Adventures in Science: How GPS Works

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a collection of satellites, each containing a powerful and precise atomic clock, that broadcasts their time every 30 seconds. Handheld receivers, like your smartphone, can collect this data and perform calculations to figure out their position on the surface of the Earth.

In this episode, we talk about how GPS works and how you can use a receiver to obtain time, latitude, longitude, and altitude data with an Arduino. From there, your robot project could know its location and how to drive somewhere.

[sallavatsal]

I like how the video started from the origin of the GPS technology to Arduino example along with explanation of all the key elements to get started. Thank you for all the time and efforts! 🙏

[pepper]

Great tutorial and many thanks for using the metric system throughout!

[thiagolages]

I truly appreciate the time and effort on the making of this video ! It brought so many details I was looking for and that I couldn't easily find elsewhere.. Besides that, I was all boiled down to a pretty simple and clear explanation. Thanks a lot !!

[adamderbent]

I like examples wit explanations like this one. It's not important only how. Many times, for a better understanding, why is also important. Please, make more videos like this.

[Sembazuru]

I used to be part of a project that used a clever GPS unit called ADU5. This unit uses 4 antennas, one for positioning, and the phase difference to the other three to calculate pitch, roll, and heading from a single reading. Important for ships or aircraft where the front of the vehicle isn't necessarily pointing in the direction of travel. The direction of travel (what many commercial GPS units call heading) was called "course over ground", and would be calculated from two consecutive readings.

[RolfMikkelson]

Love the out-takes at the end. Keep 'em coming...

[denelson]

You may only need about a minute for your GPSr to get a full almanac after a cold start, as each satellite's transmission of the almanac is staggered over time.

Also, you might not have noticed, but it is not exactly possible to get a 3D fix with a GPSr; it's either 2D… _or 4D._

BTW, when I looked closer at the NMEA data your GPS module was spitting out in this video, I noticed that you were receiving signals from three of the WAAS satellites, but for some reason your receiver was not using them.

[DougHanchard]

Most modern Aviation GPS platforms are now compatible with GPS and GLN. Marine GPS units used aboard Commercial Vessels also have both.

[olipito]

This vid is amazing, well explained and pedagogic. Thank you

[dragonjarl]

Brilliant explanation. Would be good to see the dissection of Glonass, the Chinese version, Galileo or the forthcoming British version too.

[jesuscoria]

What I would like to know is how can I receive the location of another GPS module, in what form will that location be received, and what can I use to locate that other GPS module while I am moving on the ground?

[aseemjain]

love the content and the in depth knowledge along with relevant examples. the subscribers are low in relation to the content idk why people are stupid not to follow you :(

[lintangwisesa]

thanks a lot, Sir. super explanation!

[BobbieGWhiz]

How does your GPS receiver know its precise time (so it can determine a time difference)?

[nixietee]

Implying the world is a sphere - unsubscribed!



JK. :) Finally sparkfun is producing again videos with 'more' content. Thanks.

[eveliohernandez]

I HAVE A QUESTION, I BOUGHT A GPS MODULE NEO-M8P-2 AND TODAY I WAS TRYING OUTSIDE, BUT THE ACCURACY IS 30 TO 40 M FROM MY REFERENCE POINT, AND SOMEONE HERE, COULD HELP ME, WHY THIS MISTAKE, OR IS THERE ANYTHING I DO NOT KNOW...
PLEASE HELP

[scienceteam]

The amount of numbers shown in this video made me cry...

[AviRotstein]

to mirror the GPS without any parsing: digitalWrite(1, digitalRead(10));

[samik]

So we need the fourth satellite to get atomic clock time for the receiver, but for that, we need to know the distance to said satellite, or else we can't tell how much to correct for the time delay that it took for the signal to get to the receiver, for which we would again need atomic clock time for the receiver. *Scratching my head

I know it does some fancy math with all the data from all the four satellites, but can someone explain it in simple terms?

[sagarhm]

Sir it's need Wi-Fi and cellar data?