Positioning is something we all take for granted – I mean think about it, you can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where you are.

The standard precision GNSS afforded by the XPLR-M9 actually isn’t “standard” at all by most terms. Based on u-blox’ M9 family of GNSS chips, the XPLR kit can achieve meter-level accuracies by supporting concurrent reception with four GNSS constellations: BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, and GPS or QZSS. Because it can access all of these constellations and select the best available signal, it delivers robust performance even in urban canyon environments.

With the kit you get an SD Card that contains an installer for u-blox’ u-start, which is an evaluation environment that was designed specifically for use with the XPLR-M9 eval kit.

u-start contains a demonstration package that allows you to see the number of satellites in each constellation that are visible from your position, and choose to connect to one of them. It also lets you enable satellite and/or ground-based augmentation systems that help increase the accuracy of positioning. u-start even provides free temporary access to u-blox’s AssistNow Online and AssistNow Offline services, which provide aiding data such as ephemeris, time, and coarse positioning to help boost positioning performance.

If you'd like to find out more on the XPLR-M9 kit, visit https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/xplr-m9. There, you'll be able to order one for yourself for a mere $129.

Or you could win one for free if you win this week's raffle, which you can enter here: https://opensysmedia.formstack.com/forms/dev_kit_weekly_kit_raffle.

Good luck, and we'll see you next week on Dev Kit Weekly.

Questions for @techielew about the kit? Leave a comment.