u-center 2 user guide

User guide release date: March 08, 2023

u-center 2 version: v23.03.52230

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1 Overview

u-center 2 is u-blox's powerful tool for configuration, evaluation, and debugging of u-blox GNSS receivers and services.

It allows the end users to assess and test u-blox positioning chips, modules, evaluation kits, application boards and similar devices for navigation and positioning performance.

This document provides a guide for starting to use the features of this software and explains how to resolve common use cases.

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2 System requirements

u-center 2 has been tested on Windows 10 (64 bit) platform and runs on Windows 11 as is. It currently supports u-blox M10 devices.

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3 Getting started

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3.1 Installing u-center 2

u-center 2 can be downloaded from u-center website. The u-center 2 package comes with a setup file. Click the file and follow the steps to install the application (administration rights might be needed). Once the installation has completed successfully, you need to enter your u-blox support portal account credentials and log in with a browser. FireFox is the recommended browser for u-center 2.

After login, having internet connectivity, u-center 2 will start and can also be used offline.

3.1.1 Updating u-center

After each start - or for continuously running software every 24 hours - the application will check for possible updates. If an update is available, then the application will download it in the background and will inform the user by a notification. User settings and login credentials are not affected or changed.

If the user dismisses the update it will still be available from the "Help" menu in case the user intends to perform it later on.

When the user starts the update process, the installer starts and asks the user to close the running application. After finishing the installation the software will be restarted.

3.1.2 User feedback

If you want to share your feedback to improve u-center 2 further, select User feedback option in help menu.

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3.2 Connecting a device

To evaluate u-blox devices, make sure you have the appropriate USB driver installed in your system. To connect a device to the u-center 2:

1. Click the Devices icon on the left menu bar.

1. Click Add device.
2. Select the COM port of the device. For connecting the device in safeboot mode, check safeboot in Device management.

1. Select autobauding for automatic detection of the baud rate or deselect it to manually select the baud rate.

The connection switch turns green as a signal of a valid communication and an indicator will show if u-center 2 is receiving messages.

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4 Device management

Once you have connected the device, you can view the device information by selecting the arrow pointing to the right in the device menu.

The device information shows the hardware and firmware versions as well as a drop-down menu to change the baud rate from a list of predefined baud rates.

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4.1 Configuration actions

To save, load and revert to default configuration, use the Save, Load and Revert buttons in Device info > Configuration actions.

1. Save: Saves the current receiver configuration to battery backed RAM (BBR) and flash from read access memory (RAM) of the receiver

   

2. Load: Loads the last configuration that was saved to BBR and flash, ignoring what is configured in the RAM layer.

   

3. Revert: Reverts to the default firmware configuration and ignores all the configurations done in BBR, flash or the RAM layer of the receiver

   

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4.2 Restarting a device

When a device is connected and u-center 2 is receiving data, the Restart section gives the option to perform a Cold start or Hot start.

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4.3 Enable debug messages

Selecting Debug will enable a range of messages best suited for debugging the device configuration.

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4.4 Access a device in safeboot mode

Sometimes receiver need to be in safeboot mode to be able to configure some specific configuration. To add a u-blox device that is in safeboot mode to u-center 2:

1. Ensure that your device is in safeboot mode. For details check the device integration manual, which you can be found on u-blox.com.

2. Click the Devices icon on the left menu bar.

   

3. Click Add device.

4. Select the COM port of the device.

   
   

5. Select the safeboot option for connecting to the device in safeboot mode. This will also send the training sequence in the background to be able to synchronize with the external clock.

   

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5 Device configuration

To access the device configuration menu:

1. Open the Devices menu by selecting the Devices icon on the left menu bar.

2. Select the Device configuration button.

   

   This will display the Device configuration window.

   Note that you can pop out the Device configuration window and move it outside the u-center 2 application. It can remain open while you are working with the other windows in the u-center 2 application.

3. Select Quick configuration for user-friendly configurations, or

4. Select Advanced configuration for expert configuration options.

5. Select one of the Saved configurations to apply a previously saved set of advanced configuration items.

Note that the configuration menu is also available even without connecting devices.

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5.1 Quick configuration

Quick configurations are an easy way to configure the device.

5.1.1 Constellation configuration

To enable or disable satellite constellations, select the Constellation configuration item.

5.1.2 Send hex string

This view allows sending a UBX protocol hex string to the device.

