Holybro M10 GPS on M500 - Plug and Play?

[LaborzaubererTHI]

Dear Team,

I would like to know if the Holybro M10 (Secondary Version using the 6-Pin JST GH) can be regarded as a plug&play alternative for the M500 as opposed to the Holybro M8N that we received our drones with?
Here is the product: https://holybro.com/products/m10-gps?variant=42991226224829

Some of the M8N that were preinstalled on the M500 don't seem to be working.

We see that you are selling the uBlox M10 for the M500 as well on your products page for the M500 still with "more details coming soon".

Regards
Tim

Drone: RB5
System-image: 1.7.1-M0052-14.1a-perf-nightly-20231025
Kernel: #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Oct 26 05:24:02 UTC 2023 4.19.125
hw version: M0052
voxl-suite: 1.1.2
PX4 Version: 1.14.0dev

[Eric Katzfey]

@LaborzaubererTHI We have not tried that Holybro unit but we are using the M10 with other units successfully so it should work. It has the ist8310 magnetometer in it which is fine. When you say that the M8N units aren't working do you mean that you don't get any data from them or that the data isn't good?

[Eric Katzfey]

@LaborzaubererTHI But the status LED won't work because we don't have the driver for the new one that is in that unit built in

[Moderator]

Please note all of these GPS had achieved lock in San Diego, CA. When the receiver is moved far from its last location, it can take 10 minutes to acquire its first fix. Subsequent fixes should be much quicker.

[LaborzaubererTHI]

@Eric-Katzfey When saying that M8N units aren't working, I mean that we do receive data, GPS location is showing up on the QGroundControl map roughly were we are. But the incoming data is not accurate enough for good position data and PX4 will not go into position mode warnings like: "GPS Horizontal Pos Drift too high" and others. I confirmed that it is the GPS units by plugin the GPS devices into another drone using a Pixhawk 6C. The M9N unit that was in their before should perfectly well position data with no drifting. When plugin in the M8N from our RB5 the same warning started to appear and on the QGroundControl map the drone was drifting around again.

Today we also tested the Holybro M9N device from another drone on our RB5. It was not a perfect GPS condition, even the GPS of my cell phone was moving around (Rainy day / had to stand under cover). But using the M9N the PX4 on the RB5 reported stable position and no warnings appeared being in position mode.

Also revering to the following forum post from my colleague, using the M9N we now got magnetometer to work.
https://forum.modalai.com/topic/3410/outdoor-navigation-problem/9?_=1716987565941

@Moderator We thought of the GPS devices moving across half of the earth and had them being turned on standing outside for multiple hours now I would say. We also did a lot of VIO outdoor flying with the GPS plugged in. So the should have received all relevant GPS data by now.

[Eric Katzfey]

@LaborzaubererTHI Really sorry that you guys are having so much trouble with the GPS units! It's good to see you were able to swap out to an M9N unit and everything works. So it's pointing to faulty M8N units. We are now shipping with M10 GPS units so we can send you those and hopefully that will improve the situation.

[LaborzaubererTHI]

@Eric-Katzfey From what I read in the forums, the M10 seem to be a very nice improvement to the M8N. It would be very nice if you can send them our way. Cudos to your team: They have already reached out to us with an RMA.