u-blox XPLR-AOA-3 User Manual
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u-blox XPLR-AOA-3 User Manual

Evaluation kit for ant-b10 antenna boards
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XPLR-AOA-3
Evaluation kit for ANT-B10 antenna boards
User guide
Abstract
Comprising an ANT-B10 antenna board, EVB-ANT-1 development platform, and C209 tag, the
XPLR-AOA-3 explorer kit provides a complete Angle of Arrival anchor point – and all you need for
developing direction-finding and indoor positioning applications.
This document describes the operation and assembly of the kit components and explains the
procedures for loading the necessary software. It also includes a Quick start guide to get the XPLR-
AOA-3 up and running as quickly as possible.
UBX-22006906 - R07
C1-Public
0
0
3
www.u-blox.com

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Summary of Contents for u-blox XPLR-AOA-3

  • Page 1 Abstract Comprising an ANT-B10 antenna board, EVB-ANT-1 development platform, and C209 tag, the XPLR-AOA-3 explorer kit provides a complete Angle of Arrival anchor point – and all you need for developing direction-finding and indoor positioning applications. This document describes the operation and assembly of the kit components and explains the procedures for loading the necessary software.

  • Page 2: Document Information

    The information contained herein is provided “as is”. No warranty of any kind, either express or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy, reliability, fitness for a particular purpose or content of this document. This document may be revised by u-blox at any time.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide Contents Document information ..........................2 Contents ................................3 Quick start guide............................ 5 Product description ..........................6 2.1 Kit includes ..............................6 2.2 Assembling the kit ............................7 ANT-B10 ..............................8 3.1 Flashing using s-center ..........................9 3.2 Flashing from the Command line ......................10...
  • Page 4 XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 5.3.2 Enabling/disabling advertising ......................28 5.3.3 Restore Eddystone Instance ID .....................28 u-connectLocate software ......................29 6.1 Configuration example ..........................30 Appendix ............................... 31 Glossary ..............................31 C209 schematics ..........................32 EVB-ANT-1 schematics ........................33 Related documentation ........................... 45 Revision history ............................

  • Page 5: Quick Start Guide

    Quick start guide Install s-center evaluation software s-center is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for evaluating, configuring, and testing u-blox short range modules. Running on Windows 10 operating systems, the software allows end users to configure and assess the performance of u-blox short range modules.

  • Page 6: Product Description

    Product description Comprising an ANT-B10 antenna board, EVB-ANT-1 development platform and C209 tag, the XPLR-AOA-3 explorer kit provides a complete Angle of Arrival anchor point – and all you need for developing direction-finding and indoor positioning applications. The antenna board runs the u-blox developed u-connectLocate software, while the development board runs an open-source demonstration software that relays angle events from the antenna board.

  • Page 7: Assembling The Kit

    Figure 2 shows the location of the header connectors on each board. Figure 2: Assembled XPLR-AOA-3 kit showing EVB-ANT-1 and ANT-1 headers Using the supplied standoffs and screws, assemble the two PCBs to the plexiglass, as shown in Figure 3. The assembly order of the components (see...

  • Page 8: Ant-B10

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide ANT-B10 The ANT-B10 antenna board provides a versatile Bluetooth® direction finding board equipped with eight, dual-polarized, patch antennas for direction finding, as shown in Figure 4 Figure 5. Figure 4: ANT-B10 board – top view showing antennas, traces, and mounting holes...

  • Page 9: Flashing Using S-Center

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide For more information about ANT-B10, see the ANT-B10 data sheet and ANT-B10 system integration manual [17]. 3.1 Flashing using s-center u-connectLocate software is continuously improved with performance and quality enhancements. The antenna board comes pre-flashed with the software, but updating to the latest available version is strongly recommended.

