Officially confirmed: iGPS360 works with firmware 3.1.2

This is a brief post to update everyone on the iGPS360 module and firmware 3.1.2.

As had already been reported by quite a few users, the iGPS360 works fine with the new 3.1.2 Apple firmware (thank you everyone, for bringing this confirming news early for everyone).

I have finally had some time myself to play around with an an iPhone 3G running firmware 3.1.2 (jailbroken by blackra1n and unlocked by blacksn0w) and I can confirm that the iGPS360 module works fine on the new firmware.

Maybe someone can also confirm that the module works on an iPod Touch 3G (I don't have one of those).

The FAQ and product description on the Orange Gadgets website has now also been updated with this information.

If you feel anything else needs to be updated or added to the website, please let me know.

Put to the test!

A brief update for today:

The four CNC machined housings arrived this week and all of them make a nice fit as you can see in the photo (I masked off the LED opening with some tape to simulate the lens effect as those lenses were to small to be CNC'ed). I have been in touch with the housing manufacturer this week as well to iron out the last details of the drawings. They will start cutting steel upcoming week! Once that is done, I will visit them to take a look at the molds before we get our first parts.

I built three additional GPS modules this week as well and the new upload tool for A-GPS data from the manufacturer seems to work a lot better now. After having uploaded the latest A-GPS data to each of the modules, I have performed open/clear sky testing with the modules and am very happy with the results! Typical time-to-first-fix (TTFF) with A-GPS enabled is ~10sec average on a cold start. Average signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) is ~42dB (note that both the TTFF and SNR numbers are open/clear sky numbers and can vary in practice depending on surroundings and GPS satellite strength). Performance is thus very good for such a small unit! After the antenna tuning process, we might gain a little more on the SNR, but we will wait for those results first before concluding anything.

I also had to place a special purchase order (PO) for the high brightness/low current bi-color LEDs this week as they only had 200 in stock (delivery is scheduled for September 15, 2008). As I thought the green/orange color combination was a little too ordinary, I have chosen a blue/red LED which looks really cool. The blue LED will be on as power-on indicator and the red LED will flash when searching for satellites (it will be off after a GPS lock is found). So while searching for satellites, the combined blue/red LED will flash purple. Power consumption of the LED will be a little less than 1mA when the module is tracking. The rest of the module consumes ~36mA while tracking for a total of 37mA for tracking.

Power consumption, size and performance have all been traded off against each other, but it looks like the final results are pretty good in my humble opinion!

The estimated-time-of-arrival (ETA) for the modules is still set for the end of September. Let's hope there will be no further delays; thanks everyone for hanging in there!

What's (been) happening?

It has been a little while and as you can imagine things have been busy and very hectic. Here is an update on the various items:

1. Last Monday, the last revision of the PCB came back. Although I placed it as a rush order, it was late; it was supposed to have arrived the Thursday before. In the meantime I have built a new GPS module with it and tested its performance, which is up to spec now. This new module is shown in the photo (inside of the new housing prototype).


2. The biggest milestone that got done this week is the new two-piece housing design. This has pretty much kept me busy full-time since last week:
• New 3D CAD files (no logos) were completed and a new FDM prototype was made to verify that everything fits inside of it. I painted the prototype black, put the latest board inside and hooked the USB cable up. The result can be seen in the photo.
• The next thing in line was sending out the new 3D housing designs to get real prototype housings CNC machined out of solid ABS plastic (no FDM). These are needed to do proper antenna tuning of the board and the housing for optimum GPS performance. These housings are expected back upcoming week.
• Next I had to finalize the drawings for production and place the logos on them. This did not go without hick-ups and quite some time was waisted trying to get the 3D software to accept the graphics files. But eventually I managed to get everything imported.
• I am currently detailing the lens a little more to make sure that the LED light comes out properly and has a wide viewing angle. The final CAD files are due first thing Monday morning.
• A purchase order (PO) was placed for the injection mold making and a delivery of 1000 housings. The housings are to be completed by September 9, 2008.


3. I also received new GPS modules with updated firmware for this new PCB design. I had problems uploading A-GPS data to them. I thought it was a firmware issue, but after talking to the GPS vendor it turns out that the A-GPS upload tool that they provided had some problems, so they provided me with an updated version which performs better but still seems a little buggy. After we get a final OK from the vendor on the module configuration and firmware, we can place a PO as well (I hope this can happen this week).


