u-center 2 user guide

User guide release date: May 13, 2024

u-center 2 version: v24.05.102525

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in the products, names, logos, and designs included in this
document. Copying, reproduction, or modification of this
document or any part thereof is only permitted with the express
written permission of u-blox. Disclosure to third parties is
permitted for clearly public documents only.

The information contained herein is provided “as is” and
u-blox assumes no liability for the use of the information. No
warranty, either express or implied, is given with respect to,
including but not limited to, the accuracy, correctness,
reliability, and fitness for a particular purpose of the
information. This document may be revised by u-blox at any time.
For most recent documents, visit www.u-blox.com.

1 Overview

u-center 2 is u-blox's powerful tool for configuration,
evaluation, and debugging of u-blox GNSS receivers and
services.

It allows the end users to assess and test u-blox positioning
chips, modules, evaluation kits, application boards and similar
devices for navigation and positioning performance.

This document provides a guide for starting to use the
features of this software and explains how to resolve common use
cases.

2 System requirements

u-center 2 has been tested on Windows 10 (64 bit) platform
and runs on Windows 11 as is. It currently supports u-blox gen
10 GNSS devices.

3 Getting started

3.1 Installing u-center 2

u-center 2 can be downloaded from u-center
website. The u-center 2 package comes with a setup file.
Click the file and follow the steps to install the application
(administration rights might be needed). Once the installation
has completed successfully, you need to enter your u-blox
support portal account credentials and log in with a browser.
FireFox is the recommended browser for u-center 2.

After login, having internet connectivity, u-center 2 will
start and can also be used offline.

3.1.1 Updating u-center

After each start - or for continuously running software every
24 hours - the application will check for possible updates. If
an update is available, then the application will download it in
the background and will inform the user by a notification. User
settings and login credentials are not affected or changed.

If the user dismisses the update it will still be available
from the "Help" menu in case the user intends to perform it
later on.

When the user starts the update process, the installer starts
and asks the user to close the running application. After
finishing the installation the software will be restarted.

3.1.2 User feedback

If you want to share your feedback to improve u-center 2
further, select User feedback option in help
menu.

3.2 Connecting a device

To evaluate u-blox devices, make sure you have the
appropriate USB driver installed in your system. To connect a
device to the u-center 2:

Click the Devices icon on the left menu bar.

Click Add device.
Select the COM port of the device. For connecting the device
in safeboot mode, check safeboot in Device
management.

Select autobauding for automatic detection of the baud rate
or deselect it to manually select the baud rate.

The connection switch turns green as a signal of a valid
communication and an indicator will show if u-center 2 is
receiving messages or not.

4 Device management

Once you have connected the device, you can view the device
information by selecting the arrow pointing to the right in the
device menu.

The device information shows the hardware and firmware
versions as well as a drop-down menu to change the baud rate
from a list of predefined baud rates. A number in the left hand
corner indicates the device identifier, which can be seen in all
open views. It will show which receiver it iconencting to and
getting data from.

4.1 Configuration actions

To save, load and revert to default configuration, use the
Save, Load and
Revert buttons in Device info >
Configuration actions.

Save: Saves the current receiver
configuration to battery backed RAM (BBR) and flash from read
access memory (RAM) of the receiver
Load: Loads the last configuration that
was saved to BBR and flash, ignoring what is configured in the
RAM layer.
Revert: Reverts to the default firmware
configuration and clears all the configurations done in BBR,
flash or the RAM layer of the receiver

4.2 Restarting a device

When a device is connected and u-center 2 is receiving data,
the Restart section gives the option to perform
a Cold start, Warm start or
Hot start.

4.3 Enable debug messages

Selecting Debug will enable a range of
messages best suited for debugging the device configuration.

4.4 Access a device
in safeboot mode

Sometimes receiver need to be in safeboot mode to be able to
configure some specific configuration. To add a u-blox device
that is in safeboot mode to u-center 2:

Ensure that your device is in safeboot
mode. For details check the device integration manual,
which you can be found on u-blox.com.
Click the Devices icon on the left menu bar.
Click Add device.
Select the COM port of the device.

Select the safeboot option for connecting to the device
in safeboot mode. This will also send the training sequence in
the background to be able to synchronize with the external
clock.

5 Device configuration

To access the device configuration menu:

Open the Devices menu by selecting the
Devices icon on the left menu bar.
Select the Device configuration
button.

This will display the Device configuration
window.

Note that you can pop out the Device
configuration window and move it outside the u-center 2
application. It can remain open while you are working with the
other windows in the u-center 2 application.
Select Quick configuration for
user-friendly configurations, or
Select Advanced configuration for expert
configuration options.
Select one of the Saved configurations to apply a
previously saved set of advanced configuration items.

Note that the configuration menu is also available even
without connecting devices.

5.1 Quick configuration

Quick configurations are an easy way to configure the
device.

5.1.1 Constellation
configuration

To enable or disable satellite constellations including
signals, select the Constellation configuration
item.

5.1.2 Time Mode

This section allows the simple configuration of time mode
compatible devices which support CFG-TMODE-* configuration
items. Your selections will be used to construct a set of
CFG-TMODE-* configuration items grouped in a single
UBX-CFG-VALSET message that can be configured in three different
layers of the connected device.