  • Page 10: Flashing From The Command Line

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 3.2 Flashing from the Command line To flash the software over the UART interface from the Command line: Download the u-connectLocate software container from the u-connectLocate product page [4]. Put the device into firmware update mode; either: a.
  • Page 11 XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide The beacon moves from a positive value (20) to a negative value (-10). The movement of the tag for these events is shown in Figure Figure 7: Tag movement ☞ The optimal distance between anchor nodes and tags is approximately 2–15 m.

  • Page 12: Connecting To A Pc

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide ☞ By default, the “Print UUDF events on console” check box is deselected. This means that +UUDF angle events are not printed on the console. 3.4 Connecting to a PC 3.4.1 Overview A host PC can communicate directly with ANT-B10 over UART interface (TX, RX, CTS, RTS) through EVB-ANT-1.

  • Page 13: Pin Description For Uart Connection

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 3.4.2 Pin description for UART connection Using the cable harness, connect the following pins from the ANT-B10 header to USB-to-Serial adapter: • UART_TXD (pin 16) • UART_RXD (pin 18) • UART_CTS (pin 14) – optional for UART flow control •...

  • Page 14: Evb-Ant-1

    The EVB-ANT-1 application board offers developers a quick and easy way to evaluate the ANT-B10 and ANT-B11 antenna boards. It features the NXP i.MX RT1062 Microcontroller Unit (MCU) for configuring and developing direction finding applications, as well as an Ethernet PHY chip and u-blox MAYA-W1 Wi-Fi module.

  • Page 15: Introduction

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 4.1 Introduction EVB-ANT-1 is a versatile application board for evaluating a system setup, using the ANT-B10 antenna board or other antenna boards. The EVB-ANT-1 application board can be used as: • an anchor point passing raw or processed angle events from the antenna board to a server.

  • Page 16: Main Evb-Ant-1 Use Cases

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 4.3 Main EVB-ANT-1 use cases 4.3.1 Anchor point In this use case, the EVB-ANT-1 primarily supports ANT-B family antenna boards and routes direction finding data to a position engine. For this purpose, the microcontroller must communicate with the ANT-B family antenna board Bluetooth module using UART (or SPI) through the ANT-B family connector.
  • Page 17 XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide The highlighted areas in Figure 15 show the EVB-ANT-1 components involved in this use case. EVB-ANT-1 ANT-B1x connector ANT-B1x GPIO Ethernet connector Ethernet UART connector (PoE+) Power UART controller DC Power FTDI USB FTDI connector UART...

  • Page 18: Uart Connections To Board

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide The RF signal can be connected to the antenna board through the onboard NINA-B4 U.FL connector, with control signals, as shown in Figure Figure 16: NINA-B4 connector to custom antenna board 4.4 UART connections to board EVB-ANT-1 supports a quad-channel UART interface that connects to: •...

  • Page 19: Evb-Ant-1 Software

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide The UART connections on the ANT-B family and onboard NINA-B411 are connected to the MCU by default. It is possible to connect directly from the USB connector to either: • NINA-B411 hosted on the ANT-B family board (with jumper J12 removed) •...

  • Page 20: Sw Reset

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide From the web configuration interface, you can: • Configure network settings for Wi-Fi and ethernet. The default IP address of EVB-ANT-1 is a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.102. • Send UDP packets containing angle events generated by the anchor. It is often convenient to...

  • Page 21: Powering Options

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 4.7 Powering options EVB-ANT-1 is powered by either: • Power over Ethernet • An auxiliary jack (DC 9-57V) • USB type C (2 connectors available on the board) The powering options for the platform are controlled with jumper J2, as shown in...

  • Page 22: Notes

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide Figure 21: EVB-ANT-1 mechanical dimensions 4.9 Notes 4.9.1 Hardware and software revisions The hardware revisions available for EVB-ANT-1 are shown in Table Hardware revision Notes Initial revision Offers improved ethernet stability compared to revision B Table 4 EVB-ANT-1 hardware revisions...