4. Regarding contract manufacturers, I have converged on a candidate for PCB manufacturing and assembly with competitive pricing. I might have to make a few minor adjustments to the bill of materials, but after that we can get the ball running.

It looks like the Orange Gadgets website has been running pretty smoothly. As of now, 177 people have signed up so far for a total of 208 modules. Feel free to do some additional advertising among your family and friends as well as online.

Bingo!

Link for iPhone and iTouch users here


To top the week off with some more exciting news, what you see above is a live demo of the xGPS software that xWaves is working on. Note that all credit for this awesome application goes to them!

This software does not require a live internet connection!

Here is how to get this running:

1. I configured one of my modules at a baudrate of 19200. That is the baudrate the xGPS program currently runs at. Hopefully they will add in an option to custom set the baudrate the program uses for the serial port in the next version. So you will need to have a GPS module with the correct baudrate settings, otherwise it won't work. Plug your GPS module into the dock.


2. Go to the Installer.app on your iPhone or iPod touch and add in http://irepo.xwaves.net under the sources. Refresh the sources and then go to the Install menu and scroll down to Xwaves and install xGPS (the version I am running is 1.0p1). Quit Installer.


3. Start up the xGPS software and hit Maps. You'll end up somewhere in France. Zoom out with the small magnifier glass and move the map to your local area, then zoom back in again with the large magnifier glass.
   


4. Now drag with two fingers a red box for the map area that you want to download and hit the Download button. This will take a while depending on how large the map is. Make sure auto-lock on your iPhone/iPod touch is set to never and that you have enough battery left. I suggest downloading a small map area the first time (< 20mb). Cancel to go back to the main screen. The map is located in /private/var/root/Library/xGPS_map.db.
   


5. Then hit Enable GPS and voila, your GPS should be working! A pin will drop on your current location.


6. Take your phone, get into your car and have fun!
   

As this is still a very early version of the software, it is a little bit buggy when it comes to zooming in and out (double tap with one finger is zoom-in, double tap with two fingers is zoom-out). Also, the voice navigation is not working yet, although I did get it to display the purple-line directions on the map occasionally and the program spoke the first navigation direction out loud.

It looks like things are coming along very well in having a complete GPS navigation solution available.

So make sure up to sign up for one of the iGPS360 modules. The first production run will start very soon and will be a quantity of 1000 units. Make sure you are among the first 1000 to sign up!

Sign me up!

Allright! It has taken quite some time (I mentioned that some things were running in the background), but this new website is finally up and running!

I am hereby introducing you to:

www.orangegadgets.com


and



The logo in my earlier post is indeed an Orange. Why (an) Orange? Good question... why (an) Apple? Consider it a re-FRESH-ment, something different and FRESH from all the things out there. It also represents the color orange, a color which has left a trace of the history in my own life: it is the color of the dutch Royal House, most dutch sporters play in orange, the Orange is orange, and Orange Gadgets is located in Orange County...

With respect to the logo for the GPS module, I'll let the module speak for itself: "i (I) GPS 360 degrees or all-(a)round". The 360 degrees signifies that the gadgets we will bring to market can find application all-around.

So much for the logos. I hope you like them!

Regarding the website, I have incorporated a sign-up form on the site where you can sign up for the GPS module. Please only sign up if you are serious about buying one or more GPS modules. All data is logged into a database and will be used to determine future production quantities and to contact you once the modules are available for sale.

Since I have only done limited testing on the site so far with only a few different browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer and iPhone Safari), please provide me with feedback on any broken links or other things that might not be functional.

Enjoy!

Micro USB cable samples have arrived!

I have received three samples of the USB-A to micro USB-B cable. The cables are 6ft long which should be plenty to hook up to your module from wherever you want. I have already tested all three cables with my modules and they are performing fine, including syncing of the iPhone from iTunes.

I will give you a brief progress update so you know where we are at:

• Housing: A housing manufacturer has been found. I have visited him twice and toured the facility and liked what I saw. They have also been very helpful in getting the housing prototypes done. I will be updating the housing design next and after that get a revised quote. Mold making will take 3-4 weeks ARO and then the first parts will be delivered one week after mold approval.
  
  
• PCB board assembly: I have received about half of the quotes that I requested. The remaining ones are expected by the end of this week. Typical lead time for 1000 units is about 4 weeks (this includes PCB fabrication and assembly).