This is a powerful but a dangerous feature. You must confirm that you have read the warning text to make sure you are aware of the risk of breaking the receiver by sending a wrong configuration. Only after reading the text, the Send button will be activated.

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5.2 Advanced configuration

The Advanced configuration panel allows a device to be configured by sending individual configuration item key ID and value pairs to the device's random access memory (RAM), battery backed RAM (BBR) and flash configuration layers. In addition, the current configuration of the device can also be viewed by retrieving configuration items from the device's configuration layers.

5.2.1 Reading the device's configuration items

To read configuration items of the connected device, select the configuration item of interest from the Items panel. This sends a poll request to the device. If the device supports the selected configuration item, it will send back the corresponding value for each configuration layer, which will then be displayed.

5.2.2 Setting the device's configuration

A device is configured by sending individual configuration item key ID and value pairs to the device's RAM, BBR and flash configuration layers.

To do this:

1. In the Items panel, select the configuration group to expand the item tree.

2. Within this group, select the configuration item to show its current configuration on all layers, and its details in the right hand panel.

   

3. Select the layer to write

   

4. Enter/select an appropriate value.

5. Select the Set button. This will add the item, its value and the layer to the Configuration changes list.

6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 to build up your list of configuration item changes

7. Review the list configuration item changes to send to the device. The order each configuration item is sent to the device is top down. To change the order, just drag an item in the Configuration changes list to the new position. To remove an item select Clear.

   

   To change the value of an item or its layer, select Edit or double click on the item. In the top panel the item will appear allowing its value and/or layer to be changed. Select Update to add any changes to the item back to the Configuration changes list, or Cancel if any changes are not wanted.

   

8. To review as hex codes the configuration items in the Configuration changes list, select the Message hex codes tab. You will see the configuration items grouped per layer.

   

9. Click Send to send the changes to the device. The configuration messages successfully accepted by the receiver are indicated with a green check mark . A red alert triangle indicates the key is unknown to the receiver firmware or the configuration is not valid (the validity of a configuration is checked only if the message applies to the RAM configuration layer).

   

10. To save the Configuration changes list and add it to the list of Saved configurations, click Save as....

5.2.3 Quick preset examples

A list of use case-based quick preset examples was added to the Advanced configuration category in the configuration window.

By selecting one of the preset examples, the configurations will be loaded into the configuration changes list shown in the right panel. For the preset examples, a short description is shown in the right panel explaining the typical use case where this set of configurations is applicable.

 

5.2.4 Saved configurations

 

In the device configuration dialog, panel on the left shows a list of saved configuration. Saved configurations can be useful, if a set of configurations shall be applied for a certain use case, but the device is used for different use cases. It can be helpful to compare the performance of a device when applying different saved configurations. Saved configurations can also be imported and exported for an easy exchange between different users.

To load a configuration, just select it. The configuration changes defined in the file will appear in the configuration changes list on the right.

Once loaded, the configuration changes can be sent to the connected device indicated in the top right corner of this dialog by selecting the Send button.

You can edit the configuration list by adding more items or use the Clear button to remove them. Afterwards you can save the original file, save the list to a new file, or revert to the file's original content.

The symbol * in front of the saved configuration name indicates that this list has been changed.

By selecting Save changes, the configuration list will be saved back to the configuration file it originated from, that is highlighted with a * in front of its name in the list of Saved configurations.

By selecting Save as.., the modified configuration list can be saved in a new file. Once it is saved it will be shown in the list of Saved configuraitons.

By selecting Revert changes, the configuration list can be reverted to when it was loaded from the selected configuration file.

To rename a saved configuration, hover over the chosen configuration name and select the more options menu. Then select 'Rename' from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, enter the new name, and click Rename. Click Cancel if you decide not to rename this file.

To delete a saved configuration, hover over the chosen configuration name and select the more options menu. Then select 'Delete' from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, click Delete. Click Cancel if you decide not to delete this file.

To import a saved configuration file, select "Import".

In the dialog that appears, navigate to the .cfg file you wish to import. Select it and click OK. The selected file will be imported and will appear in the configurations list.

To export a saved configuration, hover over the saved configuration name and select the more options menu. Then select Export from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, navigate to the folder you wish to export the configuration to and specify the name of the file to be created, then click OK. The configuration .ucf file will appear in the selected folder.