If no device is connected, it is still possible to copy the
generated string and share it.

To set the timing device into base mode, enable the survey-in
procedure or specify fixed coordinates. To find the appropriate
values to configure in different modes, check the product
Integration manual. The following configuration options are
available:

Disabled: Disables any base mode configuration that has been
done on the device before.
Survey in: Sets the device to survey-in mode. This requires
setting how long the survey needs to at least last and the
minimum required accuracy, both of which will depend on the
environment of the base location.
Fixed: Configures the device in the timing mode in which the
fixed coordinates, position accuracy and position type are given
to the device. The position type can be provided as geocentric
coordinates or geographic coordinates.

5.1.3 Time Pulse Mode

This section allows the simple configuration of time pulse
mode compatible devices which supports CFG-TMODE-* configuration
items. Your selections will be used to construct a set of
CFG-TMODE-* configuration items grouped in a single
UBX-CFG-VALSET message that can be configured in three different
layers of the connected device. If no device is connected, it is
possible to copy and share the generated string in need.

Check the device integration manual for the parameters to
choose for device global settings and Time pulse settings.

5.2 Advanced
configuration

The Advanced configuration panel allows a device to be
configured by sending individual configuration item key ID and
value pairs to the device's random access memory (RAM), battery
backed RAM (BBR) and flash configuration layers. In addition,
the current configuration of the device can also be viewed by
retrieving configuration items from the device's configuration
layers.

5.2.1
Reading the device's configuration items

To read configuration items of the connected device, select
the configuration item of interest from the
Items panel. This sends a poll request to the
device. If the device supports the selected configuration item,
it will send back the corresponding value for each configuration
layer, which will then be displayed.

To be able to poll all the supported configuration item
values from all configuration layers, click on the three dot
burger menu and select Capture all configuration layer
values. This will poll all the values from all possible
layers for the configuration items that are supported by the FW
version of the connected device. You will get a configuration
items column only with supported items.

To create a configuration list from these items, select
Create configuraiton list option from three dot
burger menu. This will transfer all the configuration items to
right hand side configuration changes list. The list can be then
saved as a file in Saved configurations section
to export or share. This file can be imported later to apply to
any relevant receiver for debug purposes.

5.2.2
Filtering configuration items with presets

Use the preset filters added in the filter field of the
middle configuration items column.

Click the drop down menu to get the preset filter
options:

Show items with values: Click that to get the filtered
configuration items list which are only supported in connected
receiver FW version. Remember to capture the values for all the
items first from the three dot burger menu first.
Show RAM != Default: Click that to get the filtered list of
configuration items which has updated values from FW default in
any layer.

5.2.3 Setting the
device's configuration

A device is configured by sending individual configuration
item key ID and value pairs to the device's RAM, BBR and flash
configuration layers.

To do this:

In the Items panel, select the
configuration group to expand the item tree.
Within this group, select the configuration item to show
its current configuration on all layers, and its details in the
right hand panel.
Select the layers to write
Enter/select an appropriate value.
Select the Set button. This will add the
item, its value and the layers to the Configuration
changes list.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 to build up your list of
configuration item changes
Review the list configuration item changes to send to the
device. The order each configuration item is sent to the device
is top down. To change the order, drag an item in the
Configuration changes list to the new position.
To remove an item select Clear.

Each configuration property in the list will be sent as an
individual UBX-CFG-VALSET message. By selecting Send
configuration in batch mode these properties will be
grouped together into one UBX-CFG-VALSET message per layer. This
will result in fewer messages which can be send to the connected
device faster.

To change the value of an item or its layer, select
Edit or double click on the item. In the top
panel the item will appear allowing its value and/or layer to be
changed. Select Update to add any changes to
the item back to the Configuration changes
list, or Cancel if any changes are not
wanted.
To review the configuration items as hex codes, select
the Message hex codes tab. This shows the hex
representation of UBX-CFG-VALSET or UBX-CFG-VALDEL, and
UBX-CFG-VALSET messages for each configuration item if
applicable. If you want to copy the message hex codes, then
either hover over the hex code of interest and click the copy
icon or right-click and select copy from the menu.

Select Send configurations in batch mode to
view the the hex code of the configuration items grouped
together for each layer.
Click Send to send the changes to the
device. The configuration items successfully accepted by the
device are indicated with a green check mark
.
A red alert triangle

indicates the key is unknown to the device firmware or the
configuration is not valid (the validity of a configuration is
checked only if the message applies to the RAM configuration
layer).

To save the Configuration changes list and
add it to the list of Saved configurations,
click Save as....

5.2.4 Quick preset
examples

A list of use case-based, quick preset examples are available
in the Advanced configuration category in the configuration
window.

By selecting one of the preset examples, the configuration is
loaded into the configuration changes list shown on the right
panel. For the preset examples, a short description is shown on
the right panel explaining the typical use case in which this
set of configurations is applicable in.

5.2.5 Saving
configuration files

In the device configuration dialog, the panel on the left
shows a list of saved configurations. Saved configurations can
be useful if a set of configurations shall be applied for a
certain use case, but the device is used for different use
cases. It can be helpful to compare the performance of a device
when applying different saved configurations. Saved
configurations can also be imported and exported for an easy
exchange between different users.