• PCB board re-spin:Just today I sent out another PCB prototype board design that will address the somewhat lower performance on the last set of prototypes. This board is expected back mid next week. By the end of next week, I should have build another three prototypes with these new boards and have tested them for performance.


• USB cables: USB cable samples have been received and tested. An order will be placed tomorrow. Lead time is 6-8 weeks.


• Other: Some other things are running in the background in parallel... I'll keep you guessing at what that may be for now...
  

The Good and the Bad...

The photos show two rough prototype housings made on a fused deposition modeling machine (FDM). As the resolution of these machines is about 5-10mils (127-254um), the surface of the housing is not very smooth, but it is good enough to do form fitting of the board and dock connector. Also, the housings look white as the machine uses this color plastic to do the FDM. The ultimate housing will be black.

The next photo show you how the module will look on both the iPhone and iPod touch.



Now for the good news:

• All the clearances for board to housing were designed correctly and the boards fit nicely within the housing.


• I have also received the A-GPS modules in the meantime and built a new module with it and put it to the test. The way it works is as follows: you first download 7 or 14-day valid data to the module (this can be done through software), then use the module as normal. I have put this module to the test and compared it with a module without A-GPS. For the A-GPS module, the time-to-first-fix (TTFF) in open sky after a cold start was reduced from 43sec to 29sec (average over 5 measurements) with times as short as 16sec.


• A large volume of dock connectors for the modules have arrived!


• NDAs have been put in place with quite a few PCB contract manufactures and quotes are expected back soon.

Now for the bad news:

• It turns out, there is no way to get the plastic lens into the LED opening of the housing and have it sit straight and tight. So it's a good thing to have built these prototypes to do form-fitting before getting a housing injection molded for real. We will have to come up with something to solve the lens problem: the housing will be split in two half so that the lens can be inserted from the inside and the wall can be thickened locally for a straight and tight fit.


• Recent testing has revealed that the latest prototypes lack a little in performance compared to the earlier prototypes. A re-spin of the board can remedy this and will bring you the best performance possible (note that one board design is currently still in the pipeline and is expected back later this week for more performance testing). This will delay things a little, but not too much (about a week).

As you can see, this project is keeping me busy full-time, but all aspects of the project are progressing very well in parallel.

Live working GPS demo on the iPhone!

I have finally had time to shoot a live video of the working GPS module. Enjoy!

Link for iPhone and iTouch users here.


The software that is used to interact with the module is written by Simba. You can visit his blog here. We have joined forces to speed up the progress of the project.



Here are some of the features of the software:

• Compass screen:
  
• Your location: latitude and longitude
• Dashboard: heading, speed, distance to target, bearing
• Satellite screen:
• Locked satellites used in GPS location (green)
• Other satellites in view but not used in GPS location (grey)
• Maps button:
  
• You can upload your own maps to the Google Maps app in case you are not on a network.
• For more information on this, you can visit this thread.
• Points button:
• This sets your travel destination point. It uses your Maps app bookmarks.
• While driving, the distance to this target is displayed on the compass screen.
• The yellow arrow on the compass indicates the direction you should take to get to this target.
• View on map button:
• This will launch the Google Map app and drop a pin "I am here" at your current location.
• If you are not on a network, you will need to have uploaded a map of your local area to your phone (see above).
  

Note that this software is still beta, but Simba will in the meantime be overhauling/updating the code with new features, e.g. a GPS daemon, continuous location updates in the Maps app, choice of distance units in km/miles, etc.

Credits

1. All credit for the software goes to Simba. The only thing I did was test-drive the software with the GPS module. I found a few minor bugs which he has already fixed.


2. I did design a new iPhone icon for his software. The icon is a composition from two other icons designed by Studiomx:
• Web-48x48.png from the Leomx icon set
• iPhone-alt-32x32.png from the Hardwaremx icon set

The icons are licensed under the Linkware license

.

Please leave your feedback, comments and encouragements!

PmgR

Puzzle(d)?

What would this be? Post your guess...

The boards are back!

The boards finally arrived this week. What a long wait....



