| Jun 14, 2017, 03:52 PM |
| SirRexAlot |
| SirRexAlot Registered User Thread OP | Question BN-880 vs BS-880 - Which is better? https://www.banggood.com/BS-880-Flig...-p-995591.html https://www.banggood.com/UBLOX-NEO-M...-p-971082.html Within 10% of price, same accuracy, both have onboard compass, 10hz capable, same weight / footprint / power consumption. The only difference I see is: BN-880 "Receiving Format:GPS,GLONASS,Galileo,BeiDou,QZSS and SBAS" BS-880 "Receive format: GPS L1 1575.42MHZ C/A Code" So I'm guessing the BN is better because there's more stuff listed? |
| Jun 14, 2017, 06:29 PM |
| robca |
| robca Registered User | The BN-880 and BS-880 chips seem to be clones of the well known M8N. Not only that module is much thicker than a M8N unit (hence no enclosure works for that module), there are reports of people having problems trying to update the firmware (since it's not a full M8N) The M8N-based units have great track record and cost just a bit more. Why risking using a clone with possible future compatibility issues? |
| Jun 15, 2017, 12:07 AM |
| SirRexAlot |
| SirRexAlot Registered User Thread OP | I'm trying to learn about this stuff. The description says Neo-M8N, is that different? Would I need to update the firmware? |
| Jun 15, 2017, 01:24 AM |
| robca |
| robca Registered User | It's not a real M8N chip. Chinese sites like Banggood (which is otherwise a good site with good support) tend to be pretty loose with IP and trademarks  independently from what the Banggood name says, those GPS units are not M8N by uBlox, but clones working roughly the same. And the firmware cannot be updated In general, you do not need to update, the reason why people talk about updating the M8N is that most were shipped with a firmware that only supported GPS and GLONASS, and with the new firmware you can now get GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, giving you more satellites and a better fix in areas of marginal coverage (especially if you live in Europe). So if you have a M8N that supports firmware update, you can get better positioning for just the pain of a firmware upgrade... but if you look online, you will see that many units sold as M8N use unsupported flash chips even with a real M8N chipset, and cannot be updated. For example these otherwise excellent M8N unit https://www.banggood.com/Ublox-NEO-M...p-1005394.html and https://www.banggood.com/Radiolink-M...p-1051291.html cannot be updated (unless you replace the flash chip, which is pretty hard to do unless you have specialized SMD soldering equipment and know-how; some people did it, and were able to update the firmware afterwards). But, outside of updating the firmware (which Banggood explicitly says you can't) those are otherwise great GPS with many happy customers, and for just $19 hard to go wrong Since you seem to be based in WA, a proper M8N with good antenna will be a great choice, and the lack of Galileo won't make much of a difference, given where most of those satellites are based (it's a European Union positioning system, like GPS is USA, but covers worldwide, and GLONASS is predominantly Russian, but it benefits people like us in northern latitudes). If you lived in Europe, buying a real upgradeable M8N like a Drotek for around $45 might be a good option... |
| Jun 15, 2017, 11:28 AM |
| SirRexAlot |
| SirRexAlot Registered User Thread OP | None of my planes or quads are going to fly in Europe or Russia unless RTH goes haywire and I catch a doozey of a thermal.. So would the round black puck style GPS unit you linked to work for me running iNav? It says Pixhawk and I'm unsure how different the architecture and communication protocol is. |
| Jun 15, 2017, 01:34 PM |
| Arakon |
| Arakon Registered User | Both have a massive flaw: The compass chip is under a shield of metal. That will mess with it. |
| Jun 15, 2017, 02:47 PM |
| SirRexAlot |
| SirRexAlot Registered User Thread OP | Can you post a link to a decent and reasonably priced unit? |
| Jun 16, 2017, 12:49 AM |
| robca |
| robca Registered User | Quote: | Originally Posted by Arakon Both have a massive flaw: The compass chip is under a shield of metal. That will mess with it. | I'm not quite sure where you got your information, but it's most definitely not true for this Banggood unit https://www.banggood.com/Ublox-NEO-M...p-1005394.html. I just opened mine, and as you can see the compass chip is where pretty much all compass chips are, on the side of the M8N module, quite far away (relatively speaking). Since all the metal (and the antenna) in the GPS puck is in a fixed place, whatever disturbance the M8N shield that far away might offer is orders of magnitude smaller than the magnetic fields caused by the motors and the big currents in the wires (hence the COMPASSMOT function in Arducopter) SirRexAlot, that unit is good, as you can also see from the 325 positive reviews (granted, Banggood sometimes removes negative ones, but very few products have 325 5 star reviews on their site). I doubt you'll find anything that good for a similar price (the only possible downside is that the antenna is relatively small, but these days it's hard to find bigger ones, and in any case it would make the GPS puck much bigger than most people want; but that unit has a good antenna and analog section, so the reception is really good for the size). A full size GPS puck (50x50mm with a full separate ground plane) would be better, but if you can find one will cost a lot. And the mast to separate it from the electronics would need to be very strong. And, unless you fly below a tree canopy, given how sensitive the M8N is and how many satellites it sees, in real terms even the better antenna will no make any difference For the average flyer on a budget, that's as good as it gets Images View all Images in thread -
