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QLG1 retirement; new QLG2 module provides many improvements
Hans Summers
Hi QRP Labbers Summary The QLG1 GPS mpdule is now being retired, due to component sourcing issues. As of today, all our stock of QLG1 has been ordered. I have designed a replacement QLG2 GNSS module with even higher performance and more features (see below), but the same price; manufacturing is underway but due to Chinese New Year delays, we are not expecting to be able to ship until late March 2021. You may pre-order on the QRP Labs, and by doing so you will tick a checkbox that you acknowledge and accept this delivery schedule. QLG2 page http://qrp-labs.com/qlg2 and pre-ordering http://shop.qrp-labs.com/qlg2 Details... The QLG1 GPS module http://qrp-labs.com/qlg1 has provided thousands of QRP Labs kit constructors with a high quality, highly sensitive, GPS receiver module that is guaranteed to work seamlessly with all other QRP Labs products. 8,000 units have been produced and sold since its introduction in June 2015. Unfortunately due to a supplier issue, we cannot produce any more QLG1 modules at this price and I am not willing to increase the price of the QLG1. The YIC module price and manufacturing lead time have both been increased substantially and unacceptably. This was blamed on Covid19 but for various reasons I didn't accept the explanation and we have terminated our contract with YIC. Accordingly I have taken this opportunity, despite the disappointing situation, to design a new GPS module which provides significant performance and feature improvements relative to QLG1, but at the same price. QLG2 (QRP Labs GNSS Module Mk2) includes the existing features of QLG1 and also includes an active antenna on approx 2m coax for even higher sensitivity than QLG1; it is capable of not just GPS but also the other navigation satellite systems Galileo, GLONASS and Beidou - giving faster satellite fix times; a serial-to-USB converter is included for easy connection to a PC or for connecting other QRP Labs kits to a PC. QLG2 features:
Availability Manufacturing of QLG2 is underway but, bad timing, Chinese New Year is in the way and the boards are made and assembled in China, then have to be shipped to me, and it will all take time (though still much faster than another QLG1 batch would have been). All boards will be thoroughly inspected and tested before shipment. My estimate for shipping is 2nd half of March 2021. Pre-ordering You can pre-order the QLG2 at the QRP Labs shop http://shop.qrp-labs.com/shop for shipment in March 2021. If you order the QLG2 as an option, for any other QRP Labs kit (e.g. QCX+, QCX-mini, Ultimate3S, Clock etc) then your order will be held until the QLG2 modules are available. Any questions, please let me know. 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com
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I guess it's about time to retire my oldest two
of VK16's that have served me well over the years.
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Thanks Hans 😎 regards Alan On 08/02/2021 10:17, Hans Summers
wrote:
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john spendlove
Hi Hans,
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Just to let you know I ordered a few bits from you last week and they were delivered this morning.Obviously the FedEx service pretty good although delivered by TNT . Thanks John G4DXY
On Monday, 8 February 2021, Hans Summers <hans.summers@...> wrote:
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Hans Summers
Hi John TNT and FedEx are the same company since 2016. I'm Europe normally TNT makes the delivery, in US/Canada FedEx deliver it. 73 Hans G0UPL
On Mon, Feb 8, 2021, 14:23 john spendlove <jwspendlove@...> wrote: Hi Hans,
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Gurudatta Panda
I did ordered QLG1 last week with my u3s, may be the last among the QLG boards sold. I guess the QLG1 will not disappoint me as the newer version is already being introduced. Wish me luck 🤞
On Mon, 8 Feb, 2021, 3:48 pm Hans Summers, <hans.summers@...> wrote:
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Steve Kavanagh
Will it be possible to power the QLG2 from a computer via the USB connector?
Will the QLG2 be suitable (without additional hardware) for synchronizing a computer clock for portable WSJT-x operation? 73, Steve VE3SMA
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Hans Summers
Hello Steve Will it be possible to power the QLG2 from a computer via the USB connector? Yes! There is a jumper on the PCB so you can choose to power QLG2 either from the 4-pin header that you would connect to an Ultimate3S (for example), or from the USB connector. Will the QLG2 be suitable (without additional hardware) for synchronizing a computer clock for portable WSJT-x operation? The QLG2 will spit out, over the USB Virtual Com port, all the NMEA serial sentences. You should be able to run something on the computer to use that to sync the computer's clock... I think? But I am not sure of a complete technical description - someone else here may have some comment on that. 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com
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Chris Hoffman
Is there an patch antenna on the board that you could also use, or is the external antenna the only option?