I have started to assemble things. I have soldered the dock connector and USB connector on the board to test the USB connection. I hooked them up to my computer and strangely enough, things weren't working: no charging sign on my iPhone. Did I make a mistake in my board? I debugged the rest of the night, but was unable to find a mistake in my board. Maybe my pin-outs in the schematic were wrong? Neither. Guess what it turned out to be? I had the USB cable plugged into my monitor and I had switched the monitor off the night before. I forgot about that: the monitor always looses its USB connection to the PC when I do that, even after it is turned back on. So I switched my cable to the USB connector on the front of my computer and yes! Things are working now. The iPhone made its famous dock sound and is charging, the USB dialog box pops up on my screen and I can sync the iPhone through iTunes.

As you can imagine, things are a little hectic and busy now, but stay tuned! More to come soon.....

Concept designs: candy for the eye

Here is a first draft of the package for the current PCB design for the GPS module. I thought giving it an iPhone look would be attractive. The intention was to have it look like a MiniPhone (a Miniature iPhone). The size is about 1in x 1in.

Concept 1

3D View:


Front view:


Side view:


Bottom view:



Now, if we really want to push the limits, I could come up with a different package design, but this would require a new design of the PCB board for a smaller GPS chip and a smaller antenna. The resulting size would be about 46mm x 15mm. Note that I haven't really looked into this re-design in detail, so these numbers are preliminary. Concept 2 shows this alternative design.

Concept 2

3D View:


Front view:


Side view:


Bottom view:


And lastly a few notes:

• Extending the package all the way to the edge of the iPhone doesn't look good due to the fact that the corners of the phone have a fairly large radius of curvature.


• Due to the curvature of the iPhone itself, the speaker and microphone at the bottom of the phone will not be interfered with by the package, even if the package overlaps those areas. You can try this out yourself: just press a flat object against the areas while playing some music or making a call to your home.


• I haven't forgotten about the iTouch. The iTouch has a smaller thickness than the iPhone (8mm instead of 11.6mm) and there is the headphone jack in the bottom. Due to this, it will require a different kind of antenna and a re-design of the PCB board. As such, it might be better to go with a Concept 2 approach for the iTouch. I still need think some more about how to integrate/pass-through the headphone jack...

I encourage everyone to post their comments on the current two package concepts. And also, if you have more friends with an iPhone/iTouch, tell them about the site and have them vote. The more people who want a GPS module, the better, since it will make it worth my effort and time and it will also reduce the cost for everyone.

Packaging, an art in itself

Wondering what I have been doing last week? First off, I sent out the PCB design for manufacturing. The boards should be back in about two weeks.

Next, it is time to start on package design. So I did some research. Apple's iPhone dimensions can be found here. Not all important sizes are printed in this drawing and it takes a few tricks to figure them out. As I want to design an aesthetic nice looking package, it is important to see the GPS module next to the phone. Thus, I deemed it necessary to transfer the iPhone drawings into a 3D CAD program.

If you are new to 3D CAD and wonder what program to use, the first thing you need to make sure is that the program will output the appropriate files for manufacturing; you wouldn't want to be spending all that time in vain... An easy to learn and relatively cheap program is Alibre. There are quite a few 3D CAD programs out there, but some of them can be pretty expensive and not really affordable for the average person. SolidWorks is pretty well-known, but rather expensive.

I am using Alibre Express, which can be freely downloaded from their website. I have started to recreate the iPhone in Alibre and the photo shows the results so far. I have omitted all of the side-buttons since they are not important for package design. More detailing, like the dock connector, will be done next.

Serial connection working

Since the PCB board is pretty much finished and ready for fabrication, I decided to implement some simple code for the iPhone that shows that we can communicate with a GPS module through the serial interface. The code captures NMEA data from the serial port that is sent by the GPS module. Nothing really special here, just a proof of principle to make sure that I implemented the right connections between the dock connector and the GPS module on my PCB board. And it might be educational for people to watch who have no electronics background :) Of course this is just a simple command line program that was drafted up quickly. Further software development can now be done with the new SDK from Apple :)

Some notes on the video: the PCB board on the left is used only as a break-out board for the GPS module that I bought earlier on to play with. The GPS module is powered by the iPhone. When the iPhone goes to sleep, so does the GPS module, but since it is battery backed-up, once you turn the iPhone back on, you will have a GPS lock again within a few seconds (small correction: the date on the iPhone is March 9, and not March 6 as I incorrectly state in the video)

Again, this setup does not compare to the eventual size of the assembled GPS board for the iPhone, which will be about 1 inch by 1 inch and sit in a nicely looking package.

Small, smaller, smallest

Well, here is a quick update on how things are progressing. I have been extremely busy designing the PCB board for the GPS module and it is almost done. I won't give the surprise away, but it is really small and has a lot more features on it than I expected to be able to put on such a small area.

