Ultimate GPS Breakout Diagnostic

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DennisInVA
 
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Ultimate GPS Breakout Diagnostic

Post by DennisInVA »

Good morning,

I recently purchased an Ultimate GPS breakout board (v3) for use in an Arduino project. It was working fine, but I believe I've shorted it out by making contact between the backup battery and one or more of the header pins (I don't know which). There's no longer any indication that it's working - no Fix LED and no data output. Is there a test I can conduct to confirm whether or not this board is still functional? I just want to determine if it's a lost cause before I purchase a replacement.

Thanks in advance.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Ultimate GPS Breakout Diagnostic

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

By "backup battery", do you mean the coin cell? That shouldn't produce enough voltage or current to damage the module with a momentary connection.

If you remove the coin cell entirely, do you get any response from the module?

DennisInVA
 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:01 am

Re: Ultimate GPS Breakout Diagnostic

Post by DennisInVA »

Yes, I'm referring to the coin cell. I've removed it completely and am getting no response as I previously described. However, I checked the voltage on all pins with a multimeter and am seeing a constant 4v on PPS, RX, TX, and FIX. The VIN input is 5v. It looks like I did something to damage the chip so I'll have to get a replacement. Thanks for following up on this. Have a great day.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Ultimate GPS Breakout Diagnostic

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

DennisInVA wrote:I checked the voltage on all pins with a multimeter and am seeing a constant 4v on PPS, RX, TX, and FIX.
Ouch.. that does sound like something shorted.

That kind of damage is often a sign of power being connected backwards.. VCC to GND and GND to VCC. I've roasted a few chips that way. Be sure to double-check the polarity of your power sources when making the next set of connections.

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