To load a configuration, just select it. The configuration
changes defined in the file will appear in the configuration
changes list on the right.

Once loaded, the configuration changes can be sent to the
connected device indicated in the top right corner of this
dialog by selecting the Send button.

You can edit the configuration list by adding more items or
use the Clear button to remove them. Afterwards
you can save the original file, save the list to a new file, or
revert to the file's original content.

The symbol * in front of the saved
configuration name indicates that this list has been
changed.

By selecting Save changes, the configuration
list will be saved back to the configuration file it originated
from, that is highlighted with a * in front of
its name in the list of Saved
configurations.

By selecting Save as.., the modified
configuration list can be saved in a new file. Once it is saved
it will be shown in the list of Saved
configuraitons.

By selecting Revert changes, the
configuration list can be reverted to when it was loaded from
the selected configuration file.

To rename a saved configuration, hover over
the chosen configuration name and select the more options menu.
Then select 'Rename' from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, enter the new name, and click
Rename. Click Cancel if you
decide not to rename this file.

To delete a saved configuration, hover over
the chosen configuration name and select the more options menu.
Then select 'Delete' from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, click Delete.
Click Cancel if you decide not to delete this
file.

To import a saved configuration file, select "Import".

In the dialog that appears, navigate to the .cfg file you
wish to import. Select it and click OK. The
selected file will be imported and will appear in the
configurations list.

To export a saved configuration, hover over the saved
configuration name and select the more options menu. Then select
Export from the menu.

In the dialog that appears, navigate to the folder you wish
to export the configuration to and specify the name of the file
to be created, then click OK. The configuration
.ucf file will appear in the selected folder.

6 Log player

u-center 2 has a device log file recording feature to collect
and play back the log file.

6.1 Recording a new log
file

Prepare to record a new log file by selecting the
Record log button. On the dialog displayed,
select the file location by selecting the
Change option and type in the log file
name.

By selecting/deselecting the "Enable all debug messages"
checkbox you decide if additional debug messages will be stored
in the log file. Enabled debug messages may help with log file
analysis during playback.

By selecting/deselecting the "Add GNSS device configuration
data to the log file" checkbox, you can choose to have the
active device's configuration read and saved in the log file.
The configuration data can be very useful when using a log file
to debug the operation of a device.

Select Record log to start recording.

When recording a log file, the recording control panel is
displayed in the top area.

This panel allows you to stop the recording, view how long
you have been recording for, if you have enabled debug messages,
and if you have chosen to save the device configuration. If you
did not select either debugging messages or saving the
configuration at the start of the recording, then selecting the
corresponding indicators will enable these at any time during
the log file recording. Once selected, they cannot be deselected
from this panel.

Press Stop recording to finish recording.
Two log files with different formats will be saved at the
selected location. One with extension .uc2 and
another with extension .ubx.

Log files with the .ubx extension are created only for
backwards compatibility with existing scripts and u-center
legacy. They cannot be used directly by u-center 2. u-center 2
can only play log files with the .uc2 file extension which have
the timing information.

6.2 Converting a log file

It is possible to convert legacy .ubx log
files to the new .uc2 log file format but the
conversion is limited for now. The conversion is needed to be
able to use the u-center 2 features. The converted log file has
only message-based navigation, there is no timing
information.

6.3 Playing a log file

To play any existing log file, select the Play
log button and select a log file. If there is a device
actively connected to u-center 2, a pop-up will inform that the
device will be disconnected. If opening the log file was
successful, the top bar of the application should look similar
to this:

When you select Play, all the views in the
tab will use and show the messages, and the information stored
in the log file. With the new .uc2 format it is
possible to navigate log files based on time or message number,
by selecting the navigation mode with this button:

For log files recorded with u-center 2 both
modes are available, while for log files converted from the raw
.ubx format only message-based navigation is
supported, and the time option is disabled for
now:

Message based navigation and playback speed:
- This mode is available for converted and natively
  recorded .uc2 files
- It is possible to play back a log file at different
  speeds selected from the drop-down menu:
- Drag the slider to navigate in the log file
- The Jump to feature is activated by
  selecting the message number indicator. It will turn into an
  input field and pause the playback. Enter the message number to
  jump to the selected time.
- Note that jump to will navigate to the
  message that is right before the requested message.
Time-based navigation and playback speed:
- This mode is currently available only for log files
  recorded with u-center 2
- It is possible to play back a log file at a higher speed
  by selecting 1x or 2x from the drop-down menu:
- Drag the slider to navigate in the log file
- The Jump to feature is activated by
  selecting the time indicator. It will turn into an input field
  and pause the playback.
  
  ,
  
  Just enter the time to jump to
  
  .
- Note that jump to will navigate to the
  message that is before the requested time.

7 Workspaces

To open the workspace menu, either select the
workspaces
button on the left menu bar, or click on the name of the active
workspace in the left of the top menu bar.

The active workspace indicator shows the state of the current
workspace. The state is either saved, unsaved or read-only.

Only the Preset workspaces can be in the
read only state.

Once the workspace menu is open, it will show under
Your workspaces a list of user defined
workspaces, and under Preset workspaces some
system defined workspaces.

7.1 Preset workspaces

With preset workspaces, the application can be used without
any initial modifications or preliminary knowledge of the views,
they are populated with a basic set of views and with the usage
of the simple message enabler (see chapter 8.1) customers can
easily start evaluating our products.