 Views: 331 |
| Jun 16, 2017, 01:37 AM |
| SirRexAlot |
| SirRexAlot Registered User Thread OP | My very first gps years ago was doa on arrival but I didn't know it, and it was not a cheap unit. I spent literally dozens of hours across several weeks on it, thinking I must be gps-retarded until I bought two other styles and they worked instantly, and still work fine. Now I need some more and I'm a little gun shy about buying a piece of junk. I think I'll get a couple of those and see how it goes. |
| Last edited by SirRexAlot; Jun 16, 2017 at 12:19 PM. |
| Jun 16, 2017, 03:47 AM |
| Arakon |
| Arakon Registered User | Quote: | Originally Posted by robca I'm not quite sure where you got your information, but it's most definitely not true for this Banggood unit | I was talking about the units he asked about in the header. Those both have the mag chip under the shield. |
| Jun 16, 2017, 09:51 AM |
| robca |
| robca Registered User | Quote: | Originally Posted by Arakon I was talking about the units he asked about in the header. Those both have the mag chip under the shield. | Oh, yeah, sorry (I mentioned 2 units, you answered after mine, you said "both", I assumed you were talking about the ones I linked, apologies) Right, that's one more reason not to use those Bx-880 units, good point |
| Oct 07, 2017, 10:14 AM |
| Andresiko |
| Andresiko Registered User | Quote: | Originally Posted by robca It's not a real M8N chip. Chinese sites like Banggood (which is otherwise a good site with good support) tend to be pretty loose with IP and trademarks independently from what the Banggood name says, those GPS units are not M8N by uBlox, but clones working roughly the same. And the firmware cannot be updated In general, you do not need to update, the reason why people talk about updating the M8N is that most were shipped with a firmware that only supported GPS and GLONASS, and with the new firmware you can now get GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, giving you more satellites and a better fix in areas of marginal coverage (especially if you live in Europe). So if you have a M8N that supports firmware update, you can get better positioning for just the pain of a firmware upgrade... but if you look online, you will see that many units sold as M8N use unsupported flash chips even with a real M8N chipset, and cannot be updated. For example these otherwise excellent M8N unit https://www.banggood.com/Ublox-NEO-M...p-1005394.html and https://www.banggood.com/Radiolink-M...p-1051291.html cannot be updated (unless you replace the flash chip, which is pretty hard to do unless you have specialized SMD soldering equipment and know-how; some people did it, and were able to update the firmware afterwards). But, outside of updating the firmware (which Banggood explicitly says you can't) those are otherwise great GPS with many happy customers, and for just $19 hard to go wrong Since you seem to be based in WA, a proper M8N with good antenna will be a great choice, and the lack of Galileo won't make much of a difference, given where most of those satellites are based (it's a European Union positioning system, like GPS is USA, but covers worldwide, and GLONASS is predominantly Russian, but it benefits people like us in northern latitudes). If you lived in Europe, buying a real upgradeable M8N like a Drotek for around $45 might be a good option... | @robca ! Can you recommend a cheap module upgradeable to Galileo? Or maybe already upgraded? Thank you in advance! |
| Oct 14, 2017, 04:25 PM |
| FotoAmg |
FotoAmg Registered User  | I have BN-880 from banggood, did not try to update FW but it is great, out of the box for APM, and I am in Europe... 1.15 HDOP 17 sats depending on coverage and we live in massive brick houses, I can get sats inside too in most room (of course not flying just in MP). https://www.banggood.com/UBLOX-NEO-M...l?rmmds=search My old test: | BN-880 GPS compass Loiter position hold test (3 min 34 sec) | | cx-20 BN-880 lebeges teszt1 (1 min 55 sec) | Unfortunately as I get my old copters for a ride today (after 2-3 years of storage) most of them not holding position well anymore but it must be a different story.... maybe battery does not like it.... |
| Last edited by FotoAmg; Oct 14, 2017 at 04:47 PM. |
| Jun 20, 2018, 03:48 PM |
| BlueSkyLark |
| BlueSkyLark Registered User | To answer the question in the OP: The BN-880 is a dual receiver, so can acquire both the Russian Glonass and US GPS simultaneously (so it's equivalent to M8N). My understanding is that the BS-880 is not a dual receiver and can only acquire GPS (so it's equivalent to the M6N or M7N perhaps). So which is best? The BN-880 is best. |
| Jun 22, 2018, 12:31 AM |
| aliasx |
| aliasx Registered User | I need a GPS module with compass but not in a puck since I don't want to mount the antenna pole on my quad. I have 30x30 mm available on top of the runcam split and the BS-880 would fit. Are there any other modules available that are not fake U-Blox chips and have the same size of the BS-880?`I can't find any on banggood (any other seller welcome, europe preferred). |
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