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Alan G4ZFQ
You should be able to run something on the computer to use that to sync the computer's clock... I think? But I am not sure of a complete technical description - someone else here may have some comment on that.Hans, Yes, various programs some here https://sites.google.com/site/g4zfqradio/incircuitprogramatmel168#h.xgcklhbd8exw Some use NMEA, good enough for WSPR, some use PPS as well although a real COM port is best used for high accuracy. 73 Alan G4ZFQ
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Hans Summers
Hello Chris Is there an patch antenna on the board that you could also use, or is the external antenna the only option? The supplied external antenna is the only supplied option. You could, I suppose, connect your own onboard patch antenna with some modifications, but the PCB has not been designed with this in mind. You can buy patch antennas and they aren't expensive. Now the reasoning behind this: when designing QLG1, the patch antenna was specifically tuned to match the PCB. The patch antenna was also supplied by YIC, the same manufacturer who made the GPS RF module. I had to first build and test QLG1 prototypes, then send one prototype to YIC's testing facility, so that they could tune the patch antenna to precisely match the characteristics of the QLG1 PCB (with its large groundplane). If you look at a QLG1 patch antenna, you can see that there are usually two cuts in the metalized top surface of the patch (see attached photo in which I have circled these in red). These are what brings the antenna to the correct 1575MHz resonance precisely, when used with the particular QLG1 PCB. This precise tuning and the large QLG1 ground-plane are what gave it such a high sensitivity. If I had chosen to use a patch antenna as the antenna for the QLG2, then I would have had to accept one of two options: 1) Use an off-the-shelf patch antenna, which would not exactly match the specific QLG2 PCB design. The probable result of this would be that the resonance would not be correctly on 1575MHz exactly, and that would result in a lower sensitivity. 2) I would have to locate a manufacturer of patch antennas (other than YIC, who got fired) and send them a prototype to tune the patch antenna, then get the custom-made antennas tuned and produced - which would be both expensive and above all, time-consuming. Neither of these two options were attractive; it would be abominable to consider a QLG2 with lower performance than the QLG1; and since I was caught by surprise by the YIC antics regarding supply of another batch of the RF modules and patches, I did not have TIME to go through this custom patch tuning/manufacturing process. The QLG1 has been a vital part of the QRP Labs kit lineup and I do not want to endure a period of months without a GPS kit to offer, that compliments and is guaranteed to work easily and seamlessly with the other QRP Labs kits. The solution was therefore to use an active antenna, where the considerations of tuning the patch to the PCB, is already taken care of and worried about by the active antenna manufacturer, and doesn't need to be my problem. The active antenna contains the patch and a low noise amplifier which overcomes coax cable losses with a bit of extra sensitivity margin on top. While the patch may suit some people and the active antenna others, I think overall the active antenna is a pretty reasonable solution since it means you can site the GPS antenna perhaps higher up or nearer a window etc and get even better reception; furthermore it means the QLG2 unit can be installed with the kit inside a metal enclosure. Which is also why I made it an 80 x 37mm PCB, so it would be compatible with being bolted easily into an Ultimate3S kit enclosure. 73 Hans G0UPL
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Nice product. I'm wondering why you used a USB-B connector rather than either of the 5-pin mini or micro USB connectors? That might have made the footprint a bit smaller, unless you already had plenty of room. Or were you more interested in good shielding? Or are the mini and micro USB connectors too hard to solder to a circuit board (most are meant for surface-mounting)?
There seem to be an awful lot of connection points around the outer edge of the board. Some are obvious but why so many? Or are these going away in the final product? I'm currently running a GPSDO with an outdoor "puck" antenna as we call them here. Mine has a thin magnet on the base, and I fashioned a small ground plane about 8x8 that's mounted to the peak of my roof with an angle bracket. The antenna is stuck to that plate and hasn't moved yet. I wonder if the GPS antenna that comes with this unit also has a magnet on the bottom, or do you leave mounting and installation "as an exercise for the student" as the college text books used to say?
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It would be very cool if the new GPS had the ability to do RTK.