To avoid any exidental overwrite, the workspaces in this list
are read only.

7.2 Creating your own
workspaces

Select New workspace to create a
user-defined workspace which is listed in the Your
workspaces list. The workspace can be new or based on
an existing workspace and requires a unique name.

A new, empty workspace contains a single tab. If based on an
existing workspace, the workspace is a duplicate of the selected
workspace.

Tabs can be renamed by a double click, replaced by dragging
and deleted with the icon. In each tab, you can add different
views by clicking on the add view
icon
at the top of the left menu bar. The Add view
panel will open over the main window. Multiple views can be
added this way to the active tab.

7.3 Managing workspaces

By hovering over any workspace in the Your
workspaces or Preset workspaces lists,
a kebab menu
with
additional options to manage the workspace will appear.

The user-defined workspaces can be deleted, saved as,
renamed, duplicated or exported depending on the currently
active status. For the Preset workspaces, only
the duplicating option is available.

The export feature enables you to share your custom workspace
with another u-center 2 user. The exported workspace can be
easily imported to u-center 2 and used for evaluation.

To import the workspace, click on the Import
workspace button.

7.4 Active Workspace

The active workspace controls are always available, quickly
allowing actions to be performed on the active workspace without
having to open the workspace panel.

If the status icon

shows that the active workspace has been modified, selecting it
will save the workspace.

By clicking the arrow to the right of the status icon, a menu
of more options will be displayed. These options allow the
active workspace to be saved, saved as, renamed or deleted.

8 Views

To visualize and evaluate data coming from the device, views
can be added to any workspace tab. To select and add a specific
view to your actual tab, select
on
the left side of the application. Each view will show the
receiver identifier in left hand corner to show which receiver
this view is getting data from.

8.1 Simple message
enabler

On most views, it is possible to enable all necessary
messages with the ease of clicking a button. New users can study
information coming from the receiver without preliminary
knowledge about the underlying technology. Experienced users
will also benefit from this feature as it saves time.

8.2 Message View

Message View captures the latest received
instance of each message known by the device. It can be used to
capture the contents for the latest messages received and to
poll, enable, or disable a message. The message tree shows the
descriptive names of the messages.

Selecting a message from the tree, you can view the contents
of a message. To see how recent the message is, check the timer
on the top right. The columns in the tables are resizable.

The message tree displays all the available messages for
inspection. It is the filtered version of the messages valid for
the connected device firmware and protocol specification
version. Selecting a message in the the tree will show its
content on the right side panel. If the selected message has not
been received and autopolling is disabled the right panel should
be empty.

Recent messages are highlighted in bold on the message tree.
Each message in the tree has its own (i) information button
which, when clicked, will bring up the message documentation
dialog.

Note that the Documentation window is a
detachable separate window that can be moved anywhere outside of
u-center 2 application and does not have to be
closed in order to keep working in the main u-center 2
application.

8.2.2
Enabling, disabling and polling messages

Hovering over a message in the tree brings up an options menu
(three dots).

When you select the three dots, the options Poll, Enable, and
Disable will be available.

Poll message: this is only available for UBX protocol
messages. It will ask the device to send the message only once
to u-center 2.
Enable message: the message becomes enabled and will be sent
periodically by the device.
Disable message: the message will not be sent periodically
anymore by the device.

Another way to enable a message is by double clicking on the
name of the message. If the supported protocol specification of
the connected device and u-center 2 are not compliant, some
options could be grayed out.

8.2.3 Message inspector

With the message inspector, you can view the detailed content
of a message. To see how recent the message is, check the timer
on the top right. Open the documentation dialog to get help
about the different attributes of a message.

8.2.4 Lock messages

Prevents updates of the view with new incoming messages.

8.2.5 Autopoll

Enables automatic polling for messages as you select them in
the tree.

8.2.6 Filtering

Use the filter field to filter incoming messages based on the
text entered in the field. By default, the filter is
case-sensitive and applies logical "and" for all the separately
entered filter conditions. Using standard regular expressions in
the filter field is also supported.

8.2.7 Input messages

Although most messages a receiver supports are just
output messages that come from the receiver,
there are some messages which allow a host (u-center 2 in this
case) to control the receiver in various ways. These are
input messages.

If one of these input messages is selected,
the Message View will show the message's input
fields as a form.

Select the version of the message to be sent.

Then enter values into the various fields and select any
options presented. Finally press the Send
button to send the message to the receiver.

8.3 Console View

The Console View captures messages from the
connected device or from the log file player and shows the
number of messages and UTC time if available.

8.3.1 Console view types

You can view the Console View in three
different ways.

Packet (default) displays each message name, size and short
description.
Binary displays each message in hex format.
Text displays NMEA messages in text format.

Right clicking on any message in the console view will bring
up a menu that allows you to copy any of the packet, binary or
text representation of the message.

8.3.2 Lock data

Locking data prevents updates of the Console
View with new incoming messages.

8.3.3 Clear data

To clear the contents of the Console View, click
Clear data.

8.3.4 Message inspector

With message inspector, you can view the contents of a
message. To inspect the contents of a message, click
Inspector
.

Select the (i) information button which, when clicked, will
bring up the message documentation dialog.

