u-blox NEO-M9N GPS Featherwing

I finally have gotten around to designing Revision 2.3!

Changes include:

• Proper Shielding on I/O lines
• Resistors close to module on I/O lines
• Shortened Vcc line
• SPI option for comms

This version is mostly thanks to some connections Miguel from smartcore.com.br made with u-blox and has been rightly added as a contributor to this project. I would also like to thank the u-blox sales office in South America for helping connect me to members of the u-blox, mainly Mr. Zagnit and Mr. Protopsaltis, who provided me with great design feedback. This design would not be what it is now without these people!

Next steps:

• Look into having this board manufactured, so I can physically test this design.
• See if Adafruit is interested in this design, as it is designed as a FeatherWring. It would be a dream of mine to have it on their store!

Below are some photos of the most recent version:

Revision 2 has been designed! After some very helpful feedback from Michael, who is an expert in u-blox implementation, and has been made a co-contributor to this project!

Modifications made to this Revision include:

• Fixed unconnected grounds around the RF traces
• Added connection of reset GPS pin to be controlled by an attached Feather
• Board can now be powered by USB! Note that the Feather can power the GPS board, but the GPS board can NOT power the Feather

Design Files have been uploaded to the project page.

Included below are some images of the design for Rev 2

I have uploaded an archive of the KiCad Design files and .GBRs for this project. Please note that at the current state, the hardware has only been designed, but not built or tested. Because of this, I can not guarantee that hardware will work 100% as intended. But feel free to use these files to make your own boards/build upon them!

Because I have not built or tested this project yet, project specific software does not yet exist. Feel free to make your own though!

If anyone ends up building this, feel free to let me know, as I am interested to see how many errors/improvements can be made.

Components for this GPS board have been selected. It is viewable here from Octopart. The current price for the board components sourced from DigiKey is 8.33 USD. Keep in mind that the GPS module is not currently considered in that price, as it is not yet available at any major distributor. It is only available from u-blox, as an engineering sample, as of 12/28/19. U-blox lists price breaks as 1-9 pieces at 25 USD, 20-49 pieces at 21.56 USD, 50-99 pieces at 17.67 USD, and 100-249 pieces at 14.15 USD. I'm going to guess that similar prices will become available at DigiKey, Mouser, etc. once the module is ready for commercial release.

Rev1 is designed! I just recently discovered that u-blox announced a new GPS module. Thought I'd try and make a Featherwing out of it, with what  time is left in the "Take Flight with Feather" competition.

Components list will be coming tomorrow!