  • Page 23: C209 Tag

    The C209 provides a versatile beacon example that is suitable for use as an AoA tag. It is advisable to test ANT-B10 boards together with C209 tags and u-blox C209 tag software [12]. Figure 22: C209 tag in open plastic enclosure C209 tags are based on the open CPU NINA-B406 module variant.
  • Page 24 C209 schematics. ☞ Although the sensors on the C209 application board are not used in the latest direction-finding tag software from u-blox, the sensors can be utilized in any customer application. UBX-22006906 - R07 C209 tag Page 24 of 46...

  • Page 25: C209 Software And Flashing

    UART interface with the boot loader. u-blox C209 tag software can be installed using the DFU bootloader or an external debugger. Precompiled packages for each installation option are available from the u-blox C209 software repository [12].

  • Page 26: Installing Tag Software On The Command Line With The Dfu Bootloader

    To install C209 tag software with the pre-flashed DFU bootloader on NINA-B406: Download and install the nrfutil flashing tool from the Nordic Github repository [15]. Download and unpack the file from the u-blox C209 software c209_aoa_tag_<version>.zip repository using this direct link, or go to the “Releases”...

  • Page 27: Installing Tag Software Using A Debugger

    C209 tag software can also be installed using a debugger connected through the J10 10-pin contact on the PCB. To install C209 tag software with the pre-flashed DFU bootloader on NINA-B406: Download the from the u-blox C209 software repository [12] c209_aoa_tag_<version>.zip...

  • Page 28: Enabling/Disabling Advertising

    The blinking interval correlates to the advertising interval. 5.3.3 Restore Eddystone Instance ID All u-blox modules are delivered with a u-blox MAC address, which is written into the UICR register. If the MAC address is accidentally erased, for example during a reflash of the software, this information is lost.

  • Page 29: U-Connectlocate Software

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide u-connectLocate software u-connectLocate software can track a certain number of tags and report their angles in events +UUDF over the UART connection. The software employs an algorithm to detect the direction or angles of a moving tag. The software runs on the NINA-B411 module, which is connected to the antenna array on the ANT-B10 board.

  • Page 30: Configuration Example

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide 6.1 Configuration example By default, u-connectLocate comes pre-configured to track all u-blox tags. The tags advertise with the Eddystone namespace , which by default is tracked in u-connectLocate. 0x4E494E412D4234544147 So, if you are only using the u-blox C209 tags, no configuration is needed.

  • Page 31: Appendix

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide Appendix A Glossary Abbreviation Definition Angle of Arrival Angle of Departure ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange Arm (Advanced RISC Machines) Holdings Central Processing Unit Constant Tone Extension Microcontroller Unit Power over Ethernet RSSI Received Signal Strength Indication...

  • Page 32: B C209 Schematics

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide B C209 schematics Appendix Page 32 of 46 UBX-22006906 - R07 C1-Public...

  • Page 33: Cevb-Ant-1 Schematics

    XPLR-AOA-3 - User guide C EVB-ANT-1 schematics Appendix Page 33 of 46 UBX-22006906 - R07 C1-Public...
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  • Page 45: Related Documentation

    [20] Serial Downloader user guide, https://spsdk.readthedocs.io/en/latest/apps/sdphost.html [21] Bluetooth indoor positioning application note, UBX-21006395 [22] ANT-B11 product page, https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/ant-b11-antenna-board ☞ For product change notifications and regular updates of u-blox documentation, register on our website, www.u-blox.com. Related documentation Page 45 of 46 UBX-22006906 - R07 C1-Public...

  • Page 46: Revision History

    Updated angle definitions in ANT- B10 configuration and testing. Add information about the C209 tag being delivered with bootloader software. Updated all XPLR-AOA-3 images to reflect the latest hardware. Contact u-blox AG Address: Zürcherstrasse 68 8800 Thalwil Switzerland For further support and contact information, visit us at www.u-blox.com/support.

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