Tag: multi-band

  • Garmin’s latest bike GPS device features solar charging

    Garmin’s latest bike GPS device features solar charging

    Photo: Garmin
    Photo: Garmin

    The Edge 1040 Solar has breakthrough solar charging and multi-band GNSS technology

    Garmin International has announced the Edge 1040 Solar, a GPS-based bike computer featuring solar charging and multi-band GNSS technology.

    Photo: Garmin
    Photo: Garmin

    The Edge 1040 has a Power Glass-branded solar charging lens, giving cyclists more ride time between charges – up to 100 hours in battery saver mode – while multi-band GNSS technology provides more accurate positioning in challenging ride environments, such as dense urban areas or under deep tree cover.

    The 3.5-inch touchscreen also features a refreshed, modernized user experience, giving cyclists easier access to key information, the ability to customize the home page and an improved ride summary view.

    Its innovative advancements include:

    • Solar charging: The Power Glass solar charging lens extends battery life to up to 100 hours in battery saver mode, giving cyclists an additional 42 minutes per hour during daytime riding.
    • Multi-band GNSS technology: Provides better positional accuracy and coverage, even in challenging environments.
    • Cycling ability and course demands: The device can classify a cyclist’s strengths and weaknesses, focus on improvement and prepare for the demands of a specific course.
    • Power guide: Recommended power targets make it easier to manage efforts throughout a course.
    • Real-time stamina insights: Cyclists can monitor and track exertion levels in real-time during a ride.
    • Simple setup: Custom ride profiles prepopulate based on previous Edge data, ride types and sensors. From there, cycling activity profiles can be managed directly on a compatible smartphone from the Garmin Connect smart device app.
  • Microchip TimeProvider 4100 Grandmaster now more redundant, resilient

    Microchip TimeProvider 4100 Grandmaster now more redundant, resilient

    IEEE 1588 precise timing grandmaster with gateway clock now offers software-based redundancy

    Photo: Microchip
    Photo: Microchip

    For today’s critical infrastructure providers — 5G wireless networks, smart grids, data centers, cable and transportation services — a fundamental need exists for a redundant, resilient and secure precise timing and synchronization solution.

    Microchip Technology Inc.’s TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster provides a new level of resiliency with the introduction of an innovative redundancy architecture in addition to support for a multi-band GNSS receiver and enhanced security to ensure always-on precise timing and synchronization.

    Redundancy is key for infrastructure providers to ensure uninterrupted services. Infrastructure deployments previously relied on hardware redundancy to avoid service disruption despite costly modular architectures. Microchip’s TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster provides redundancy via software implementation, enabling flexible deployment and lower hardware costs without sacrificing ports.

    In addition, the TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster introduces an increased level of resiliency by supporting a new GNSS multi-band, multi-constellation receiver to protect against time delay resulting from space weather, solar events and other disruptions that may impact critical infrastructure services.

    Multi-band GNSS is particularly important for the highest levels of accuracy, including primary reference time clock class B (PRTC-B, 40 ns) and enhanced primary reference time clock (ePRTC, 30 ns).

    With a focus on security solutions across its technology portfolio, Microchip’s new TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster adds support for RADIUS and TACACS+ as well as new anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities.

    “Resilient, redundant and secure precise timing and synchronization solutions are necessary to mitigate security risks to critical infrastructure,” said Randy Brudzinski, vice president and general manager of Microchip’s frequency and time business unit. “This latest release brings an innovative software redundancy that enables always-on technology as well as support for multi-band GNSS to eliminate ionospheric time error delays. It provides new key security, anti-jamming and anti-spoofing so critical infrastructure services can be accessed only by authorized, authenticated personnel.”

    In addition, the TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster provides a super oven controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) option for enhanced holdover capabilities in case of GNSS disruption.

    The TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster is a family of products with hardware expansion modules for legacy fan-out or Ethernet fan-out with 10 Gigabit Ethernet support. It can be configured in specific operation modes to act either as a gateway clock, a high-performance boundary clock or an ePRTC.

    The TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster embeds additional Microchip technology including its OCXO, super OCXO, rubidium atomic clock, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Ethernet switch, synthesizers and cleaning oscillators.

    The TimeProvider 4100 is part of Microchip’s Virtual Primary Reference Time Clock (vPRTC) product portfolio, offering end-to-end precise time and synchronization solutions. These include Cesium atomic clocks for source of frequency and time, the BlueSky GNSS Firewall for security, TimeProvider 4100 high-performance boundary clock and TimeProvider 4100 Gateway clocks, as well as the TimePictra software suite, which manages the end-to-end precise time architecture across all Microchip timing products.

    Microchip’s TimeProvider 4100 Release 2.2 grandmaster offers several options for software and hardware support including installation, sync audits, network engineering and 24/7 worldwide support. It is available now for both new and already-deployed systems.

  • ArduSimple integrates Sapcorda in multiband RTK GNSS receiver

    ArduSimple integrates Sapcorda in multiband RTK GNSS receiver

    The basic ArduSimple RTK kit includes Sapcorda SAPA. (Image: ArduSimple)
    The basic ArduSimple RTK kit includes Sapcorda SAPA. (Image: ArduSimple)

    ArduSimple has integrated Sapcorda’s SAPA Premium Service into its new simpleRTK2B+SSR GNSS receiver. The user-friendly integration based on SSR technology allows plug-and-play real-time kinematic (RTK) without the need for a base station. Users can connect the receiver to their PC or tablet to achieve centimeter-level accuracy.

