[howto] GL-X3000 GPS configuration guide

Technical Support for Routers
22

According to the Quectel RM520NGL Hardware Design manual ( RM520N-GL/Documents/RM520NGL-Hardware-Design.pdf at main · 4IceG/RM520N-GL · GitHub ) on page 60-61, the modem supports the GPS, Galileo, QZSS, and BDS constellations (together identified as GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems) with frequencies:

  • GPS/Galileo/QZSS - 1575.42 ±1.023 (L1) MHz

  • Galileo - 1575.42 ±2.046 (E1) MHz

  • QZSS - 1575.42 (L1) MHz

  • GLONASS - 1597.5–1605.8 MHz

  • BDS - 1561.098 ±2.046 MHz

  • L5 GPS/Galileo/QZSS - 1176.45 ±10.23 (GPS L5) MHz

So, basically, in order to receive GNSS signals, the CELLULAR antenna that you attach to the X3000 must support those frequencies (approx: 1165-1186 MHz, 1573-1578 MHz, and 1597-1606 MHz) for full, suppoerted GNSS coverage.

Unfortunately, the Peplink 42G cellular antennas do not support any of those bands. It does have a separate GPS antenna, but unfortunately, the X3000 does not have a separate, dedicated GPS antenna port.

Personally, I recently put in an order for a Parsec Akita for my travel trailer - although it can also be used as a portable antenna, its not roof-mounted and its best performance is mounted on a pole (note: although its flat, it is an omni-directional antenna). The Akita does support the GNSS bands. I should receive the antenna later next week… I’ll get back to this thread with my opinion on how effective it is with GPS.

23

Yes, you can use this antenna, just connect 4 cellular antennas to the X3000 SMA-connectors, it will receive both cellular and GPS signal.

1 Like
24

Tim, I’m confused. I see one other person says it does not work.

Who is correct? Also, I’m in the USA, so not all GPS freq bands are necessary. Ie Europe

25

The cellular antenna can receive the signal of 600M~6GHz, which covers the GPS frequency.

Antenna vendor always optimizes the design to improve the gain on the Cellular frequencies, including low frequency 600~900M, medium frequency 1700~2700M, and high frequency, but still can receive other frequency signal, the problem is the gain is not good.

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I tested X3000 with another Dome antenna, received the GPS signal successfully.

2 Likes
26

It’s people like Tim who ‘s help is invaluable that makes me happy I bought my GL-3000!!

Thank you Tim

1 Like
27

very, very, very useful, many thanks for posting, marco

1 Like
28

Thanks for sharing, I’ve tried to get it working but when I attempt to run the parse gpx script I get a 404, is this still working for you?

root@GL-X3000:/tmp/mountd/disk1_part1# ./scripts/gpx-parse.php gpxlog.gpx

url: http://localhost/gps/

parseJson: gpxlog.gpx

Warning: file_get_contents(http://localhost/gps/?f=gpxlog.gpx&m=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
 in /tmp/mountd/disk1_part1/scripts/gpx-parse.php on line 36
got http 404

Thanks so much in advance!!

29

reload web server config (nginx -s reload) and try again

30

Thanks for the quick response, that didnt work, i got the same message

root@GL-X3000:/tmp/mountd/disk1_part1# nginx -s reload
nginx: [alert] lua_code_cache is off; this will hurt performance in /etc/nginx/conf.d/gl.conf:6
root@GL-X3000:/tmp/mountd/disk1_part1# ./scripts/gpx-parse.php gpxlog.gpx

url: http://localhost/gps/

parseJson: gpxlog.gpx

Warning: file_get_contents(http://localhost/gps/?f=gpxlog.gpx&m=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
 in /tmp/mountd/disk1_part1/scripts/gpx-parse.php on line 36
got http 404

This is my output from config.sh, do you think the lack og gps.conf indicates an issue?

root@GL-X3000:/tmp/mountd/disk1_part1# ./scripts/config.sh

checking all files in /tmp/mountd/disk1_part1/.config

name                                               cmp    status              
-------------------------------------------------- ------ --------------------
/etc/nginx/gl-conf.d/service-gps.conf              ok     exists (link)
/etc/php.ini                                              exists 
/etc/init.d/gpsd                                          exists 
/etc/php8-fpm.conf                                 ok     exists 
/etc/php8-fpm.d/gps.conf                                  not exists 

checking required packages: ok (17 installed)

root@GL-X3000:/tmp/mountd/disk1_part1#

I’ve confirmed I have an output in gpxlog.gpx too:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="GPSD 3.23 - https://gpsd.io/"
        xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1
        http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd">
 <metadata>
  <time>2024-04-03T08:59:32.730Z</time>
 </metadata>
 <trk>
  <src>GPSD 3.23</src>
  <trkseg>
   <trkpt lat="11.111111111" lon="-1.111111111">
    <ele>55.7000</ele>
    <time>2024-04-03T08:59:33.000Z</time>
    <fix>3d</fix>
    <sat>1</sat>
    <hdop>3.0</hdop>
    <vdop>1.0</vdop>
    <pdop>3.2</pdop>
   </trkpt>

and I get streams when running cgps, any help would be much appreciated but also understand how difficult it can be to remote support random people :slight_smile:

31

can we handle it on github (issue)? php needs more config

32

yeah sure thanks so much, I’ll open an issue on GH now.