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Hans Summers
Hi Bob Nice product. I'm wondering why you used a USB-B connector rather than either of the 5-pin mini or micro USB connectors? That might have made the footprint a bit smaller, unless you already had plenty of room. Or were you more interested in good shielding? Or are the mini and micro USB connectors too hard to solder to a circuit board (most are meant for surface-mounting)? USB-micro connectors are less robust and durable than USB-B. A lot of the phones I've used over the years which use USB-micro, end up have connection problems. Even my current phone with a USB-C connector has gone dodgy (purchased Dayton May 2018). And as you say, they tend to be SMD. Though that would not matter, since the PCB is covered in SMD anyway - so it would then just be installed by the factory. The reliability issue is the main one. I get frustrated with USB-micro... I'll use them but only if there's a necessity for a small footprint or a small volume; which is not the case in this case. USB-mini are somewhere between micro and B in terms of size and reliability but anyway the cables are less common than B or micro. The QLG2 constructor who does not have any interest in the USB feature need not install the USB connector. There seem to be an awful lot of connection points around the outer edge of the board. Some are obvious but why so many? Or are these going away in the final product? They aren't going away in the final product. They are to provide maximum flexibility in function and features.
In summary all the same QLG1 connectors are there; the only addition is the 16-pin header along the top edge which can be used to connect a 1602 LCD module. Later if more desirable features come to light I think all these headers can provide flexibility - remember QLG2 has a microcontroller on board so now becomes a subject of firmware requests and upgrades hi hi. Regarding firmware upgrades - don't worry about the headache ATmega328 firmware upgrades have caused over the years... I have developed a bootloader for firmware upgrades which requires no software other than file manager (or equivalent, depending on OS), no hardware (just the USB A-B cable), no drivers, and works on any OS (Mac, Windows, Linux, Android) without fuss. And additionally incorporates 256-bit AES encryption for securing the firmware files against cloning. In the bootloader mode, the QLG2 presents itself to the PC as a USB Flash drive, pretending to contain a 4GByte FAT16 file system and a single firmware file. You can simply download a firmware file from the QRP Labs page and copy it to this pretentious USB Flash drive, whereupon the microcontroller will install the new firmware onto itself and boot up in the new version. I'm currently running a GPSDO with an outdoor "puck" antenna as we call them here. Mine has a thin magnet on the base, and I fashioned a small ground plane about 8x8 that's mounted to the peak of my roof with an angle bracket. The antenna is stuck to that plate and hasn't moved yet. I wonder if the GPS antenna that comes with this unit also has a magnet on the bottom, or do you leave mounting and installation "as an exercise for the student" as the college text books used to say? Yes, the GPS antenna that is included with the QLG2 has a magnetic base plate.
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Great to see yet another excellent improvement from Hans and QRP Labs.
I just ordered 3 of the QLG2 modules, to replace one in use, one for a yet to be built clock, and one for the QCX+ have yet to build. Since the university has me tied up for several more months, I don't mind the wait. Thanks Hans, sad to not to be able to meet you again at Hamvention. -- 73, Greg KY4GW
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Hans Summers
Hi Joe It would be very cool if the new GPS had the ability to do RTK. According to the datasheet of the E108-GP01 module it supports: GPS (US), Galileo (Europe), Glonass (Russia), BDS (China), QZSS (Japan) and SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation Systems). There is no mention of RTK. By the way I met a government surveyor clutching a pole on top of which was a disk-shaped apparatus and a corresponding handheld unit. Incredibly, the entire country here is mapped to a very fine resolution and the land ownership, location of roads etc., is all centrally computerized in this system. So I asked him about his unit but he just said it's a GPS. So I said OK, what is the accuracy. He replied, 3cm... I said, OK, I'm going to steal it from you. But he didn't recommend that. So I said OK how much can I buy one for... he said, about $10,000... 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com
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Hans Summers
Hi Greg Thanks Hans, sad to not to be able to meet you again at Hamvention. Hope the world will be a better place by May 2022... and we are all alive to see it. Other than that - there is a virtual Dayton FDIM and I am scheduled to present on the topic: "Reach for the skies: extreme QRP at 35,000 ft" (on the U4B balloon tracker and its history). 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com
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db9pz@...
Hi Alan,
Using here a Yaesu FT-991 (non-A Modell!) for 'home'! The TRX is equipped with a 'Serial/CAT' 9-pin-connector on the backside. Do I need a 'serial-converter' to translate the 5V to real RS-232-Voltages? When the NEMA-protocol is given, I think it must be nearly 'plug and play', perhaps trimming the Baud-Rate, .... ! That should be all? Will the QLG2-Modul be an answer for my search, for a 'quality-GPS' for the 991 ? 73 de Markus ; db9pz
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Bobby
Hans,
Hi! Just received, Feb 4th, the Deluxe 6 Band Ultimate 3S kit I ordered which includes the original QLG1 GPS kit. Other than the outboard antenna, what other advantages would the new QLG2 GPS offer for WSPR operation or any other mode, etc. Thanks....
