So the cable behind the TTGO T-Beam came loose. I am unsure the function of that block is and was hoping to get help with identifying it.
I ended up soldering the cable back…based in the picture will that work? If not, where can I find a replacement part if I need to replace it?
Thank you.
That is the GPS antenna! Not 100% sure how they’re attached, but I don’t see why soldering it back to the same spot wouldn’t work? I’d imagine it’s also glued onto the battery holder?
Without pulling on it too hard, here’s a picture of mine!
Did you test it after your solder job? I don’t see a problem with it!
Thanks for the response.
I got it up and running and also updated the firmware.
It stays at “No sats”
Is having the satellite/gps worth it? I heard the GPS on these suck; doesnt Meshtastic use the phone for GPS location?
So I found this:
It’s slightly bigger than the ceramic gps module on the T-Beam (T-Beam is 15mm, while the Amazon version is 20mm).
I ordered it. Hopefully it’s plug & play easy fix.
Those coaxial cables are tiny and very fragile. It’s not easy to solder them back without introducing losses (they carry signals at 1 GHz and above). It’s a much better proposition to replace the whole antenna+cable assembly and, while you’re at it, why not considering a larger/bigger gain antenna? These are working really well: 28dB GPS GLONAS antenna 28*28*7 millimetri IPX connettore per IOT M2M LORA Ad Alto Guadagno antenna GPS patch ceramica interno|gps antenna|gps antenna ceramicgps glonas - AliExpress
I noticed the one your shared but ordered the one i shared from amazon since it looked the most similar (I wasn’t sure if anything else would work right). I should get the replacement tomorrow and will report if it works.
Replaced the part which fit perfectly.
…now I only need to test it.
And to your other question, the device GPS is important, and that is what is used to communicate position across the mesh. The firmware expects the TTGO device to have a GPS, so I dont think it will use the phone.
The GPS antenna needs to be exposed to get a good signal. The GPS chip is pretty good, and really only limited by the signal and antenna quality.
The Lilygo TTGO ESP32 lora doesn’t have GPS, but Meshtastic still shows the location…I am assuming it’s utilizing the phone’s gps. Can you explain how that works with the TTGO model?