8.3.5 Filtering messages

Use the filter field to filter incoming messages based on the
text entered in the field. By default, the filter is
case-sensitive and applies logical "and" for all the separately
entered filter conditions. This also supports all the regular
expressions to filter the messages. The regular expression must
be written inside slash icons. Valid regular expression filters
are shown in red.

8.4 Data View

Displays various important values used for GNSS
navigation.

They are:

Fix mode - GNSS fix type
TTFF - Time to first fix (only available when UBX messages
are enabled)
Longitude - Longitude
Latitude - Latitude
Altitude - Altitude
Velocity - Velocity
UTC time - Time of the last message
3D acc. - Position Accuracy Estimate
2D acc. - Horizontal accuracy estimate
PDOP - Position DOP
HDOP - Horizontal DOP
Satellites used in navigation
Satellites not used in navigation
Satellites not tracked

8.5 Map View

The map view displays the reported location from the
connected device or a log file playback on a map. You can use
normal map controls to zoom in and out or switch the map
type.

When a map view is displayed for the first time, the map is
not automatically loaded. Click on the map view to load the
map.

Advanced markers button provides the
following options:

Protection level (PL): By selecting the
Protection level option, the map view displays
the protection level surrounding the fix position. The
protection level information is provided by the
UBX-NAV-PL message, so this needs to be
enabled. To enable the message, press the map view's
message enable button.
Position accuracy (PAcc): By selecting the
Position accuracy option, the map view displays
the position accuracy surrounding the fix position.

When both of these are selected, the Map
view displays the protection level and position
accuracy.

The Breadcrumb trail button displays a map
view with the played log file's breadcrumb trail. Click on an
epoch in the breadcrumb trail to open up an information pane
with information on the latitude, longitude, altitude, velocity,
UTC time and the number of the satellites used.

Show buildings button will show the 3D
buildings in the map. Can change the orientation by holding the
right click button of the mouse.

Follow current position: OFF button provides
following current position option, draggable map and breadcrumb
trail point coloring based on the fix type. Turn it ON to enable
following current position.

8.6 Satellite Position
View

The Satellite Position View displays the position of the
satellites. By hovering over a satellite name, its constellation
and position are displayed.

Only enabled constellations of the connected device or
recorded in the log file playback will be visible. On the right
there are checkboxes to enable/disable satellite constellations
in the view. The number of satellites used for navigation and
the total number of tracked satellites are given.

Other useful information:

Legend - See which GNSS constellations are in use and filter
out any of them.
Show not tracked - See information for satellites not used
in tracking. Satellites not used in tracking means that the
device knows the probable position of the satellite from the
almanac received but no signal is available.

8.7 Satellite Signal View

The Satellite Signal View provides a graphical view of the
satellite signal strength of the connected device or a log file.
Multi-band is supported for relevant devices, meaning that
multiple signals from a single satellite are displayed if this
information is available. Signals are grouped by their
satellite, and satellites are grouped together by their GNSS
constellation.

The name of every signal is listed on the x-axis of the
graph, grouped to the satellite and constellation accordingly.
The signal strength in dBHz is given on the y-axis.

The bar representing the signal strength is transparent if
the signal is not used in the navigation solution.

Click the settings button
to
show the signal view's settings panel. This is displayed within
the view and can be closed at any time by clicking the
settings button again or the X
button inside the panel.

The settings panel allows the following content to be
controlled in the signal view:

Constellation filters controlling which constellations are
displayed. This does not change the satellite signal information
being output from the device.
Show signals not used in navigation
Show a legend of the GNSS constellation colors
Show a navigator bar allowing you to zoom in to a section of
the graph

8.8 Table View

The Table View allows individual message
fields, from a connected device or a playing log file, to be
displayed in a tabular form. This is very useful when analyzing
message field values in detail.

Each column of the table represents a message field of
interest, and each row represents the value of the message
fields within a navigational epoch.

To choose a message field you would like to view, first
enter/select the message name in the first drop
down list (in the top left corner of the Table View). Once the
message is selected, the next drop down list will contain all
the field names known to that message. Select
the field name of interest. In some cases there are additional
selections required, e.g. for satellite properties. Select the
Add button to create a new column in the table
view.

Once added, columns can be reordered by dragging the column
header. Columns can also be resized by moving the separator
between column headers.

Using Message View, you will need to enable
the messages corresponding to the selected fields in the table.
If the message is not enabled, then the cells in message/field
column will be empty.

UBX-NAV-EOE message must be
enabled when using Table View. If not enabled,
then table rows will never be updated.

To remove a column, hover over the corresponding heading
until an X button appears then click it.

The id column represents the epoch number
and cannot be removed.

To export data, click on Export. This will
generate a CSV file representing the contents of the Table
View.

Whenever the workspace containing any table views is saved,
then the columns in the table are persisted.

8.9 Chart View

The Chart View allows individual message
fields from a connected device or a playing log file to be
displayed in a graph.

UBX-NAV-EOE message must be enabled when
using Chart View. If is not enabled, the graph
will never be updated.

To choose a message field you would like to put on the graph,
first enter/select the message name in the
first drop-down list (in the top left corner of the Chart View).
Once the message is selected, the next drop-down list will
contain all the field names known to that
message. Select the field name of interest. In some cases there
are additional selections required, e.g. for satellite
properties. Use the Set X or Set
Y buttons to set the field as an axis for the
graph.