73 Bob W2RWM
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Summers <hans.summers@...> To: QRPLabs@groups.io Notification <qrplabs@groups.io> Sent: Mon, Feb 8, 2021 5:17 am Subject: [QRPLabs] QLG1 retirement; new QLG2 module provides many improvements Hi QRP Labbers
Summary
The QLG1 GPS mpdule is now being retired, due to component sourcing issues. As of today, all our stock of QLG1 has been ordered. I have designed a replacement QLG2 GNSS module with even higher performance and more features (see below), but the same price; manufacturing is underway but due to Chinese New Year delays, we are not expecting to be able to ship until late March 2021. You may pre-order on the QRP Labs, and by doing so you will tick a checkbox that you acknowledge and accept this delivery schedule. QLG2 page http://qrp-labs.com/qlg2 and pre-ordering http://shop.qrp-labs.com/qlg2
Details...
The QLG1 GPS module http://qrp-labs.com/qlg1 has provided thousands of QRP Labs kit constructors with a high quality, highly sensitive, GPS receiver module that is guaranteed to work seamlessly with all other QRP Labs products. 8,000 units have been produced and sold since its introduction in June 2015.
Unfortunately due to a supplier issue, we cannot produce any more QLG1 modules at this price and I am not willing to increase the price of the QLG1. The YIC module price and manufacturing lead time have both been increased substantially and unacceptably. This was blamed on Covid19 but for various reasons I didn't accept the explanation and we have terminated our contract with YIC.
Accordingly I have taken this opportunity, despite the disappointing situation, to design a new GPS module which provides significant performance and feature improvements relative to QLG1, but at the same price.
QLG2 (QRP Labs GNSS Module Mk2) includes the existing features of QLG1 and also includes an active antenna on approx 2m coax for even higher sensitivity than QLG1; it is capable of not just GPS but also the other navigation satellite systems Galileo, GLONASS and Beidou - giving faster satellite fix times; a serial-to-USB converter is included for easy connection to a PC or for connecting other QRP Labs kits to a PC.
QLG2 features:
Availability
Manufacturing of QLG2 is underway but, bad timing, Chinese New Year is in the way and the boards are made and assembled in China, then have to be shipped to me, and it will all take time (though still much faster than another QLG1 batch would have been). All boards will be thoroughly inspected and tested before shipment. My estimate for shipping is 2nd half of March 2021.
Pre-ordering
You can pre-order the QLG2 at the QRP Labs shop http://shop.qrp-labs.com/shop for shipment in March 2021. If you order the QLG2 as an option, for any other QRP Labs kit (e.g. QCX+, QCX-mini, Ultimate3S, Clock etc) then your order will be held until the QLG2 modules are available.
Any questions, please let me know.
73 Hans G0UPL
http://qrp-labs.com
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On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 02:45 PM, Bobby wrote:
what other advantages would the new QLG2 GPS offer for WSPR operation or any other mode, etc.In plain language QLG2 will offer - A receiver that receives and "decodes" not only the US constellation, but the European Galileo sats, the Russian sats, and the Chinese sats for a faster fix. If one constellation is a bit weak, then the others take over and they all work globally. Yes, all the aformeentioned constellations work globally at all times. You should easily see 15 sats or so in view at any one time, possibly more. Ability to add a standard 1602 display so you don't need to wait for info on the main rig. A USB serial port so in theory you can hook it up to a PC if you want and analyse the data, and use with a PC based navigation system, or as a time signal for Raspberry Pi's when no NTP is available. A port to upload new firmware or configure the receiver if required. That opens up the possibility of feature requests if Hans can incorporate them. And the PCB layout is now the same as the U3 and U3S rigs, so you can easily bolt it on to the "stack" if you wish. For those of us that are now using "multi standard" GPS (like modern cellphones do) the fix time is far superior to a single constellation unit. As little a 5 seconds from a cold start.
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Hans Summers
Hi Bob Yes, all of what was said below... Having said that, the QLG1 is a perfectly good module too... it isn't obsolete, it wasn't replaced for any reason of performance or bad behaviour or anything. It's a perfectly good and reliable module. The reason for me to introduce QLG2 was primarily that I had supplier issues and could no longer produce QLG1 at the same price. Therefore I did a new design and took the opportunity to also include several improvements. 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 2:35 AM Ten Kit Kats and Motoring Atlas via groups.io <andyfoad=rocketmail.com@groups.io> wrote:
On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 02:45 PM, Bobby wrote:
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