    Based in Berlin, ArduSimple develops user-friendly, affordable RTK receivers and tools for evaluation of multi-band GNSS technology.

    The simpleSSR basic starter kit includes a multi-band RTK receiver, SSR receiver, one year unlimited data package and one year SAPA Premium license. Accurate position is available via USB, UART and I2C, as well as via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or RS232 with the corresponding accessory.

    “ArduSimple’s vision is to make RTK technology affordable and accessible to everyone. Removing the hassle of the base station is a key step towards it,” said Josep Olivart, Senior Consultant at ArduSimple. “The decision to select Sapcorda was clear: best in class service performance at affordable mass market price, supported by a highly skilled and committed team.”

    Sapcorda provides GNSS augmentation services for the internet of things (IoT), automotive, and industrial applications across the United States and Europe including up to 20 kilometers off coastlines, delivered with low-bandwidth data over internet and satellite, and providing uniform, high-integrity instantaneous sub-decimeter positioning on a continental scale with enterprise-level service availability.

    “Sapcorda aims to establish GNSS precise positioning in mass-market applications and ArduSimple is an ideal partner for the integration of our services into a high precision GNSS hardware,” said Botho Graf zu Eulenburg, managing director at Sapcorda. “The combination of our advanced services with ArduSimple’s new platform provides an easy to use and affordable high precision solution to everyone.”

  • Allystar offers dual-antenna GNSS-aided INS platform

    Allystar offers dual-antenna GNSS-aided INS platform

    The Allystar INS Platform — the company’s latest technology — is a dual-antenna, multi-frequency, multi-GNSS inertial navigation system (INS) that delivers accurate and reliable position, velocity and orientation, the company said.

    It is designed for a wide range of autonomous vehicle applications under the most demanding conditions.

    Allystar RTK/INS Evaluation Board V1.0. (Photo: Allystar)
    Allystar RTK/INS Evaluation Board V1.0. (Photo: Allystar)

    The Allystar INS Platform combines high-grade, six-axis, temperature-calibrated accelerometers and gyroscopes with a multi-frequency, multi-GNSS engine, the HD9300 series. HD9300 is a dual-antenna chip-grade real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS receiver for accurate positioning and heading.

    GNSS-aided inertial navigation systems are widely used in autonomous vehicles. However, high-accuracy multi-frequency multi-GNSS receivers are usually too expensive for mass-market applications. The Allystar HD9300 series is a mass-market multi-band chip-grade receiver that concurrently support all civil bands in all GNSS constellations (GPS/QZS L1&L2&L5&L6, BDS B1&B2&B3, GAL E1&E5, GLO L1OF/L2OF) with an integrated RTK engine to achieve centimeter-level accuracy.

    The Allystar INS platform contains an on-board sensor-fusion filter, navigation and calibration algorithms for different dynamic motions of land vehicles. Key features include:

    • multi-band multi-GNSS chip-grade receiver
    • dual antennas
    • integrated RTK engine (up to 2 centimeters)
    • 100-hz update rate
    • OBD data adapter.
    Allystar OBD Data Adaptor V1.(Photo: Allystar)
    Allystar OBD Data Adaptor V1. (Photo: Allystar)

    The Allystar OBD Data Adapter (v1.0) enables users to read and monitor various sensors built into cars, obtaining the real-time vehicle speed and gear signals from the OBD interface, and then output AT commands by serial port or SPI. When connected to the Allystar RTK INS platform, the adapter allows for outstanding navigation accuracy, especially in urban areas, helping to increase accuracy and reduce position drift.

    An evaluation kit — including platform board, antenna and OBD adaptor — will be available in August.

  • Allystar launches multi-band, multi-GNSS chip for devices

    Allystar launches multi-band, multi-GNSS chip for devices

    Image: Allystar
    Image: Allystar

    Allystar Technology Co. Ltd. has launched a multi-band, multi-GNSS system on chip, the HD8040 series, to help portable devices save size and weight. The HD8040 offered in wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP).

    The HD8040 series of chipsets fully supports all civil signals on the L5 band, said Shi Xian Yang, Allystar high-precision product manager at Allystar. Besides GPS, other constellations with L1/L5 signals include Galileo, BeiDou, the Indian NavIC system and Japanese QZSS.

    Besides L1 band, HD8040D supports L5/B2a/E5a signals, which are expected to have lower noise and be better in multipath mitigation mainly due to the higher chipping rate of L5 signals relative to L1 C/A code.

    HD8041D supports IRNSS (NavIC), which makes it suitable for navigation in urban areas in India and the Middle East, where seven NavIC satellites have a higher elevation than both GPS and Galileo satellites. This means IRNSS (NavIC) would provide greater accuracy, precision and available measurements.

    Chart: Allystar

    With the features of small size (3 x 3 millimeters) and low power consumption, the HD8040 series is suitable for smartphones, tablets and other portable devices.

    The architecture integrates floating-point arithmetic units based on ARM CortexM4, 160 KB RAM, 32 KB backup RAM with VBAT, and 384 KB embedded Flash memory. Besides basic peripheral interfaces UART, I2C, SPI and GPIO, it supports the CAN interface for automotive applications, too.

    Customer samples of the HD8040D and HD8041D are available now.