3.4.1 Output over a serial COM connection. SEPTENTRIO AsteRx-U

3.4. HOW TO CONFIGURE SBF AND NMEA OUTPUT

3.4 How to configure SBF and NMEA output

The AsteRx-U can output position and GNSS data in both standard NMEA format and

Septentrio’s proprietary compact binary format SBF. This following sections detail how to configure connections to other devices in order to send data.

3.4.1 Output over a serial COM connection

The AsteRx-U can be connected via a serial COM cable to an RS-232 compatible secondary device 1 .

Step 1: Configure the serial COM port

The COM port of the AsteRx-U should be configured with the same baud rate and flow control setting of the coupled device. These settings can be configured via the ‘Communication’ tab as shown in Figure 3-11. In this example, COM3 is set with a speed of 19200 baud.

Figure 3-11: Configure the baud rate and flow control of the AsteRx-U

1 The performance at the highest setting of 460800 baud has not yet been fully validated. Users are therefore recommended not to use this setting for AsteRx-U firmware versions 4.2.0 and earlier.

21

3.4. HOW TO CONFIGURE SBF AND NMEA OUTPUT

Step 2: Configure data output

NMEA

In the ‘NMEA/SBF Out’ tab, clicking on ‘ New NMEA Stream ’ will guide you through the steps needed to configure NMEA output as shown in Figures 3-12 and 3-13.

Figure 3-12: Selecting to output NMEA data on COM3

Figure 3-13: Selecting to output the GGA NMEA message every second

22

3.4. HOW TO CONFIGURE SBF AND NMEA OUTPUT

SBF

By clicking ‘ New SBF stream ’, a second output stream can be configured. In the example shown in Figures 3-14 and 3-15 the PVTCartesian SBF data block will be output over COM1 once per second.

Figure 3-14: Selecting to output SBF data on COM1

Figure 3-15: Selecting to output the PVTCartesian SBF block every second

23

3.4. HOW TO CONFIGURE SBF AND NMEA OUTPUT

Step 3: Verifying the configuration

Having configured data output and clicked on ‘Ok’ the ‘ NMEA/SBF Out ’ page will now display a summary of all data output as shown in Figure 3-16.

Figure 3-16: Summary of all configured data output streams

Figure 3-17 shows the actual data output. NMEA is in ASCII and is thus readable unlike SBF which is formatted in binary. In this example, the serial COM was connected to a PC via a

USB adapter which maps the serial connection to a virtual COM9 of the PC.

Figure 3-17: Example showing output NMEA GGA (left panel) and SBF

PVTCartesian (right panel)

24