Naze32 Configuration for UBLOX NEO-6M GPS

September 2016 UPDATE: Click here to see my new post configuring the Naze 32 Rev 6 and GPS. It is dead easy!

June 9, 2015 UPDATE: Blew my Naze32 (they mean what they say about reversing polarity will instantly fry the board). Should have a new one tomorrow. Will be updating with a new post with CleanFlight 1.8.x and seeing if I can get it all working! Stay tuned!

Hopefully someone finds this useful. The amount of information out there is daunting, especially considering the number of configurations out there possible. This reference is what worked for me so I decided to collect it in one place. I have included references to other blogs that really helped me out with some definitive information that I needed. For example, it took me forever to find something that said “UART2 is Pin 3 and 4 only after GPS is enabled”. This may have been obvious to some people, but for me it was elusive and very frustrating when trying to visualize the layout of the board.

Note: this is not a step by step guide as you should be basically familiar with the concepts here.

What this post is about:

• Naze 32 Rev 5 (full board) using mostly default configurations
• Cleanflight
• UBLOX NEO 6-M
• FrySky D4R-II receiver (set to PPM)
• FrySky Telemetry (using standard port)
• Soft Serial NOT ENABLED

What it is not about:

• Advanced configs like SoftSerial
• FPV
• On Screen Display (OSD)
• Configuring FrySky Taranis Plus
• PID tuning
• LED Config
• etc

11-2016 There are still Rev 5 board out there. Here are some from Amazon (yes, there are endless choices from other vendors!!):

[AMAZONPRODUCT=B01MDOZK06]

[AMAZONPRODUCT= B00QBLX7O8]

Naze32 Board with some markup explaining where things are:

• UART1 [MSP, CLI, Telemetry (when armed), GPS Passthrough]is the FrySky Telemetry Port
• UART2[GPS], when GPS is enabled, becomes UART2
• In CleanFlight, you have to set Ports to the above, then enable GPS. See the first Cleanflight image below for easy reference.
• UBLOX 6-M Baud = 57600, GAT = North America (setting this reduces load on the UBLOX) (spec says gps_baudrate = 57600. It works at a higher rate, but steals clock cycles from the CPU that you need for flying)

GPS wire colors and good things to check.

I got my GPS unit from Amazon Andoer Ublox NEO-6M High Precision GPS Module Built-in Compass GPS Folding Antenna Mount Holder for FPV Multirotor Quadcopter APM Flight Controller Part, mainly because it was a NEO-6M and Amazon Prime and I wanted it right away. The NEO-7M is better and is available from Hobby King.

11-2016 Those links are pretty old. Here are some new options:

[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00WI0EFFQ]
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00K3ZRR8K]
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B01DEJRSB2]

 

Lessons I learned:

• Being a noob, I thought I wanted this mounting kit. I was wrong since I’m running a 250 quad, so this is heavy and takes a lot of space. It’s better to get a mounting post that is more like this (there are different flavors of the chassis mount, but you get the idea):
• Many diagrams will show, generally, Green and Yellow/White for the Rx/Tx wires. Mine are:
  • Blue (Tx on the GPS) and
  • Yellow (Rx on the GPS). You should open up the unit the make sure you’re using the right wires!
• When I opened up the unit, I noticed that the ceramic antenna was facing down! It will work, but not very well (from what I read). Also, the mount kit is aluminum, so it would shield it further. I simply flipped it inside the case so that the antenna was on top (I had to remove some of the wire wrap to make it fit right).  The difference in signal strength indoors was noticeable.
• I clipped the compass leads and heat shrunk them.

My Cleanflight config as of 2-7-14 w/ v1.7.1 NAZE 2015-2-4 11:40(stable)

 

 

 Here are some references to read:

Cleanflight reference docs:

About the Naze board pin outs, etc
GPS configs

 Other useful links

http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?34250-MWOSD-for-MULTIWII-NAZE32-BASEFLIGHT-HARIKIRI/page19

Naze 32 and similar boards like the flip32 have two UART ports or “hardware” serial connections. One is soley used for GPS via pins 3/4 (uart2)(this can be remapped but not suggested) and USB,BT,frsky telem and osd on UART1. Unarmed only USB OR BT will work. Armed telemetery will work.

How to connect:
Frsky telem TX to FrSky telem port on Naze32 (this is a ground/RX pair)
GPS TX/RX to naze pins 3/4
BT TX/RX to Naze RX/TX (note USB will not work with the BT’s tx to naze RX line connected)
Osd can be connected one of two ways:
Share the tx from the naze with the BT and do not connect the tx from the osd. Or
Use a soft serial on a spare pin pair (assumes using ppm) and route MSP to that port. With clean flight map is scenario 8 I believe.

Also note soft serial is limited to 19.2k and only one should be used at a time if it’s using both tx and RX. The soft serial way up a lot of processing power. You will need to change the osd to 19.2.

Good post about setting up GPS

http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=9950

Setting the Mode switches
When using either the GPS_HOLD or GPS_HOME feature you must also enable MAG, BARO and either of ANGLE or HORIZON mode for that switch position. ANGLE would probably be the better of the two as it is more stable – you don’t really want the multi-rotor performing acro loops on its return home.  If you do not include the three features then the GPS mode you select will behave erratically at best, dangerously at worst (fly away).

see column AUX3 for an example of how the features should be grouped

And finally … in use
Before arming and flying your multi-rotor you must allow the GPS to lock on to the satellites.  How quickly it does so depends on the specific GPS unit you have.  Some work very quickly, they warm start in seconds.  Others will cold start each time you apply power to the aircraft.

In any event, allow a full three minutes before arming and flying – or take a look at the Naze32 FC’s LEDs, if the red LED is flashing then it indicates a 3D lock and flight is okay to proceed.

Caution:  Home position is recorded when the FC is armed. So, if you do not allow a 3D lock then there is a fair chance that the FC will record home as some random place on planet earth. In such a case switching to GPS_HOME will probably be the last you see of your multi-rotor!  You have been warned.  Don’t be impatient.

 Hope this was useful to someone! Leave a comment below if you have any questions or comments.