BRB900 Receiver won't display coordinates

[srvrdude1]

After my wife and I have spent hours walking through corn mazes without success she finally said, "honey, get a tracker". So I did. The BRB900 works well and I figured I'd get the receiver with LCD display thinking it would show coordinates right on the screen. But it never does. Instead it only displays the startup/status screen shown here:

To use the receiver, I connect it my laptop and log the real-time data, launch the rocket, then parse the coordinates out of the log, format the coordinates, paste into Google Earth or my phone and off I go. It works but a bit of a hassle.

What am I missing? How do I get the BRB900 receiver to display coordinates? Or do I have a defective display.
Thanks in advance from all of you experts out there!

 

[Tim51]

Contact BRB..?

Most receivers take quite a while to connect with the transmitter, especially the first time. I've waited an hour+ first time in some cases.

 

[RocketmanAleks]

After my wife and I have spent hours walking through corn mazes without success she finally said, "honey, get a tracker". So I did. The BRB900 works well and I figured I'd get the receiver with LCD display thinking it would show coordinates right on the screen. But it never does. Instead it only displays the startup/status screen shown here:
View attachment 528073
To use the receiver, I connect it my laptop and log the real-time data, launch the rocket, then parse the coordinates out of the log, format the coordinates, paste into Google Earth or my phone and off I go. It works but a bit of a hassle.

What am I missing? How do I get the BRB900 receiver to display coordinates? Or do I have a defective display.
Thanks in advance from all of you experts out there!

I had a BRB900, and this looks as if the radios on the transmitter and receiver aren't talking to each other. If you're sure the transmitter and receiver are both powered up, then that's likely what it is. Even without a lock on the GPS satellites, you should be getting data from the BRB. Here are 2 images of the screen at different points in the process of the receiver and transmitter powering up:


This what the receiver shows when it has connection to the transmitter, but hasn't yet locked the GPS.


This is what the receiver shows when it's operating normally.

The screen you posted is what displays on power up of the receiver, but it switches to what's shown in my first image when the connection is made to the transmitter. Again, I think the transmitter isn't talking with the receiver in your case. I'd contact BRB, as they should be able to help if that's the case.

 

[srvrdude1]

Aleks - thanks for your feedback and pics. They help with what I should expect. I do get data to the receiver as I'm able to then connect it to the laptop and log the data with putty. But this is not a workable solution at the launch site most of the time. It would be best to get the GPS coordinates on the LCD as designed.
I've reached out to BRB and will update everyone on how this progresses. I will say that the GPS coordinates I get back and logged to my laptop are very accurate. Thanks again.

 

[srvrdude1]

I've managed to get the BRB900 LCD receiver working as expected with the gracious help of the BRB guys. They really had great support - a pleasure to do biz with.
Turns out some BRB900 units may not ship configured the way needed to transmit and display coordinates on the LCD receiver. The fix was to connect the BRB900 transmitter via the USB Interface to the laptop and run the xb3 software. TIP: make sure you connect the USB Interface 5 pin to the transmitter during the first 10 seconds of startup during the rapid flash phase or you won't READ anything. Then READ the config and ensure the "Enable $BRBTX" is checked and the "Enable NMEA" was not checked. Here's the corrected settings:


My settings were reversed and therefore would not transmit the correct data for the receiver to decode to the display. Once I checked these settings, performed a WRITE, then checked for a Write Complete and everything works well.

This unit seems very accurate, finds satellites quickly and keeps me out of the dreaded corn maze. No more lost rockets. Hope this helps others that may experience this problem.