Sarantel GPS Antenna News

I just got this news in from my Sarantel GPS Antenna supplier. I was placing another order and he passed along this news to me from the makers of the Sarantel GPS antenna.

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Sarantel is currently entering the first phase of preparing to discontinue the SMP and S-Type product lines. As you may be aware, both products have been in production for a number of years now. We have made the recommendation on our website and data sheets that these products are not intended for new designs.

Both SMP & S-Type products have a projected end of life towards the end of 2009, not including fluctuations in demand. There will still be many opportunities for last time purchases of both products.

Our second generation passive P2 antenna matches the performance of the SMP antenna, with a smaller form factor. Most of our existing SMP customers have already migrated onto this product in the previous 12 months.

We are also close to announcing the launch of our second generation active antenna. The second generation antenna will have a smaller form factor and will also have a lower power consumption than the first generation S-Type.

During the product life cycles of the SMP & S-Type antennas, we have seen many advancements in the performance of GPS modules. Our new product family has been optimized to meet the requirements of modern chipsets.

Finally, we will officially announce the new GeoHelix P3 antenna this summer. I have included a brief summary of our GPS products below:


GeoHelix M-Type

2nd Generation Active Antenna
Optimized for the latest advancements in GPS Chipsets with ~18db gain
Smaller form factor than S-Type
Lower power consumption than S-Type
Samples Available August 2008


GeoHelix P2

2nd Generation Passive Antenna
30% smaller form factor than SMP
Designed for embedding
Recently improved design


GeoHelix P3

3rd Generation Passive Antenna
50% Smaller and lighter than P2
Identical pin-out configuration to P2
Similar performance to P2 when tightly embedded
Designed for small, portable, embedded applications


I can hardly wait for a newer, smaller GPS antenna that takes less power yet still gives the same or better performance.

 

Nice... will these work with the active vehicle docks with passthrough antennas?

 

I would imagine that they would work with any GPS.... Just like the Sarantels do now...

 

snip "I just got this news in from my Sarantel GPS Antenna supplier. I was placing another order and he passed along this news to me from the makers of the Sarantel GPS antenna."

TB,
You know that I'm very dense about all of this antenna stuff; but I'm curious as to whether any of this stuff would work with the factoryGPS, and would it be a large improvement?

Would it have to be mounted in the stock location, or up on the display housing?
Pappy

 

I'm excited to hear that too! At first I was slightly worried because it sounded like they were killing off the line and leaving us dry, but then it turned into great news.

I might have to see about scoring one up next month.

On a side note, I've been away from my desk an awful lot since I moved, and the whole time I am here, I'm job hunting. So I hope nobody is wondering too badly where I've been

 

So when I put the 408 module in my Toughbook, do I get the old school antenna or the newfangled one?

 

Pappy,

I don't have any news as to the size and shape... Something that I'd need to know before deciding how to mount it. My hope is that it is small enough to mount in the stock location.

In the meantime... I just ordered 20 more Sarantel GPS antennas to restock my supply.

I would think that you could use the Sarantel with the stock GPS... But I'm not sure if it was made to work with an active antenna. If it's not pushing 3V then I doubt the active GPS antenna would work. But then there are people out there a lot smarter than me!

 

I was wondering a little... back now and have dedicated a portion of my web server ( http://www.robsnetworks.com/toughbook) for toughbook related downloads ... anything you want to add just pm/email Rick or myself)

 

Technically, it does work. But here is the thing, it will "freeze" up your stock GPS after a time. I know this to be true because I was testing it. I had 2 stock GPS go bad (some of you may remember the story) when hooked up to the JG; at least I thought they went dead. After leaving them out of the PC for a couple of days, and reinstalling them, and buying replacements!! DOH!!, they worked again. It COULD have been a pinch in the antenna cord causing a short, but I do believe even after replacing the antenna, it still happened. Now, I am NO expert, but I think the antenna may have been drawing too much for the stock module to handle causing it to shut down? Does this sound plausible?