In the meantime, I have received some more toys. Another evaluation test board of the GPS module that I will be using as well as the single GPS modules themselves. And on top of that I have ordered different antennas to be tested. The ones displayed in the picture range from 18x18x4mm to 15x15x4mm to 12.8x12.8x4mm. Small, smaller, smallest...

Some toys to play with

For the last two weeks I have been doing a lot of research on GPS chips and modules and antennas. There are lot of GPS vendors out there and each of them has its own flavor of GPS chips and antennas. So I have looked around and around and around.

I consider a small footprint very important and that is mainly what I have been selecting on since the current GPS technology is already so far advanced that there are not really any bad GPS units out there. Here are some of the main specs for most of them:

• 12-20 channel position engine (>12 channels should be plenty)
• Sensitivity: -155dBm to -160dBm
  
• Typical start-up times
  
1. Cold start: ~30sec-1min (that is from turn-on to GPS-lock without initial position data)
2. Hot start: a few seconds
• Most units have WAAS which is nice to have for improved positioning accuracy up to <2.5meters>
• Interface: most units support both UART and USB. The iPhone uses 3V level UART (Rx/Tx lines)
  
• Power supply: varies from module to module
  

Now, in order to keep our package small, we need a small module and we have to make sure that not too many external PCB board components are needed to operate the module. So the iPhone supply voltage of 3.3V pretty much determines what voltage the module should be (typically ~2.7V-3.6V)

Besides the GPS module, we need an antenna, and also here there is plenty to choose from. Most modules have an LNA (low noise amplifier) built in so we should be able to get away with a passive patch antenna only, as long as it is properly matched and not too lossy. Most patch antennas are about 25x25mm in size which in my opinion is just a little too big for the package I have in mind. So I have set my eyes on a smaller one. Experiments will have to prove if it is good enough or not.

In the meantime, I have ordered myself some toys to play with for the time being. I thought it might be a good idea to order a good module with an active antenna and an evaluation board to set a baseline I can measure the actual plug-in against later. See the picture for what I got (sorry for the quality, it was a close-up taken with the iPhone....): the GPS module at 30x30x8.5mm on top of its evaluation board. This module takes about a minute to start up and give a GPS-lock. I further adapted some code for reading out the NMEA data through the UART (COM-port) on my PC. The code should run on the iPhone too and my next goal will be to have the iPhone log some position data while I take it together with the GPS module on a trip.

B.T.W. This is of course not the module that will eventually be used for the plug-in. Its size of 30x30mm is simply too big. I have selected a more compact unit for that...

The project has started....

The project for bringing you a cheap and affordable, small size, nice-looking GPS plug-in for you iPhone/iTouch has finally kicked off.

First off, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am an electrical engineer who has been working in the telecom/datacom area for many years. While working at a few start-up companies, I have gained experience in bringing a device from development to design to production to market. This experience will be very useful in making an affordable GPS solution for the iPhone/iTouch a reality.

So why this project? First off, there is no GPS on the iPhone/iTouch, but it sure would be nice to have a Navigator app in the car while you are on the road. So I looked around on the internet and the idea for a GPS unit for the iPhone has come up before. There is even one company already in the process of making a plug-in module for about $90 (it is not clear when their product will come to market, most likely after the SDK comes out). Also, their solution is not open-source.... my philosophy is to get the community involved. When the the community indicates that it wants a certain thing and supports it, things can be achieved quickly and for an affordable price, avoiding the excessive price mark-ups that most for-profit companies make. A good example of this community backed concept is the plug-in microphone that was developed to make VoIP calls with the iTouch

What are the goals of the project?

• First off, we have to make the hardware. This should be rather straight-forward and I don't forsee many issues with this. The trick is to put everything in a small package at an affordable price.
• Second, we need software. In its most simple version, the software would just pop-up with a google map of your coordinates and show you were you are. But really, in the end, we would like to have a voice guided Navigator app that takes a starting and end-address and will just give you directions along the way. This app should be native on the iPhone/iTouch without having the need to be connected to your phone provider or WiFi.

So that's the basic scoop of things.

Make sure to take part in the three polls on the right so we can figure out if you are an iPhone or an iTouch user and how much you would be willing to sacrifice for such a GPS device.

In the making: GPS for the iPhone

Coming soon....