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6 Log player

u-center 2 has a device log file recording feature to collect and play back the log file.

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6.1 Recording a new log file

Prepare to record a new log file by selecting the Record log button. On the dialog displayed, select the file location by selecting the Change option and type in the log file name.

By selecting/deselecting the "Enable all debug messages" checkbox you decide if additional debug messages will be stored in the log file. Enabled debug messages may help with log file analysis during playback.

By selecting/deselecting the "Add GNSS device configuration data to the log file" checkbox, you can choose to have the active device's configuration read and saved in the log file. The configuration data can be very useful when using a log file to debug the operation of a device.

Select Record log to start recording.

When recording a log file, the recording control panel is displayed in the top area.

This panel allows you to stop the recording, view how long you have been recording for, if you have enabled debug messages, and if you have chosen to save the device configuration. If you did not select either debugging messages or saving the configuration at the start of the recording, then selecting the corresponding indicators will enable these at any time during the log file recording. Once selected, they cannot be deselected from this panel.

Press Stop recording to finish recording. Two log files with different formats will be saved at the selected location. One with extension .uc2 and another with extension .ubx.

Log files with the .ubx extension are created only for backwards compatibility with existing scripts and u-center legacy. They cannot be used directly by u-center 2. u-center 2 can only play log files with the .uc2 file extension which have the timing information.

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6.2 Converting a log file

It is possible to convert legacy .ubx log files to the new .uc2 log file format but the conversion is limited for now. The conversion is needed to be able to use the u-center 2 features. The converted log file has only message-based navigation, there is no timing information.

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6.3 Playing a log file

To play any existing log file, select the Play log button and select a log file. If there is a device actively connected to u-center 2, a pop-up will inform that the device will be disconnected. If opening the log file was successful, the top bar of the application should look similar to this:

When you select Play, all the views in the tab will use and show the messages, and the information stored in the log file. With the new .uc2 format it is possible to navigate log files based on time or message number, by selecting the navigation mode with this button:

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For log files recorded with u-center 2 both modes are available, while for log files converted from the raw .ubx format only message-based navigation is supported, and the time option is disabled for now:

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1. Message based navigation and playback speed:

   • This mode is available for converted and natively recorded .uc2 files

   • It is possible to play back a log file at different speeds by selecting 1, 5, 10, 50 or 100 msg/s from the drop-down menu:

     

   • Drag the slider to navigate in the log file

   • The Jump to feature is activated by selecting the message number indicator. It will turn into an input field and pause the playback. Enter the message number to jump to the selected time.

     

   • Note that jump to will navigate to the message that is right before the requested message.

2. Time-based navigation and playback speed:

   • This mode is only for log files recorded with u-center 2 for now

   • It is possible to play back log file at a higher speed by selecting 1x, 2x, or 5x from the drop-down menu:

     

   • Drag the slider to navigate in the log file

   • The Jump to feature is activated by selecting the time indicator. It will turn into an input field and pause the playback.

     

     ,

     Just enter the time to jump to

     

     .

   • Note that jump to will navigate to the message that is before the requested time.

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7 Workspaces

To open the workspace menu, either select the workspaces button on the left menu bar, or click on the name of the active workspace in the left of the top menu bar.

The active workspace indicator shows the state of the current workspace. The state is either saved, unsaved or read only.

Only the Preset workspaces can be in the read only state.

Once the workspace menu is open, it will show under Your workspaces a list of user defined workspaces, and under Preset workspaces some system defined workspaces.

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7.1 Preset workspaces

With preset workspaces, the application can be used without any initial modifications or preliminary knowledge of the views, they are populated with a basic set of views and with the usage of the simple message enabler (see chapter 8.1) customers can easily start evaluating our products.

To avoid any exidental overwrite, the workspaces in this list are read only.

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7.2 Creating your own workspaces

Select New workspace to create a new user defined workspace, that will be listed in the Your workspaces list. The new workspace needs a unique name. It can be created empty or based on an existing workspace.

If created empty, the workspace will contain a single tab. If based on an existing workspace, it will be the duplicate of the selected workspace.

Tabs can be renamed by a double click, replaced by dragging and deleted with the icon. In each tab, you can add different views by clicking on the add view icon at the top of the left menu bar. The Add view panel will open over the main window. Multiple views can be added this way to the active tab.

