The nRF9160 DK has a dedicated Global Positioning System (GPS) port to support global navigation.
The GPS signal is received either from the onboard or an external active GPS antenna. The onboard antenna (A2) is connected to the Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) (U2).
The GPS from the onboard antenna is amplified and filtered in the LNA (U2) that has integrated pre-filter and post-filter before it is fed to the nRF9160 DK. This makes the GPS receiver more sensitive to GPS signals and less sensitive to interference from other sources on the Development Kit (DK) or nearby. The LNA is enabled by a GPS-enable signal from the nRF9160 DK, using the COEX0 pin.
An external active GPS antenna can be connected to connector J2 (U.FL compatible), and 3.3 V DC is fed through J2 to supply the LNA of the external antenna. When using an external GPS antenna, the onboard GPS LNA (U2) must be disabled to avoid interference. This is done by ensuring that the GPS_EN signal is low and it is set by the AT%XCOEX0 AT command.
- GPS signals do not usually penetrate ceilings or other structures that well. Therefore, for best GPS performance, the DK should be placed on a flat surface in an open space outside, far from sources of interference and other structures that may block the signals from space.
- This functionality is only available if the modem firmware used in the nRF9160 supports GPS.
- The Molex patch antenna achieves the highest gain when placed horizontally on a surface (x-y) facing the z-axis since it can receive all propagated GPS signals. A lower gain will be experienced if the patch antenna is mounted on a surface is at an angle with the horizontal surface.
