SparkFun's GNSS Combo Breakout Board Packs Two Receivers for Out-of-the-Box Positioning Accuracy

SparkFun is continuing on its quest to provide high-accuracy location tracking capabilities with a range of features and footprints, announcing the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Service] Combo Breakout board — which packs both u-blox ZED-F9P and NEO-D9S receivers for the ultimate in precision.

"With GNSS, you can know where you are, where you're going, and how to get there anywhere on Earth within 30 seconds," writes SparkFun's Chris McCarty of the launch. "This means the higher the accuracy, the better! Our versatile global positioning combo breakout pairs the u-blox ZED-F9P multi-band high-precision GNSS module with the NEO-D9S L-band GNSS correction data receiver."

There's a good reason for having both modules on one board: the first is a fairly standard four-constellation GNSS receiver, pulling in timing data from satellite constellations to provide an accurate three-dimensional position in space; the NEO-D9S, by contrast, doesn't receive GNSS signals directly but instead picks up on L-band correction transmissions — tweaks which improve the accuracy of the positioning system overall, down to what SparkFun claims is "the centimeter" level without separate hardware.

The board includes two USB Type-C connectors, one for each module, two Qwiic connectors, and 0.1" pin header breakouts for relevant pins including I2C and UART. There's a single SMA connector for an external antenna, with 3.3V power if required, which is shared between the two modules and which needs to be connected to a suitable L-band antenna — not supplied.

If the feature list seems familiar, that's because this marks the design's second outing: SparkFun had originally launched the dual-module breakout as a SparkX board, meaning a limited one-time production run, restricted access to support, and no guarantees of future availability. Following its popularity, though, the company has promoted the design to a fully-supported long-term SparkFun-proper board — making the move highly visible with the swap from a black to a red PCB.

Those interested in picking the new board up, however, are advised of one potential wrinkle: the corrections are based on the u-blox PointPerfect platform, which is available in Europe, the contiguous US, Canada, South Korea, and Australia, and up to 12 nautical miles off their coasts — but not yet globally. The company also has to approve each application for access to the broadcasts, which can be refused for any reason.

The SparkFun GNSS Combo Breakout is now available to buy on the company store at $349.95 before volume discounts.