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7.3 Manage workspaces

By hovering over any workspace in the Your workspaces or Preset workspaces lists, a kebab menu with additional options to manage the workspace will appear.

The user defined workspaces can be deleted, duplicated or renamed. For Preset workspaces only the duplicate option is available.

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8 Views

To visualize and evaluate data coming from the device, views can be added to any workspace tab. To select and add a specific view to your actual tab, select on the left side of the application.

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8.1 Simple message enabler

On most views, it is possible to enable all necessary messages with the ease of clicking a button. New users can study information coming from the receiver without preliminary knowledge about the underlying technology. Experienced users will also benefit from this feature as it saves time.

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8.2 Message View

Message View captures the latest received instance of each message known by the device. It can be used to capture the contents for the latest messages received and to poll, enable, or disable a message.

Selecting a message from the tree, you can view the contents of a message. To see how recent the message is, check the timer on the top right.

8.2.1 Message tree navigation and message documentation

The message tree displays all the available messages for inspection. It is the filtered version of the messages valid for the connected device firmware and protocol specification version. Selecting a message in the the tree will show its content on the right side panel. If the selected message has not been received and autopolling is disabled the right panel should be empty.

Recent messages are highlighted in bold on the message tree. Each message in the tree has its own (i) information button which, when clicked, will bring up the message documentation dialog.

Note that the Documentation window is a detachable separate window that can be moved anywhere outside of u-center 2 application and does not have to be closed in order to keep working in the main u-center 2 application.

8.2.2 Enabling, disabling and polling messages

Hovering over a message in the tree brings up an options menu (three dots).

When you select the three dots, the options Poll, Enable, and Disable will be available.

1. Poll message: this is only available for UBX protocol messages. It will ask the device to send the message only once to u-center 2.
2. Enable message: the message becomes enabled and will be sent periodically by the device.
3. Disable message: the message will not be sent periodically anymore by the device.

Another way to enable a message is by double clicking on the name of the message. If the supported protocol specification of the connected device and u-center 2 are not compliant, some options could be grayed out.

8.2.3 Message inspector

With the message inspector, you can view the detailed content of a message. To see how recent the message is, check the timer on the top right. Open the documentation dialog to get help about the different attributes of a message.

8.2.4 Lock messages

Prevents updates of the view with new incoming messages.

8.2.5 Autopoll

Enables automatic polling for messages as you select them in the tree.

8.2.6 Filtering

Use the filter field to filter incoming messages based on the text entered in the field. By default, the filter is case-sensitive and applies logical "and" for all the separately entered filter conditions. Using standard regular expressions in the filter field is also supported.

8.2.7 Input messages

Although most messages a receiver supports are just output messages that come from the receiver, there are some messages which allow a host (u-center 2 in this case) to control the receiver in various ways. These are input messages.

If one of these input messages is selected, the Message View will show the message's input fields as a form.

Select the version of the message to be sent.

Then enter values into the various fields and select any options presented. Finally press the Send button to send the message to the receiver.

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8.3 Console View

The Console View captures messages from the connected device or from the log file player.

8.3.1 Console view types

You can view the Console View in three different ways.

1. Packet (default) displays each message name, size and short description.
2. Binary displays each message in hex format.
3. Text displays NMEA messages in text format.

8.3.2 Lock data

Locking data prevents updates of the Console View with new incoming messages.

8.3.3 Clear data

To clear the contents of the Console View, click Clear data.

8.3.4 Message inspector

With message inspector, you can view the contents of a message. To inspect the contents of a message, click Inspector .

Select the (i) information button which, when clicked, will bring up the message documentation dialog.

8.3.5 Filtering messages

Use the filter field to filter incoming messages based on the text entered in the field. By default, the filter is case-sensitive and applies logical "and" for all the separately entered filter conditions. This also supports all the regular expressions to filter the messages. The regular expression must be written inside slash icons. Valid regular expression filters are shown in red.

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8.4 Data View

Displays various important values used for GNSS navigation.

They are:

• Fix mode - GNSS fix type
• TTFF - Time to first fix (only available when UBX messages are enabled)
• Longitude - Longitude
• Latitude - Latitude
• Altitude - Altitude
• Velocity - Velocity
• UTC time - Time of the last message
• 3D acc. - Position Accuracy Estimate
• 2D acc. - Horizontal accuracy estimate
• PDOP - Position DOP
• HDOP - Horizontal DOP
• SAT used in NAV - Satellites used in navigation
• SAT not in NAV - Satellites not used in navigation
• SAT not tracked - Satellites not tracked

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8.5 Map View

Displays the reported location from the connected device or a log file playback on a map. You can use normal map controls to zoom in and out or switch the map type.