Once both x and y axis have been selected the graph will
appear and display incoming data.

Pressing Reset removes the current
information in the chart.

You can zoom on the values in the Chart view
by adjusting the navigation bar at the bottom. Drag the handles
at either edge of the bar to adjust the zoom area size. You can
adjust the zoom position by dragging the middle section of the
navigation bar.

Whenever the workspace containing any chart views is saved,
then the selected axis in the chart are persisted.

9 Tools and services

u-center 2 has a range of tools and services. These can be
found by selecting the Tools and Services icon
in the left hand toolbar.

9.1 Converting log to KML

The convert log file to KML tool allows a log file to be
loaded, searched for UBX-NAV-PVT messages and then generating a
.kml file of corresponding positions that can
be loaded into a KML-viewer (e.g. Google Earth) for
visualization.

Begin by selecting Convert Log to KML.

The file open dialog is displayed. Select the log file to be
converted and press open. The dialog to specify
the resulting KML file is presented. Enter the KML file name and
where to store it. Press Save.

A notification panel appears on the bottom right of the
application window showing the progress of the conversion
process. A cancel button is also shown. Selecting this will
cancel the conversion process. The progress panel is not
displayed after the completion of the conversion.

The converted .kml file can be loaded into a
KML-viewer (e.g. Google Earth) for visualization.

To add the protection level information in the KML file,
enable the UBX-NAV-PL message from the message view before you
start recording. Back to top

9.2 Updating firmware

The firmware update tool allows the firmware of a device to
be updated.

Select Firmware update from the
Tools and Services panel.

The Firmware Update dialog is displayed.

Note that you can pop out the Firmware
update window and move it outside the u-center 2
application. It can remain open while you are working with the
other windows in the u-center 2 application.

To update the firmware:

Enter the path and filename of the firmware file image to
be flashed on to the device.
Select the baud rate for the update.

Note this speed is only applied during the
transfer of the firmware image and is not related to the current
device connection speed. The current connection speed is
restored once the update is completed.
Select the required operation from the following
options:

Erase flash: instructs the firmware update utility to
erase the device's flash memory. After this, the device is no
longer able to boot from the external flash firmware and boots
from ROM firmware.
Enter safeboot before update: instructs the firmware
update utility to place the device in the safeboot mode before
erasing and transferring the firmware image to then device's
flash memory.
Send training sequence: instructs the firmware update
utility to send the UART training pulse sequence to the device
to allow it to calibrate itself for communication.
Transfer image to RAM: instructs the firmware update
utility to send the necessary commands to the device to store
the firmware image directly into RAM and not to store it
permanently in the flash memory.
Use chip erase: instructs the firmware update utility to
erase the flash using a single command instead of erasing
individual sectors while uploading the firmware. This feature
reduces the firmware upload time.
Note
this feature only works if the flash connected to the device
supports the chip erase feature.

Press Update. In case the update button is
not active, check if a device is connected, a firmware file has
been selected, and the baud rate has been set.

The stop button will become active only when
a firmware update is in progress. Press it to terminate the
firmware update process. The state of the device will vary
depending on what part of the update process was interrupted and
you may need to power cycle the device. After power cycling, the
device may be in safe mode.

The firmware update is now ready.

Additional
options

For particular use cases, the additional options field allows
the use of any firmware update utility options that are not
supported above. Just enter the options as you would if using
the command line. You will see the command line field update
appropriately. These additional options are possible to get from
u-blox technical support to debug customer issues.

Command line

The command line display shows what the resulting command
line for launching the firmware update utility and what options,
based on the selections, will be passed to it.

Receiver
information

The receiver information fields shows information about the
current connected device to check if the right target device is
connected.

Erased

When the firmware update is in operation, the progress bar
shows how many flash memory blocks have been erased with respect
to the total number of flash blocks.

Written

When the firmware update is in operation, the progress bar
shows how many memory blocks have been written with respect to
the total number of blocks the firmware will occupy.

In addition to the progress bars, any output from the
firmware update utility is placed in the Firmware update
log field. If the firmware update does not complete
correctly, this log indicates the block number the failure
occured.

To clear the log, press the clear button in the
Firmware update log window.

9.3 Hex utilities

This view allows customized UBX messages and raw byte codes
to be sent to a device.

By selecting the Send UBX message tab, a
customized UBX message can be constructed. Begin by selecting
the UBX message class and ID, then enter the message's payload
as hex codes. The full message with header and checksum will be
calculated, and the corresponding hex byte codes displayed. To
send to the device, agree to the warning and then press .

The Send raw data tab allows any random
custom hex codes to be sent to the device.

There is a risk of device damage. Before configuring the
device, check the product specification and ensure the
configuration data is correct to avoid permanently changing the
receiver's configuration.

To activate the Send button, tick the box to
confirm that you have read the hazard statement and you are
aware of the risk of damaging the receiver by sending the wrong
configuration data to it. Back to top

9.4 Measuring current

The current measurement feature allows the user to easily
measure the GNSS current and the power consumption with
supported u-blox GNSS evaluation kits. This feature is available
for EVK-M101 and EVK-F10N devices.

