SparkFun GPS Dead Reckoning Breakout - NEO-M8U (Qwiic)

by Sparkfun

The SparkFun NEO-M8U GPS Breakout is a high quality, GPS board with equally impressive configuration options.

The NEO-M8U takes advantage of u-blox's Untethered Dead Reckoning (UDR) technology. The module provides continuous navigation without needing to make any electrical connection to a vehicle, thus reducing cost of installation for after-market dead reckoning applications.

The NEO-M8U module is a 72-channel u-blox M8 engine GNSS receiver, meaning it can receive signals from the GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations with ~2.5 meter accuracy. The module supports concurrent reception of three GNSS systems. The combination of GNSS and integrated 3D sensor measurements on the NEO-M8U provide accurate, real-time positioning rates of up to 30Hz.

Compared to other GPS modules, this breakout maximizes position accuracy in dense cities or covered areas. Even under poor signal conditions, continuous positioning is provided in urban environments and is also available during complete signal loss (e.g. short tunnels and parking garages). With UDR, position begins as soon as power is applied to the board even before the first GNSS fix is available! Lock time is further reduced with on-board rechargeable battery; you'll have backup power enabling the GPS to get a hot lock within seconds!

Additionally, this u-blox receiver supports I2C (u-blox calls this Display Data Channel) which made it perfect for the Qwiic compatibility so we don't have to use up our precious UART ports. Utilizing the handy Qwiic system, no soldering is required to connect it to the rest of your system. However, SparkFun have still broken out 0.1"-spaced pins in case you prefer to use a breadboard.

U-blox based GPS products are configurable using the popular, but dense, windows program called u-center. Plenty of different functions can be configured on the NEO-M8U: baud rates, update rates, geofencing, spoofing detection, external interrupts, SBAS/D-GPS, etc. All of this can be done within the SparkFun Arduino Library!

The SparkFun NEO-M8U GPS Breakout is also equipped with an on-board rechargeable battery that provides power to the RTC on the NEO-M8U. This reduces the time-to-first fix from a cold start (~26s) to a hot start (~1.5s). The battery will maintain RTC and GNSS orbit data without being connected to power for plenty of time.

This product requires an antenna: Be sure to check out the related products/hookup accessories and pick a suitble U.FL antenna for your project.

The SparkFun Qwiic Connect System is an ecosystem of I2C sensors, actuators, shields and cables that make prototyping faster and less prone to error. All Qwiic-enabled boards use a common 1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector. This reduces the amount of required PCB space, and polarized connections mean you can’t hook it up wrong.

Get started with the SparkFun NEO-M8U GPS guide

Features

  • Integrated U.FL connector for use with antenna of your choice
  • 72-Channel GNSS Receiver
  • 2.5m Horizontal Accuracy
  • 30Hz Max Update Rate
  • Time-To-First-Fix:
    • Cold: 26s
    • Hot: 1.5s
  • Max Altitude: 50,000m
  • Max G: ≤4
  • Max Velocity: 500m/s
  • Velocity Accuracy: 0.5m/s
  • Heading Accuracy: 1 degrees
  • Built-In Accelerometer and Gyroscope
  • Time Pulse Accuracy: 30ns
  • 3.3V VCC and I/O
    • Current Consumption: ~29mA Continuous Tracking, Default Concurrent Mode
  • Software Configurable
    • Geofencing
    • Odometer
    • Spoofing Detection
    • External Interrupt
    • Pin Control
    • Low Power Mode
    • Many others!
  • Supports NMEA, UBX, and RTCM protocols over UART or I2C interfaces

Documents

438 customer reviews

2 days ago
Very good pi useful update on previous models and much faster versatile piece of equipment
by Hugh about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
4 days ago
The extra power and connectivity of the Pi 5 has not disappointed.
by Paul about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
5 days ago
In my opinion, the 2GB version of the Pi 5 has the perfect balance of price, compatibility and features. I have one running a home assistant server and another as a decoration piece running shaders on a HyperPixel 4.0 display. You don't need more RAM than 2GB for most applications. Also the CPU and GPU performance compared to Pi 4 is so much better, that for my use cases the older model is not worth the discounted price.
by Lauri about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
6 days ago
Used with NVME storage via PCI interface. Great performance yet it only sips power. There is an amazing range of accessories for a SBC. The star of the show though is Raspberry Pi OS that has been well supported by Raspberry Pi for many years, ensuring that the bits I have bought have a long life.
by Anonymous about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
6 days ago
Last Raspberry Pi I tried was the 3B+ and the difference with the 5 is huge (especially with 8gb RAM). Weirdly enough, it was cheaper to buy it at Pimoroni and import it to the other side of the world, rather than buying it here!
by EDGAR about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
12 days ago
Compared to previous versions, this one is more powerful and works perfectly, Uning it as a linux box to program a Lego mindstorm unit, it is quick in compilation and I have not issue with it.
by Gordon about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
19 days ago
The Pi 5 is amazing, lightning fast and (with the official fan kit) super cool. It's a shame that some of the connectors are a bit fiddly and easily broken, but that's more down to the size of the Pi itself. Take care and go gentle with connecting everything up!
by Gary about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Everything is totally fine. I'm perfectly happy. The pi is working well in is place already.
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a month ago
Compact, excellent, faster than Pi4 which is what we needed
by Katherine about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
16GB is worth it, nice small and well build as per quality. a good replacement for a legacy i3 notebook machine to reduce size and power demand with the increased productivity for Home Assistant. Hardware is good and most impartant is the software and comunity documentation and support post purchase.
by Vladimir about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Excellent performance with Raspberry Pi os. Not so good with Ubuntu and Android, both not working.
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a month ago
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a month ago
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a month ago
Can never have enough RAM, this 16G was also the D0 stepping.
by Anonymous about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
The 16GB RPi 5 works well as a lab desktop with the NVMe underpants but unfortunately the Pimoroni crew Still Haven’t made a case to suit!
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a month ago
It's small and mighty, runs everything I want at a bargain price. Best PI so far!
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a month ago
Wow. Had Pi 3b+ for years. For experiments etc. until I bricked it somehow :-(. Well this is amazing the speed is incredible. Cheers people. You will know doubt hear from me again.
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a month ago
Huge improvement performance wise over the Pi 1B I have been using for far too long now.
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a month ago
Loving this little powerhouse! My 2nd Pi5 .. this one to go into a Picar-X to dabble with robotics/AI and so on.
by Kim about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Well I'm actually still evaluating. So far, I'm impressed. I have a 512gb m.2 on the Pimoroni interface HAT. I installed this on the back of the New monitor and am trying to reduce the volume of cables. So far, I'm very impressed.
by THOMAS about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Trying out the latest. Really great at what i am trying to achieve
by Dave about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
2 months ago
Whata great bit of kit - have several Pi3+ but this is a great step up in terms of performance. Happily running my full media server (emby) and will slowly migrate other tasks to it too
by Stephen about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
2 months ago
I've had a couple of these and built retro gaming images to use with the 8gb version which I gave to friends. This time I tried the 4gb version and there's been no difference with performance for gaming via batocera so all good 👌🏻
by Ian about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
3 months ago
This has been bought as a gift for my husband. He actually recommended buying from here - always good to have a recommendation ! Gift is wrapped for Christmas so not used yet.
by Gillian about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
3 months ago
FASTTTT!! Compared to previous gen I have in the form of Pi400, there's a day and night difrerence. PCI-e and nvme with Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE Case makes it very nice kit. I had to go max, 8 gigs, and my containers chug away without Pi5 breaking a sweat. Disclaimer: i'm a sucker for Pi Foundation products, so i'm massively biased :)
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