 

By selecting the Protection level option, the map view displays the protection level surrounding the fix position.

 

 

The protection level information is provided by the the UBX-NAV-PL message, so this needs to be enabled. To enable the message, press the map view's message enable button.

 

When enabled, Map view will show the protection level.

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8.6 Satellite Position View

The Satellite Position View displays the position of the satellites. By hovering over a satellite name, its constellation and position are displayed.

Only enabled constellations of the connected device or recorded in the log file playback will be visible. On the right there are checkboxes to enable/disable satellite constellations in the view. The number of satellites used for navigation and the total number of tracked satellites are given.

 

Other useful information:

 

1. Legend - See which GNSS constellations are in use and filter out any of them.
2. Show not tracked - See information for satellites not used in tracking. Satellites not used in tracking means that the device knows the probable position of the satellite from the almanac received but no signal is available.

The map is not automatically loaded when the first time it is added to the workspace. Click in the map view to load the map.

 

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8.7 Satellite Signal View

Displays satellite signal strength of the connected device or from a log file playback in a graph. The satellite signals are grouped by their GNSS constellations in different colors.

The name of every signal is listed on the x-axis of the graph, starting with a single character to identify the constellation. The signal strength in dBHz is given in the y-axis. A blue border color indicates, which signals are not used for navigation.

The satellite constellations displayed can be controlled by selecting the tick boxes at the bottom of the view. This will only affect the visualization of the constellations, not the output from the receiver

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8.8 Table View

The Table View allows individual message fields, from a connected device or a playing log file, to be displayed in a tabular form. This is very useful when analyzing message field values in detail.

Each column of the table represents a message field of interest, and each row represents the value of the message fields within a navigational epoch.

To choose a message field you would like to view, first enter/select the message name in the first drop down list (in the top left corner of the Table View). Once the message is selected, the next drop down list will contain all the field names known to that message. Select the field name of interest. In some cases there are additional selections required, e.g. for satellite properties. Select the Add button to create a new column in the table view.

Once added, columns can be reordered by dragging the column header. Columns can also be resized by moving the separator between column headers.

Using Message View, you will need to enable the messages corresponding to the selected fields in the table. If the message is not enabled, then the cells in message/field column will be empty.

UBX-NAV-EOE message must be enabled when using Table View. If not enabled, then table rows will never be updated.

To remove a column, hover over the corresponding heading until an X button appears then click it.

The id column represents the epoch number and cannot be removed.

To export data, click on Export. This will generate a CSV file representing the contents of the Table View.

Whenever the workspace containing any table views is saved, then the columns in the table are persisted.

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8.9 Chart View

The Chart View allows individual message fields from a connected device or a playing log file to be displayed in a graph.

UBX-NAV-EOE message must be enabled when using Chart View. If is not enabled, the graph will never be updated.

To choose a message field you would like to put on the graph, first enter/select the message name in the first drop-down list (in the top left corner of the Chart View). Once the message is selected, the next drop-down list will contain all the field names known to that message. Select the field name of interest. In some cases there are additional selections required, e.g. for satellite properties. Use the Set X or Set Y buttons to set the field as an axis for the graph.

Once both x and y axis have been selected the graph will appear and display incoming data.

Pressing Reset removes the current information in the chart.

You can zoom on the values in the Chart view by adjusting the navigation bar at the bottom. Drag the handles at either edge of the bar to adjust the zoom area size. You can adjust the zoom position by dragging the middle section of the navigation bar.

Whenever the workspace containing any chart views is saved, then the selected axis in the chart are persisted.

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9 Tools and services

u-center 2 has a range of tools and services. These can be found by selecting the Tools and Services icon in the left hand toolbar.

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9.1 Converting log to KML

The convert log file to KML feature allows a log file to be loaded, searched for UBX-NAV-PVT messages and then generating a .kml file of corresponding positions that can be loaded into a KML-viewer (e.g. Google Earth) for visualization.

Begin by selecting Convert Log to KML.

