does NOT replace any Highly specialized / High-cost RF Equipment (it does NOT measure the RF Level Directly in -dBm and so cannot be used for GPS Level Survey) but rather shows a Relative Signal Level Display based on a Custom saved Reference Value that it is more than enough to check how good or bad the GPS reception is, the Number of seen & uses Satellites and other GPS Information's, all on a small Battery powered Device, without the need of further Device(PC,Laptop,Tablet, etc)
I defined the following requirements for such a Device :
1) Low Cost Solution (as possible) with TFT Color Display
2) Small, Light and easy to use
3) Powered via Integrated LiPo Battery and external USB
4) Integrated automatic LiPo Charger via USB, with 600mA Charge Current
5) Integrated u-Blox Receiver onboard USB Port to be accessible via External USB (PC Communication to u-Center)
6) Controlled via Single Rotary encoder.
The First Part #1 of this Series shows the Concept, Schematics and Overall Mechanical design considerations.
In the Second Part #2 I will show the Installation, encasing, Test and Debugging.
In the Video the Display Shows S/Nr (and I speak about S/Nr) which I use for Simplicity, the real Value Shown here is C/No in dB-Hz(Sum). Again its just a Relative Overall Value that represents nothing more than the momentarily Reception Quality ! This why the name is Irrelevant !
U-blox NEO Series GPS GNSS Module Serial,I2C,SPI Universal Breakout Board:
• U-blox NEO Series GPS ...
RF Hardened GNSS Receiver with DB9 RS232 & USB for Power & Data:
• RF Hardened GNSS Recei...
Design Details on my GPS Synchronized Stratum 1 NTP Server, as Requested from Viewers:
• Design Details on my G...
GPS Synchronized NTP Server Design (Stratum 1) with an Orange-Pi and a dedicated RTC Chip:
• GPS Synchronized NTP S...
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#Signalmeter

[@SeAfasia]

Nice schematic and design Kon

[@KonstantinGrigoriadis]

Efxaristo Ntino, sto second part to teliomeno appliance, Xeretimata

[@jwshields]

Very cool video and great usage of cheaper components! Am a bit confused on one aspect though. What's do you use the total/sum of the SNR for? To me, that doesn't really seem like a DIRECTLY useful stat; do you use it to infer other stats? Or something else?

[@KonstantinGrigoriadis]

Hi Jared, Thankyou, the Sum snr of all the used satellites in used for the bargraph to have a more dynamic display and it shows the overall signal strength, only bcs eventually a couple of sats are doing great and all other’s in use are borderline, that does not mean i have the best reception/antenna position cheers , Konstantin

[@jwshields]

Gotcha, thanks! I had figured that's more or less what it was for, thanks for the confirmation

[@MaurizioFantino]

and here we are again, GPS is not a single signal but a constellation of satellites. So although nothing here is against to this video which is great, combining the Signal Strength of GPS does not make sense at all. Than here on satellite navigation we do not talk about dB, dBm or whatever, but we use the measure of C/No.

[@KonstantinGrigoriadis]

Hello Maurizio, please read the Video Description, there I write, that I use SNr for simplicity and that in real it is C/No in dB-Hz. And why the Sum does not make any Sense at all ? Its a relative Value that gives a rough Picture of the Overall Reception Quality, for that the Design is all about, nothing more and it is adequate to check the Overall reception at a specific Spot ! And Btw, even Linux GPSD calls it snr for simplicity!