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GPS Receiver TEL0138 does NOT meet published specification, contains fake Ublox chip

userHead Chris.Billington 2024-05-28 12:03:02 78 Views0 Replies

I bought a DFRobot TEL0138 USB GPS receiver through your official distributor Element14 for use in a project I am working on.

 

Previously, I had bought “Ublox” USB GPS modules through AliExpress and had been annoyed (but not surprised) to find that they did not meet the published specification. The number of available channels is read as 22, not 56, and there is no flash chip inside, so settings cannot be saved and the firmware can't be upgraded. Only L1 Band is supported.

 

Never mind, I thought: I will buy an official one at 3 times the price from DFRobot. They list the 56 channel capability on their website and explicitly state L1, L2 and L3 bands are supported.

 

The unit arrived yesterday from Element14. On testing with the official Ublox UCenter software, I found that it has the same issues as the cheap Aliexpress units, Only 22 channels are supported, only L1 band works, and there is no flash chip so settings can't be saved. Even the diagnostic logs can't be retrieved because so few commands are supported. 

 

From internet searches, it seems that this is because the “Ublox 7020” chip inside is not genuine. It is a fake. You can be sure I am not happy with this discovery!

 

To be kind, I assume that DFRobot and Element14 have been cheated too by the original supplier. The unit does not meet the published specification. It doesn't support 56 channels, and only works on L1 band, not L1 + L2 + L3.  Glonass, Beidou and Galileo satellites are not supported. 

 

Can you supply a genuine unit? Or if your suppliers cannot produce one that works to specification, please correct the information on your website and wiki pages.