Local Notecard data - bearings

Notecard API
1

For local processing on my Raspberry PI I can request from my notecard battery voltage via:
req = {“req”: “card.voltage”}

I want to do the same for bearings, which I see is part of _track.qo, but locally.

2

Hi @JimC ,

You’re in luck!

We just added a new section to our tracking guide to describe how to take an immediate GPS reading.

You will want to use:
req = {“req”: “card.location”}

Be sure to follow the guide to ensure you get the most accurate information available.

Happy Hacking,
Zak

3

I have never been able to get a signal from a cell tower. Then I realized by firmware version was 1.5.5. Did an upgrade to the latest. Now my regular data events do not work (via add). I see the env.db events (very long compared to the prior rev of firmware) and my data buried in this event at the end, but never produces a data.go file like the past. I did a OFA update, is there something else I need to do?

4

I never recevied a clean OFA status until 3 days later. Now my data passes correctly to the notehub. So back to my original ask. I have notecarrier - Pi and the only way to get a GPS signal is to move my antenna to the GPS connector. Any suggestions on an antenna? Also I assume I need to activated it via the dip switch, correct?

5

Hi @JimC,

Yes, you do need an antenna attached to the U.FL GPS port to utilize GPS/GNSS functionality. This dual LTE/GPS antenna is a nice one that I use from Pulse.

The active dip switch on the back of the Pi HAT specifies whether you are using an active or passive GPS antenna. The one I linked above is passive, so you would leave that off.

Rob

6

Ended up buying an active antenna, but it seems like I can only get a reading every 90 seconds, am I doing something wrong?

7

Hi @JimC,

The frequency at which you acquire GPS location information depends on how you have it configured. It’s important to remember that the Notecard is, by default, a low-power device. Therefore, the GPS module won’t activate unless the onboard accelerometer on the Notecard has detected motion since the last location sampling. Also the cellular modem and GPS cannot be enabled at the same time, so one has to turn off momentarily while the other is active (again, depends on your exact configuration).

I recommend looking closely at the card.location.mode API as there are many different ways to configure location-sampling settings. Otherwise if you want to describe your exact use case, we can probably suggest some settings to try!

Thanks,
Rob

8

You said something I missed about cell and GPS modems can not be enabled at the same time. How do I disable cell mode, was not clear to me in documentation?

9

Hi @JimC,

Sure - take a look at our Working with GPS on the Notecard doc, as I think that will help explain how GPS works for you. At a high level, the mode of your hub.set and card.location.mode requests allow you to configure whether cellular and GPS (respectively) are connected periodically or continuously. Just note that both cannot be in continuous mode.

Rob