FAQ's

PNT stands for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. It refers to the technologies used to determine where something is, how it moves, and what time it is with high accuracy.

SparkPNT is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SparkFun Electronics, Inc. Born from SparkFun’s experimental division, SparkX, SparkPNT has quickly developed into a burgeoning business of its own, finding success in a competitive environment by creating more accessible professional-grade GNSS products for a wide range of GIS users.

PNT technology changes quickly and new high-precision GNSS modules are being released faster than ever. Having serviceable hardware, specifically the Facet FP series, can be maintained, repaired, and upgraded more easily, reducing waste and extending useful product life.

The right to repair is part of our ethos. While we are dedicated to making SparkPNT products rugged and long-lasting we understand that things break and we have designed our products to be fixable by including repair parts and instructions on our website.

SparkPNT product names are designed to tell you (and us) what a device is, what's inside it.

First letter - Device shape or housing:
F: Facet
T: Torch
P: Bare P-type GNSS Module (aka Flex)
C: Card or PCB
S: Extruded aluminum housing with milled end plates
E: Milled Hammond enclosure with Express overlay
R: Milled Hammond enclosure with Surveyor overlay

Second Letter - Modular Compatibility:
X: No modular capability
P: Compatible with all P type GNSS Engines

First Number - Generation of the product:
(No number): Generation 1
2: Generation 2

Third Letter - GNSS receiver model:
M: Septentrio mosaic-X5
L: Quectel LG290P
F: u-blox ZED-F9P
U: Unicore UM980
X: u-blox ZED-X20P
T: Septentrio mosaic-T
P: Replacement Parts

Fourth Letters - Additional technologies (letters are stacked as needed)
(No letter): No additional capabilities
T: Tilt compensation / IMU
C: Cellular
E: Ethernet
D: Double oven temperature controlled oscillator

At its core, GNSS is a timing system.

GNSS receivers calculate position by measuring how long it takes signals from multiple satellites to reach the receiver. Since even tiny timing errors can translate into large position errors, GNSS systems rely on highly accurate atomic clocks and precise timing measurements.

This makes GNSS one of the most widely used sources of accurate time for applications ranging from navigation and robotics to telecommunications, infrastructure, and scientific research.instruments, financial systems, and other infrastructure that depends on accurate time.

GNSS satellites carry extremely accurate atomic clocks, but the signals they transmit still have to travel thousands of miles through the atmosphere before reaching your receiver.

Along the way, small errors can be introduced by the atmosphere, satellite orbit uncertainties, signal reflections, and other environmental factors.

For many applications, standard GNSS positioning is more than accurate enough. But when higher precision is required, correction services help compensate for these sources of error and significantly improve positioning accuracy.

In short, GNSS timing is highly accurate. Corrections aren't fixing the clocks—they're helping account for everything that happens to the signal between the satellite and your receiver.

The level of accuracy you need depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

For navigation, being within a few meters is often sufficient. But some applications require knowing exactly where something is, not just approximately where it is.

For example, if you're recording the location of a buried utility line, fiber optic cable, or water pipe, a position that's off by a few meters may not be useful years later when someone needs to locate it. High-precision GNSS can help document infrastructure locations with much greater confidence.

High-precision GNSS is commonly used for:

• Surveying and mapping
• Construction and machine control
• Precision agriculture
• Robotics and autonomous systems
• Infrastructure monitoring
• Scientific and research applications

In these cases, even small positioning errors can affect measurements, repeatability, safety, or overall system performance.

The question isn't whether everyone needs centimeter-level accuracy—it’s whether your application benefits from knowing the difference between "somewhere nearby" and "exactly here."

Also often called CORS (continually operating reference station), a base or reference station is a fixed GNSS receiver at a known location that can generate correction data for nearby rovers, which non-stationary and are used to find precise locations. SparkPNT has a powerful base/reference station option called the SXM-E

A rover is a GNSS receiver that uses satellite signals, and often correction data, to determine its position while moving or operating in the field.

Many high-accuracy GNSS systems use both a base and rover working together:

This approach is commonly used for RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) positioning and can provide significantly higher accuracy than standalone GNSS.

Short answer: It can—if the system is designed to account for degraded satellite visibility.

Maintaining high-precision GNSS accuracy under dense tree canopy or near buildings can be challenging due to signal attenuation, multipath interference, and reduced satellite visibility. These conditions can affect positioning performance for standalone GNSS receivers.

One practical approach is to use a base and rover configuration with correction data. Watch this video on how we use High Accuracy Service (HAS) corrections to maintain centimeter-level positioning accuracy in environments where GNSS reception is less than ideal.

By combining a stationary base with a rover receiver, the system can continue delivering reliable, high-precision positioning even when direct satellite visibility is partially compromised.

This approach can be especially valuable for field operations where maintaining accuracy is critical and environmental conditions are less than perfect.