Re: [gpsd-dev] Baud barf problem on Pi3 SOLVED

[Fred Wright]

On Tue, 19 Apr 2016, Eric S. Raymond wrote:

> It gives me great pleasure to report that applying Frank Nicholas's
> recipe for disabling Bluetooth worked perfectly on the Pi 3. I now
> have consistent good data from ttyAMA0.

Interestingly enough, Adafruit's own page for the HAT says "Does not work
with the Pi 3 at this time".  Sounds like they could use an update.
That's in the first paragraph on:

        https://www.adafruit.com/products/2324

[...]
> Now install GPSD.  You won't use this for production, as we plan to
> direct-connect NTPsec to the GPS, but its diagnostic tools (especially
> gpsmon) are useful for sanity-checking the output of the HAT.

Why not keep it?  It makes it possible to check the GPS status at any time
without interfering with NTPd/NTPsec.


It's too bad most people fixate on the Raspberry Pi when the Beaglebone
Black is a considerably better device for not too much more money.  Also,
there's now a BeagleBone Green that gets rid of the HDMI hardware and is
priced the same as the RPi.

The main cost downside isn't the board itself, but the fact that no US
manufacturer has seen fit to offer a complete GPS "cape" for it (though
you could build your own with the Adafaruit "GPS Breakout" plus a proto
board), and although there's a reasonably-priced offering from an Indian
company, the shipping adds 50% to the cost.  On the plus side, it's a
*fully* assembled unit (no soldering required).  You can even fit the
whole thing in Adafruit's "bone box" if you drill an extra hole in the end
plate for the SMA connector.

The advantages over the RPi include:

1) Multiple serial ports, so you can have a serial console *and* a GPS
serial connection.

2) Since the processor chip is from TI instead of Broadcomm, the complete
documentation on it (over 5000 pages) is a straightforward download from
TI's website, without having to sign your life away in blood to get it.

3) Since the BBB has connectors on both edges, "cape" mounting is more
mechanically robust.

Fred Wright