Then the file open dialog will be displayed allowing the log file to be converted to be selected. Select a log file and press open. Then the dialog to specify the resulting KML file is presented. Enter the KML file name and where to store it. Then press Save.

A notification panel will appear in the bottom right of the application window showing the how the conversion process is progressing. A cancel button is also shown. Selecting this will cancel the conversion process. The progress panel will automatically remove itself on completion of the conversion.

The resulting .kml file can now be loaded into a KML-viewer (e.g. Google Earth) for visualization.

To add the protection level information in the KML file, enable UBX-NAV-PL message in the message view and then collect the log file.

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9.2 Updating firmware

The firmware update feature allows the firmware of a device to be updated.

Select Firmware update from the Tools and Services panel.

 

The Firmware Update dialog is displayed.

 

 

 

 

Note that you can pop out the Firmware update window and move it outside the u-center 2 application. It can remain open while you are working with the other windows in the u-center 2 application.

 

To update the firmware:

1. Start by entering the path and filename of the firmware file image to be flashed on to the device.

2. Select the baud rate to perform the update at.
   Note this speed is only applied during the transfer of the firmware image and is not related to the current device connection speed. The current connection speed will be restored once update is completed.

3. Select the required operation from following options:

• Erase flash: If selected, instructs the firmware update utility to just erase the device's flash memory. After that, the device will no longer be able to boot from external flash firmware and will boot from ROM firmware.

• Enter safeboot before update: If selected, instructs the firmware update utility to place the device in to safeboot mode before erasing and transferring the firmware image to then device's flash.

• Send training sequence: If selected, instructs the firmware update utility send the UART training pulse sequence to the device to allow it to calibrate itself for communication.

• Transfer image to RAM: If selected, instructs the firmware update utility to send the neccessary commands tell the device to put the firmware image directly into RAM and not to store permanently in flash.

• Use chip erase: If selected, instruct the firmware update utility to erase the flash using an single command instead of individual sector erases while uploading the firmware. This feature reduces the firmware upload time.
  Note this feature will only work if the flash connected to the receiver supports the chip erase feature.

1. Press update. The update button will become active when a device is connected, a firmware file has been selected, and the baud rate has been set.

In general, firmware update is now ready.

Additional options

The additional options field allows the use of any firmware update utility options that are not supported above. Just enter the options as you would if using the command line. You will see the command line field update appropriately. These additional options are possible to get from u-blox technical support to debug customer issues.

Command line

The command line display shows what the resulting command line for launching the firmware update utility and what options, based on the selections, will be passed to it.

Update

The update button will become active when a device is connected, a firmware file has been selected, and the baud rate has been set. Selecting will launch the firmware update utility which will control the update process.

Stop

The stop button will become active only when a firmware update is in progress. Press it to terminate the firmware update process. The state of the device will vary depending on what part of the update process was interrupted and you may need to power cycle the receiver. After power cycling, the receiver may be in safe mode.

Receiver information

The receiver information fields show information about the current connected device which maybe useful. i.e. have you got the correct device connected?

Erased

When the firmware update is in operation, flash erase progress is displayed by the progress bar showing how many flash memory blocks have been erased with respect to the total number of flash blocks.

Written

When the firmware update is in operation, flash erase progress is displayed by the progress bar showing how many memory blocks have been written with respect to the total number of blocks the firmware will occupy.

 

 

 

 

In addition to the progress bars, any output from the firmware update utility is placed in the Firmware update log field. If the firmware update does not complete correctly, this log indicates where the failure occured.

 

 

 

 

To clear the log, press the clear button.

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9.3 Measuring current

The current measurement feature allows the user to easily measure the current and the power consumption of the u-blox generation 10 evaluation kits. This feature is available for EVK-M101-00-02 and EVK-M101C-00-02 versions of the EVKs.

On EVK-M101/C, the main supply voltage for the u-blox M10 GNSS receiver is 3.3 V. The EVK contains an internal 3.3 V to 1.0 V DC-DC converter to reduce power consumption from the core and RF power domains of the receiver.

The total GNSS current I (VCC) is made up of current consumption from that DC-DC converter I (V_DCDC) and the V_IO domain I (V_IO).

Begin by selecting AssistNow Online from the Tools and Services panel.

Note that you can pop out the Current measurement window and move it outside the u-center 2 application. It can remain open while you are working with the other windows in the u-center 2 application.

