Adafruit Ultimate GPS (PA1616D) Limitations

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thewighttiger
 
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Adafruit Ultimate GPS (PA1616D) Limitations

Post by thewighttiger »

Hey everyone!

I am part of a team that recently purchased a PA1616D (Ultimate GPS) for a high powered rocketry project. Upon reading the info sheet on the PA1616D, it says that the maximum acceleration limitation is 4G's. From our previous high powered rockets recordings on other devices, I know that the upper limit of the forces our rocket will experience exceeds 18G's. Clearly the GPS will hit its 'maximum'.

I was wondering if anyone had tested and or knows how the GPS behaves after it has exceeded that limitation. Does it shut off, turn back on after a certain period of time, or do something else entirely? Following up, does the device then potentially need power cycled before it resumes normal operation?

If this detail helps anyone reading this, our team doesn't need to be reading GPS values until after the flight has landed, when no acceleration force limitations would be met then.

Any help in understanding this, so that we can avoid unexpected problems, would be appreciated to answer these unknowns before our team launches this rocket later this year.

edit: Apologies for most likely placing this post in the wrong subgroup of this forum.

Thank you very much!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Adafruit Ultimate GPS (PA1616D) Limitations

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

We don't have any official information about the effects of acceleration, but I'd guess the primary source of trouble would be the crystal oscillator for the RTC. Even as light as the crystal is, enough acceleration will shake it enough to cause problems.

If that's the case, keeping the GPS module powered down until the highest acceleration is over should avoid problems.

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