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Important: Read Before Use!

ESD Sensitivity

The mosaic-X5 module is sensitive to ESD. Use a proper grounding system to make sure that the working surface and the components are at the same electric potential.

ESD Precaution

As recommended by the manufacturer, we highly recommend that users take the necessary precautions to avoid damaging their module.

  • The Tri-band GNSS RTK breakout board features ESD protection on the USB-C connector and breakout's I/O:
    • USB data lines
    • I/O PTH pads
    • JST connector's pins
  • The mosaic-X5 module features internal ESD protection to the ANT_1 antenna input.

Note

The mosaic-X5 module has numerous capabilities and a multitude of ways to configure and interface with them. Without regurgitating all the information that is documented in Septentrio's user manuals and videos, we have tried to highlight a good majority of the module's aspects.

With that said, please feel free to file an issue if you feel we have missed something that may benefit other users. (Don't forget to provide us with a link to the documentation and what section the information is located.)

RxTools Software Suite

Tip

Even if you aren't necessarily interested it, we highly recommend that users install the RXTools software suite before plugging in their board. For Windows PCs, it also includes the USB driver for the module that enables the Ethernet-over-USB support and virtual COM ports.

Users should install the RXTools software suite on their computer to interact with the mosaic-X5 module through the USB interface. The software package includes the USB-IP driver1 necessary to recognize the board as an ethernet device on Windows PCs (1).

  1. On Linux, the standard Linux CDC-ACM driver is suitable.

Download the RxTools Software from Septentrio

System Requirements2

Operating System

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

Hardware Requirements3

The minimal hardware requirements (1Hz update):

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

Installation Instructions2

Users can install RxTools software suite by running the installation executable4(1), located in the RxTools\windows directory of the downloaded *.zip file5. 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 applications6 are installed:

  1. For RxTools v22.1.0, the installation filename is RxTools_22_1_0_Installer.exe for Windows PCs.
  • RxControl
  • SBF Converter
  • SBF Analyzer
  • RxLogger
  • RxUpgrade
  • RxDownload
  • RxPlanner
  • Data Link
  • RxAssistant
  • RxLauncher

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.

Users can install RxTools software suite by running the installation binary4(1), located in the RxTools/linux-i386/ directory of the downloaded *.zip file5. 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.

  1. For RxTools v22.1.0, the installation filename is RxTools_22_1_0_Installer.bin for Linux.
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/group7 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 chmod8 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.

Getting Started

Once RxTools have been installed, any of the individual GUI tools can be launched using the RxLauncher application.

When connecting to a receiver using USB, two virtual serial ports will be created on your machine which can be used to communicate to the receiver.

  • Check the Device Manager to see the exact names of these virtual serial ports.
    • They ports will appear with the name Septentrio written beside them.
  • These virtual serial ports will be labeled as such when RxControl shows the Connection Dialog.

Tip

The virtual serial port names correspond to a given USB port. When plugging the device into a different USB port, the serial port will change.

Once RxControl is installed, it can be launched by executing the link created by the installation program or by executing ./runRxControl in the directory where the program is installed.

  • The Data Link and SBF Converter applications should be executed from the /bin directory of the installation folder, to ensure that the proper libraries are loaded. Users can also run these applications from the installation directory, in a manner similar to RxControl that is described above.
  • Other applications can also be executed by launching their appropriate script.
    • For example, users can execute ./runDataLink from the /bin directory, located inside the installation folder.

  1. On Linux, the standard Linux CDC-ACM driver is suitable. ↩↩

  2. 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. ↩↩

  3. Higher data rates will require higher CPU speed and more memory capacity. ↩

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

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

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

  7. Requires c privileges. ↩

  8. Changing these permissions also requires root privileges. ↩