In EVK-M101, total current consumption consists of the
current through the DC-DC converter which supplies the GNSS chip
I (V_DCDC), and the current at the V_IO domain which supplies
the LNA and peripherals I (V_IO). In EVK-F10N, the total current
is the VCC which supplies the core and RF domains. All these
currents can be measured separately.

Begin by selecting Measuring Current from
the Tools and Services panel.

Note that you can pop out the Current
measurement window and move it outside the u-center 2
application. It can remain open while you are working with the
other views in the u-center 2 application.

To measure the current contribution, follow these steps:

Connect EVK to a PC with the USB cable. Connect
only one device at a time.
Go to u-center 2 Tools and Service > Tools >
Current measurement.

To start measuring the current, press the
Start button. The current measurement window
continuously updates the current and power values.
To finish the current measurement, press the
Stop button.

Current measurement window showing currents and voltages in EVK-M101

Current measurement window showing currents and voltages in EVK-F10N

The current measurement tool starts measuring the current
from the device connected to PC even if it is not connected to
the u-center 2 evaluation tool. It is recommended to measure
current for one device at a time as the user cannot select from
multiple connected devices which one to measure current
from.

Refer to EVK-M10
user guide for further details.

9.5 AssistNow Offline

To benefit from fast acquisition times and improved position
accuracy after coldstart, the connected device can be evaluated
using the u-blox AssistNow Offline service. For more
information, see the AssistNow
Offline User guide.

Begin by selecting AssistNow Offline from
the Tools and Services panel.

The AssistNow Offline dialog is displayed.

Note that you can pop out the AssistNow
Offline window and move it outside the u-center 2
application. It can remain open while you are working with the
other windows in the u-center 2 application.

9.5.1
Modifying AssistNow Offline server details

To retrieve AssistNow Offline data from u-blox services,
u-center 2 needs to know the offline server
address and have a valid offline
token. To enter these details, expand MGA
Offline settings by selecting the arrow.

The default server for u-blox services can be restored at any
point by selecting Default server. If you need
to use other than u-blox server, enter it into the
Server field.

Enter an AssistNow Offline token into the
Token field. To request an offline token,
register a new account on u-blox website by selecting
Register. After that, request a token on the
web site.

Select Save settings to permanently save
these settings.

Collapse MGA Offline settings by selecting
the arrow.

Note that the offline server and token
settings can also be changed using the
Preferences icon located in the application's
top right corner.

9.5.2 Selecting
AssistNow Offline data

To control what AssistNow Offline (ANO) and Almanac (ALM)
data is requested from the AssistNow Offline server, select the
desired satellite constellations, the duration and resolution of
the offline data in the MGA offline data
selection dialog.

The Request string field is updated
according to the selected options. It displays the actual
request made to the server.

Note this request string can be used
directly into your product's host application code.

Select the Download from server button to
request and download the AssistNow Offline data from the
server.

Show details button opens up a table with
details of the data downloaded from the server. Hide
details minimizes the details view. The circle image
toggles between views with more or less information.

Note that downloaded assistance data is
stored as a file called assistance-data.bin in
the .ucenter user folder. This file is loaded
whenever the MGA Offline dialog is opened. This allows the
assistance data to be downloaded and then used some time later.
i.e. while testing when there is no internet connection
present.

9.5.3 Time and position
aiding

Time aiding

When transferring assistance data to the device, providing an
approximate time will speed up TTFF. u-center 2
adds time aiding information using the PC's UTC time. The user
can select how accurate the device should treat this time using
the Time aiding field.

The following options are available:

Options	Description
Assume accurate PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 0.5s.
Assume coarse PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 1 s.
Specify accuracy	When selected, the user enters the accuracy and latency values in the displayed fields.

Position aiding

Also when transferring the assistance data to the device,
providing an approximate position will also speed up the
TTFF. u-center 2 can provide this position
aiding information if given.

The approximate location can be entered manually into the
Position aiding fields, or by selecting
Use current which will populate the position
aiding fields with the reported position from the last received
UBX-NAV-PVT message.

Note that if either the
Latitude or Longitude fields
are empty, then no position aiding data will be sent to the
device.

9.5.4 Transfer and
restart device

u-center 2 provides the following ways to use AssistNow
Offline data:

Transfer to the device's flash memory for future use.
Transfer to RAM and perform a coldstart immediately to show
improvements to the TTFF.

Transfer to
flash

With transfer to flash, the assistance data downloaded from
the service can be transferred to the device's flash memory
(assuming flash is present). Future device restarts will always
use this data to assist when starting up.

To transfer to flash simply select Flash as
the Storage for ANO, and the select
Transfer with reset and aiding.

A Flash-based restart performs the following
actions:

Transfers the downloaded AssistNow data to the device's
flash memory.
Issues the selected reset command.
If at least Latitude and
Longitude have been entered, then transfer
position aiding data to the device using the selected
flow control.
Transfers time aiding data to the device using the selected
flow control.

As the transfer process will take some time to perform, a
progress dialog will be displayed. This allows you to see how
the transfer is progressing and also stop the operation by
selecting the Stop button. The dialog can be
cleared by selecting the Close button.

Clear flash

To remove any AssistNow data from external flash, select
Clear flash.

