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Software Overview

RxTools Software Suite

Users should install the RXTools software suite on their computer to interface with the mosaic-G5 P3 GNSS receiver.

System Requirements1

Operating Systems

  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 10
  • Fedora 23 (or later) using Qt technology.
    • The standalone tools (except bin2asc) will run on older distributions.

Hardware Requirements

The minimal hardware requirements (1Hz update2):

  • CPU: 1 GHz processor
  • RAM: 1 GB RAM
  • Screen Resolution: 1024×768 or higher resolution

Installation

Users can install RxTools software suite by running the installation executable3 (*.exe), located in the RxTools\windows directory of the downloaded *.zip file4. During the installation process, users will be notified if a previous version of RxTools is already installed then that the previous version will be uninstalled. Next, users will need to provide an installation directory for the RxTools software suite. Users will then select which of the following applications5 are installed:

  • RxControl
  • SBF Converter
  • SBF Analyzer
  • RxLogger
  • RxUpgrade
  • RxDownload
  • RxPlanner
  • Data Link
  • RxAssistant
  • RxLauncher

Users can install RxTools software suite by running the installation binary4 (*.bin), located in the RxTools/linux-i386/ directory of the downloaded *.zip file4. During the installation, users will be prompted for an installation directory. If there are any previous installations of RxControl, please use a different directory to avoid conflicts.

Warning

It is recommended that users NOT install RxControl as root, for security reasons and to avoid installation overwrites of other system settings. To make RxTools available to more than one user, provide a shared installation directory.

Permission Settings

Once installed, users may need to reconfigure their permission settings:

  • RxTools will need rights to access the /dev/ttyS* serial ports.

    • To access the serial ports, users must be part of the uucp and lock groups (1). This can be configured by editing the /etc/group6 file and adding the username to the lines defining the uucp group and the lock group.

      For example, when adding the user jsmith to the uucp group, users would modify the /etc/group file as shown below:

      uucp:x:14:uucp # (2)!
uucp:x:14:uucp,jsmith # (3)!

    • On Linux machine administered centrally on a local network, ask your system administrator to be included in the uucp and lock groups.

  • RxTools also needs read/write (rw) access(4) to the /dev/ttyS* serial ports.

    • Users can change the permissions with the chmod7 command:

      chmod 660 /dev/ttyS<add port> # (5)!>
  1. On most Linux operating systems, the /dev/ttyS* devices are owned by root and belong to the uucp group with read/write (rw) access. Additionally, the devices are normally locked by writing a file in the /var/lock/ directory, with the same permissions.
  2. Remove
  3. Replace with this line
  4. By default, users will normally have read/write (rw) access to the /dev/ttyS* serial ports.
  5. where users must specify the port number
    e.g. /dev/ttyS0 might be port COM1

Note

In order for these changes to take effect, users must update their environment by logging out and back in.

Be aware that the X-session has to be restarted as well. On most systems, this can be done by pressing the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Backspace

64-bit OS

In order to run the RxTools on a 64-bit Linux operating system, users might to install the 32-bit version of the C standard library.

  • For Fedora installations, this is the glibc.i686 package.
  • The equivalent for Debian(/Ubuntu) installations is the ia32-libs package.

Serial Interface

Once connected through the USB interface, the mosaic-G5 P3 module emulates two virtual serial ports, which can be accessed as standard COM ports to the receiver.

Terminal Emulators

Most terminal emulation programs will not make a distinction between virtual or native COM ports. However, for virtual serial ports, the port settings (i.e. baudrate, etc.) are not relevant and the default configuration be used in the terminal emulation program. However, for the physical/native COM ports will have the following default setting:

  • Baudrate: 115200bps
  • Data Bits: 8
  • Parity: No
  • Stop Bits: 1
  • Flow Control: None

  1. The system requirements and installation instructions are from the RxTools v22.1.0 user manual. This information may change in later iterations of the software suite. Please refer to the user manual (of the version you are utilizing) for the most accurate information. ↩

  2. Higher data rates will require increased processing speed and memory capacity. ↩

  3. Users will need administrative privileges to install the RxTools software. ↩

  4. Users may need to extract the RxTools installation files from the downloaded, compressed file. ↩↩↩

  5. Please see the release notes for the issues and limitations of the RxTools applications. ↩

  6. Requires c privileges. ↩

  7. Changing these permissions also requires root privileges. ↩