To measure the separate current contribution from V_IO and V_DCDC from u-center 2, follow these steps:

1. Connect EVK-M101/C to a PC with the USB cable. Connect only one receiver at a time.

2. Go to u-center 2 Tools and Service > Tools > Current measurement.

 

1. To start measuring the current, press the Start button. The current measurement window continuously updates the current and power values for V_IO and DC-DC converter input.

 

 

 

 

 

1. To finish the current measurement, press the Stop button.

 

Refer to EVK-M10 user guide for details.

 

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9.4 AssistNow Offline

The AssistNow Offline feature allows the device's AssistNow Offline support to be explored, understood and experimented with. For a detailed explanation on the subject of AssistNow Offline, see the user guide which can be found here.

Begin by selecting AssistNow Offline from the Tools and Services panel.

 

This will display AssistNow Offline dialog.

 

 

Note that you can pop out the AssistNow Offline window and move it outside the u-center 2 application. It can remain open while you are working with the other windows in the u-center 2 application.

 

9.4.1 Modifying AssistNow Offline server details

To retrieve AssistNow Offline data from u-blox services, u-center 2 needs to know the offline server address and have a valid offline token. To enter these details, expand MGA Offline settings by selecting the arrow.

 

 

 

 

The default server for u-blox services can be restored at any point by selecting Default server. If you need to use other than u-blox server, enter it into the Server field.

Enter an AssistNow Offline token into the Token field. To request an offline token, register a new account on u-blox website by selecting Register. After that, request a token on the web site.

 

Select Save settings to permanently save these settings.

 

Collapse MGA Offline settings by selecting the arrow.

Note that the offline server and token settings can also be changed using the Preferences icon located in the application's top right corner.

 

 

 

 

9.4.2 Selecting AssistNow Offline data

To control what AssistNow Offline (ANO) and Almanac (ALM) data is requested from the AssistNow Offline server, select the desired satellite constellations, the duration and resolution of the offline data in the MGA offline data selection dialog.

The Request string field is updated according to the selected options. It displays the actual request made to the server.

Note this request string can be used directly into your product's host application code.

Select the Download from server button to request and download the AssistNow Offline data from the server.

Note that downloaded assistance data is stored as a file called assistance-data.bin in the .ucenter user folder. This file is loaded whenever the MGA Offline dialog is opened. So it is possible to retrieve assistance data but not use it immediately.

9.4.3 Time and position aiding

Time aiding

When transferring assistance data to the device, providing an approximate time will speed up TTFF. u-center 2 adds time this aiding information using the PC's UTC time. The user can select how accurate the device should treat this time using the Time aiding field.

The following options are available:

Options	Description
Assume accurate PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 0.5s.
Assume coarse PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 1 s.
Specify accuracy	When selected, the user enters the accuracy and latency values in the displayed fields.

Position aiding

Also when transferring the assistance data to the device, providing an approximate position will also speed up the TTFF. u-center 2 can provide this position aiding information if known.

The approximate location can be entered manually into the Position aiding fields, or by selecting Use current which will populate the position aiding fields with the reported position from the last received UBX-NAV-PVT message.

Note that if either the Latitude or Longitude fields are empty, then no position aiding data will be sent to the device.

9.4.4 Transfer and restart device

u-center 2 provides the following ways to use AssistNow Offline data:

• Transfer to the device's flash memory for future use.
• Transfer and use immediately for assisted restarts to show improvements to the TTFF.

Transfer to flash

With transfer to flash, the assistance data downloaded from the service can be transferred to the device's flash memory (assuming flash is present). Future device restarts will use this data to assist in getting a fix.

To transfer to flash simply select Flash as the Storage for ANO, and the select Transfer with reset and aiding.

A Flash-based restart performs the following actions:

• Transfers the downloaded AssistNow data to the device's flash memory.
• Issues the selected reset command.
• If at least Latitude and Longitude have been entered, then transfer position aiding data to the device using the selected flow control.
• Transfers time aiding data to the device using the selected flow control.

As the transfer process will take some time to perform, a progress dialog will be displayed. This allows you to see how the transfer is progressing and also stop the operation by selecting the Stop button. The dialog can be cleared by selecting the Close button.

Clear flash

To clear the flash of AssistNow data, select Clear flash.

Host based transfer

To perform a host based transfer simply select Host as the Storage for ANO, and the select Transfer with reset and aiding.