Host based
transfer

To perform a host based transfer simply select
Host as the Storage for ANO,
and the select Transfer with reset and
aiding.

A host based transfer performs the following actions:

Issues the selected reset command.
If at least Latitude and
Longitude have been entered then transfer
position aiding data to the device using the selected
flow control.
Transfers time aiding data to the device using the selected
flow control.
Transfers the downloaded AssistNow data to the device using
the selected flow control.

Note reset command and flow control operate
the same as with a Flash based transfer
described above.

Reset command

The reset command specifies what type restart the device
performs and hence how fast the TTFF takes
place.

Flow control

The flow control options control how the downloaded AssistNow
data is sent to the device. The data is divided into several
UBX messages.

Simple: Sends one message at a time. Waits for the device to
acknowledge a message before sending the next. Any failures in
receiving the message will be reported.
Smart: Similar to Simple except initially
as many messages that can fit into the device's receive buffer
are sent in order to transfer the data slightly faster.
None: Sends all messages as quickly as possible without
waiting for acknowledgements. No guarantee of data delivery or
reporting of failure to deliver.

Using AssistNow
Offline data

Now that the assistance data has been transferred to flash or
host, try a cold start. The device now uses the
stored data to help it get a faster first fix. This can be seen
by checking TTFF in the Data
View.

9.6 AssistNow Online

With the AssistNow Online tool the connected device can be
evaluated using the u-blox AssistNow Online service to benefit
from fast acqusition times and improved position accuracy after
coldstart. For a detailed explanation on AssistNow Online, see
the user guide which can be found here.

Begin by selecting AssistNow Online from the
Tools and Services panel.

This will display AssistNow Online
dialog.

Note that you can pop out the AssistNow
Online window and move it outside the u-center 2
application. It can remain open while you are working with the
other windows in the u-center 2 application.

9.6.1
Modifying AssistNow Online server details

To retrieve AssistNow Online data from u-blox services,
u-center 2 needs to know the online server
address and have a valid online token.
To enter these details, expand MGA Online
settings by selecting the arrow.

It is unlikely that the server address will need to be
changed from the default address, but if a different server
address is needed then enter it into the Online
server field. The default server can be restored at any
point by selecting Default server.

Enter an AssistNow Online token into the Online
token field. To request an online token, register a new
account on u-blox website by selecting
Register. After that, request a token on the
web site.

Select Save settings to permanently save
these settings.

Collapse MGA Online settings by selecting
the arrow.

9.6.2 Selecting
AssistNow Online data

MGA online data selection controls what
AssistsNow Online data is requested from the AssistNow Online
server by selecting

Which satellite constellations you are interested in
The type of assistance data required
Applying ephemeris data filtering based on the satellite
seen at a given position
What time aiding to include
What position aiding to include

The Request string field is updated
according to the selected options. It displays the actual
request made to the server.

Note this request string can be used
directly into your product's host application code.

GNSS and Data
Type

Select which GNSS constellations and the type of assistance
data you need to download.

Filter ephemeris
on

If selected, the assistance data request will ask the server
to return ephemeris data for satellites that are likely to be
visible from the approximate position provided.

Time aiding

The Time aiding drop-down list provides the
following options to define what time aiding data is downloaded
from the server:

Options	Description
Assume accurate PC system time	When selected, the downloaded data is transferred to the device and the time aiding accuracy is set to 0.5s.
Assume low network latency	when selected, an accuracy of 0.5s and latency of 0.5s are included in the server request. The server will will add these values to the downloaded data.
Assume coarse PC system time	When selected, no accuracy or latency information is passed to the server. The server puts its default accuracy of +/- 10s into the download data.
Specify accuracy and latency	When selected, the user enters the accuracy and latency values in the displayed fields. These values are passed to the server where they are packaged into the downloaded data.

Position aiding

Position aiding allows an approximate location, if known, to
be provided to the server. The server uses this location to
decide what assistance data to package and download.

Enter the location manually into the Position
aiding fields, or select Use current
to populate the Position aiding fields with the
reported position from the last received
UBX-NAV-PVT message.

9.5.3 Using assistance
data

Once you have entered all the required settings, press the
Download and transfer button. This transfers
the downloaded AssistNow Online data to the
device and restarts it.

Once downloaded, the transfer of data to the device can be
controlled by Flow control and this is the same
as for AssistNow Offline here.

The type of receiver reset can be controlled by the
Reset command and this is the same as for
AssistNow Offline here.

10 Revision history

Revision	u-center 2 version	Date	Status/comments
R02	v23.03.54868	20-Apr-2023	Added sections Legal disclaimer, Time Mode and Time Pulse Mode quick configurations, and Workspace import/export feature.
R03	v23.07.66910	21-Jul-2023	Added Hex utilities, Breadcrumb trail and Position accuracy circle information in Map View, Spectrum Analyzer in UBX-MON-SPAN, UBX-NAV-SAT custom view, Hex utilities, Baud rate limit detection
R04	v23.10.78326	26-Oct-2023	Updated sections map view, workspace, log player and current measurement. Updated images for the latest release build version.
R05	v24.01.89221	09-Feb-2024	Updated satellite signal view and UBX-CFG-VALGET string in device configuration window
R06	v24.05.102525	07-May-2024	Updated map view, device management, device configuraiton sections. Updated images for the latest release build version.

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