HiLetgo NEO-7M GPS Satellite Positioning Module for Arduino STM32 C51 Replace NEO-6M 3.3V/5V Power Supply

easy to use. accurate. i have used several of these over the past few years for projects and for the price they can't be beat.

This unit works OK, but it takes much longer to find and lock on the satellites than my NEO-6m (previous version). But the addition of the PPS pinout is a big plus for me. Mounting it on a conductive metal plane as a ground plane helps reception and helps it maintain lock. UPDATE: The unit would eventually lock but not stay locked. I returned it for an exchange and the second one won’t lock at all.

Update: with this GPS antenna: (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R7RC96G?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1) it appears to a get a lock almost immediately. Antenna is sitting indoors in a non ideal spot. With the built in antenna it didn't even work outside.So I'm raising my score from 1 to 3.5 stars.I am able to see the messages from the module via an Arduino, but it never gets a lock. I updated the agps data and provided an accurate location to help it warm up and obtain a lock, but it still does not. This is true even standing outside. As others have said I suspect the antenna is hot garbage. For comparison, the Adafruit ultimate GPS gets a lock *in my basement* with a completely cold start, with the built in antenna. The antenna on the Adafruit module is significantly smaller as well. I will try an a different antenna and see if that works.I want to use a u-blox module for my project because it (supposedly) can output frequencies other than 1hz on the PPS pin, eg 1MHz. With 1MHz I can get an ultra accurate 1us time tick directly vs having to interpolate 1pps with the much less accurate Arduino clock.

Got burned by another unit which did not work. This and an external GPS antenna got a fix within a few minutes. USB interface worked out of the box on linux as well. Great for troubleshooting embedded projects.

Didn't have any issues connecting to Windows via USB to check settings in U-Center (you need to download drivers for Windows). This module doesn't have flash so you cannot update the firmware and setting changes will be lost once the onboard battery drains. Connected the GPS to a Raspberry Pi via serial and PPS, again, no issues, it worked fine. The internal antenna seems fine as well, able to get a 3D Fix outside and it maintained it when inside. A plus is the SMA connector so there is the option to connect an external antenna. On the Raspberry Pi I used this as a PPS source for NTP. The only issue I did have was trying to change from GPS to GLONASS, I could not get that to work in either U-Center or using ubxtool commands on the Raspberry Pi.Here is the version information for the module.BX-MON-VER:swVersion 1.00 (59842)hwVersion 00070000extension PROTVER 14.00extension GPS;SBAS;GLO;QZSSAttached are picture of xgps output while the module is indoors with no external GPS antenna and the output of ntpq -p.

Fine product

I found this unit somewhat disappointing. It is a working GPS unit, but only in the most basic configuration.It has a USB port, but was not recognized as a device by Windows 10. I have tried multiple cables and various drivers from ublox to no avail. Perhaps I received a defective unit.I was able to use an ESP8266 to act as a serial converter, so I was able to read off NMEA sentences. I notice that this unit gets rather warm after a while. As others have noted, the ceramic antenna does not work well; you can attach an external antenna using the SMA port or you can just solder on a loop of wire (with one end attaching to the middle pin and the other to one of the four outer/ground pins. About 8 inches of wire ought to be about right for GPS frequencies (around 1.5 GHz).I tried to use ucenter (Ublox programming software) to write permanently some power save mode settings to reduce current draw and solve the heating issue, but the settings would not take. They would work until the next on/off cycle, then disappear. I have tried saving this to BBR/Flash and it made no difference.For the cost (which was pretty cheap) I am not going to bother returning it. But I a not entirely happy. If this were a more serious project -- rather than just a hobby thing -- I would be pretty upset.

I purchased 2 of these modules to work with an esp8266 mcu. It works great. I am using it with a Wemos D1 Mini with ESPEASY.