A host based transfer performs the following actions:

• Issues the selected reset command.
• If at least Latitude and Longitude have been entered then transfer position aiding data to the device using the selected flow control.
• Transfers time aiding data to the device using the selected flow control.
• Transfers the downloaded AssistNow data to the device using the selected flow control.

As the transfer process will take some time to perform, a progress dialog will be displayed. This allows you to see how the transfer is progressing and also stop the operation by selecting the Stop button. The dialog can be cleared by selecting the Close button

Note reset command and flow control operate the same as with a Flash based transfer described above.

Now that the assistance data has been transferred to flash, try a cold start. The receiver will now use the data stored in flash to help it get a faster first fix. This can be seen by checking TTFF in the Data View.

Reset command

The reset command specifies what type restart the receiver will perform and hence how fast the TTFF will be.

Flow control

The flow control options control how the downloaded AssistNow data is sent to the device. The data is broken up and sent as UBX messages.

• Simple: Sends one message at a time. Waits for the device to acknowledge a message before sending the next. Any failures in receiving the message will be reported.
• Smart: Similar to Simple except initially as many messages that can fit into the device's receive buffer are sent in order to transfer the data slightly faster.
• None: Sends all messages as quickly as possible without waiting for acknowledgements. No guarantee of data delivery or reporting of failure to deliver.

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9.5 AssistNow Online

The AssistNow Online feature allows the device's AssistNow Online support to be explored, understood and experimented with. For a detailed explanation on the subject of AssistNow online, see the user guide which can be found here.

Begin by selecting AssistNow Online from the Tools and Services panel.

This will display AssistNow Online dialog.

Note that you can pop out the AssistNow Online window and move it outside the u-center 2 application. It can remain open while you are working with the other windows in the u-center 2 application.

9.5.1 Modifying AssistNow Online server details

To retrieve AssistNow Online data from u-blox services, u-center 2 needs to know the online server address and have a valid online token. To enter these details, expand MGA Online settings by selecting the arrow.

It is unlikely that the server address will need to be changed from the default address, but if a different server address is needed then enter it into the Online server field. The default server can be restored at any point by selecting Default server.

Enter an AssistNow Online token into the Online token field. To request an online token, register a new account on u-blox website by selecting Register. After that, request a token on the web site.

Select Save settings to permanently save these settings.

Collapse MGA Online settings by selecting the arrow.

9.5.2 Selecting AssistNow Online data

MGA online data selection controls what AssistsNow Online data is requested from the AssistNow Online server by selecting

• Which satellite constellations you are interested in
• The type of assistance data required
• Applying ephemeris data filtering based on the satellite seen at a given position
• What time aiding to include
• What position aiding to include

The Request string field is updated according to the selected options. It displays the actual request made to the server.

Note this request string can be used directly into your product's host application code.

GNSS and Data Type

Select which GNSS constellations and the type of assistance data you need to download.

Filter ephemeris on

If selected, the assistance data request will ask the server to return ephemeris data for satellites that are likely to be visible from the approximate position provided.

Time aiding

Time aiding data is packaged in the data downloaded from the server according to the selections made in u-center 2.

The Time aiding drop-down list provides the following options to define what time aiding data is downloaded from the server:

Options	Description
Assume accurate PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 0.5s.
Assume low network latency	when selected, an accuracy of 0.5s and latency of 0.5s are included in the server request. The server will will add these values to the downloaded data.
Assume coarse PC system time	When selected, no accuracy or latency information is passed to the server. The server puts its default accuracy of +/- 10s into the download data.
Specify accuracy and latency	When selected, the user enters the accuracy and latency values in the displayed fields. These values are passed to the server where they are packaged into the downloaded data.

Position aiding

Position aiding allows an approximate location, if known, to be provided to the server. The server uses this location to decide what assistance data to package and download.

Enter the location manually into the Position aiding fields, or select Use current to populate the Position aiding fields with the reported position from the last received UBX-NAV-PVT message.

9.5.3 Using assistance data

Once all the above settings have been entered, the downloaded AssistNow online data can be requested and transferred to the receiver. This is performed as one action by selecting the Download and transfer button.

Once downloaded, the transfer of data to the receiver can be controlled by Flow control and this is the same as for AssistNow Offline here.

The type of reciever reset can be controlled by the Reset command and this is the same as for AssistNow Offline here.