We are pleased to announce the release of the firmware 5.x series which bring many new features and improvements.

We hope that this milestone version will soon navigates onboard your SBG Systems devices.

Under the hood, the firmware 5.x embeds an extensive rewrite of many "user invisible" low level parts bringing a better than ever system stability and general performances.

Those new foundations allow for a better and faster development of all the new features that we have in mind and that our customers will be requesting for.

In line with SBG Systems lifetime free update policy, you can download and install this firmware on all SBG Systems high performance products:

Download Firmware  

Upgrading from 4.0 and older

If you are upgrading from a firmware 4.0 or older, you should first install the failsafe firmware before you can install the correct firmware type package.

Please refer to the dedicated Update Procedure for a step by step guide.

Important Highlight

Enhanced Navigation & Heave

Those algorithms at heart of the navigation performances are taking profit from SBG Systems ever growing experience in that field. In addition to academic and navigation community steps forward followed and driven by SBG Systems R&D team, each customer feedback is also used to test and improve the robustness and performances of our algorithms.

Amongst those improvements, our marine users will be please to try our new heave algorithm, improved to better handle the vessel CoG to device location lever arms which brings sensitive level of improvement especially in unusual sea states.

Jamming and Spoofing Detection

The radio frequency spectrum is getting more and more polluted, whether from unintentional sources or from malicious threats trying to deny the use of the service or even to spoof users with faked signals.

We have activated the mitigation features onboard our receivers allowing signal healing. This will allow you to keep using the device even in adverse conditions, weather the disturbances are coming from you own system or from the environment.

Our protocol and web interface features easy to use and visual indicators about the RF signal status and spectrum that can be used to monitor your mission, or even at integration stage to check if some of your own equipment is not behaving properly.

As per the spoofing threat, GNSS signal modernization have taken those threats into account and we are getting ready for the Galileo OSNMA authentication mechanism. Unfortunately, the service has not yet reached the initial service stage at the ESA GNSS Service Centre and we have withdrawn this feature during the beta test phase to avoid high level of false positive.

An example of a Spoofing event detected

We will re-activate this feature soon as an experimental and optional one. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you want to test it.

Improved Clock Accuracy

The events in time-stamping or sync out accuracy has been improved by an order of magnitude down to 200 ns. This improvement also covers clock drift during GNSS outages which will be reduced to 1 ppm.

Hot Setting Updates

Many setting changes do not require the unit to reboot anymore and are applied "live". The datalogger also feature an automatic history of the last 10 setting changes that can be used for data analysis or post-processing.

New Output Messages

Following our customers’ requests, we have added new messages and new fields to some existing messages in the sbgECom protocol. For example, the clock and timing messages now feature detailed indicators about the clock quality.

We have added new time filtered messages to output earth rotation free and gravity free accelerations corrected by the INS filter for bias and scale factor errors.

New NMEA messages based on the GNSS only solution have also been added.

The output message presets have been updated to match the latest recommendations from the main software vendors (Hypack, QPS, Beamworkx)

The sbgECom still comes with an open format documentation that can be retrieved on our support center, and a C library for message parsing that is available on our sbgECom - GitHub Repository with a permissive MIT open source license.

GNSS firmwares Updates

GNSS firmwares have been upgraded to the latest versions allowing to benefit also from the improvement from our satellites navigation hardware partners. Our internal GNSS antenna database has also been updated to latest official version.

Additional Notes

Firmware Type

Starting with firmware 4.2.x,a firmware type has been introduced. The firmware type let you know which firmware should be installed for your hardware. Please read the Update Procedure to get more details about firmware type and step-by-step instructions to update your device firmware.

Release 5.1.149-stable

Bug Fixes

  • EKIFW-2482 - Fix SBG_ECAN_MSG_STATUS_01 clock status invalid field
  • EKIFW-2483 - Fix internal ublox receiver initialization that might fail

Release 5.1.131-stable

New Features

  • EKIFW-2408 - Updated internal ublox GNSS receiver firmware to HPG 1.32 version
  • EKIFW-2468 - Add Trimble AV18 antenna calibration

Improvements

  • EKIFW-2439 - EKF: Improved INS velocity accuracy in single point mode

  • EKIFW-2444 - GNSS: Increase differential corrections age time out from 20s to 60s for ublox

  • EKIFW-2470 - Updated DOLOG HRP and Kongsberg MB logs to use body rates

  • EKIFW-2472 - Heave: Improve performance when the INS is far from the vessel Center of Rotations

  • EKIFW-2478 - Septentrio: Update AsteRx-m3 firmware to latest version v4.14.4

Bug Fixes

  • EKIFW-2461 - Fix unreliable networking when configured with a static IP address

  • EKIFW-2464 - Fix long clock steering times after cold starts

  • EKIFW-2473 - Fix standard deviations in the sbgECom velocity body message

  • EKIFW-2481 - Fix maximum allowed CAN ID values std: 0x7FF and ext: 0x1FFFFFFF

  • EKIFW-2454 - Fix attitude related status flags handling in PHINF message generation

  • EKIFW-2460 - EKF: Fix vertical gyro performance issues

  • EKIFW-2462 - Fix body acceleration not computed correctly in SBG_ECOM_LOG_EKF_ROT_ACCEL_BODY

Removed Features

  • EKIFW-2480 - Disable OSNMA until public official ICD is released

Release 5.0.2336-stable

New Features

  • EKIFW-2252 - Display Marinestar Expiry date in the web interface
  • EKIFW-2281 - Output number of SV tracked by secondary antenna and used for HDT
  • EKIFW-2288 - Add GNSS spoofing and interference status output (web page + REST API)
  • EKIFW-2314 - Add GNSS spoofing and jamming status output (sbgECom)
  • EKIFW-2342 - Add support to sbgECom commands on Eth 0 UDP interface
  • EKIFW-2394 - Add a new GGA NMEA output based on internal GNSS data
  • EKIFW-2066 - Add BeamworX preset in HPI web interface
  • EKIFW-2214 - sbgECom: Add Ethernet Tx and Rx status flags
  • EKIFW-2228 - Add api/v1/gnss# paths to returns gnss module information and status
  • EKIFW-2235 - Add support for new Quanta Plus Inertial Navigation System
  • EKIFW-2238 - Reports internal GNSS receiver information and capabilities in api/v1/info path
  • EKIFW-2264 - Add a status if a valid internet connection is available or not
  • EKIFW-2292 - Add support for Viametris MS96 antenna
  • EKIFW-2298 - Added Qinertia specific additional antenna models
  • EKIFW-2302 - Add OSNMA spoofing detection and protection for INS with AsteRx-m3 receivers
  • EKIFW-2305 - Enable GNSS interference and spoofing detection and mitigation for INS with ublox receivers
  • EKIFW-2310 - ublox: Add UBX-RXM-SFRBX message in RAW stream
  • EKIFW-2312 - Add sbgECom protocol version in api/v1/info
  • EKIFW-2313 - Add support for EKINOX Micro
  • EKIFW-2316 - Enable GNSS interference and spoofing detection and mitigation for INS with Septentrio receivers
  • EKIFW-2334 - Add numSvTracked in SBG_ECOM_LOG_GPS#_POS message
  • EKIFW-2339 - Add proper decimation for all time dependant outputs over serial and ethernet
  • EKIFW-2346 - Added to SBG_ECOM_LOG_UTC_TIME internal clock quality indicators
  • EKIFW-2357 - Web: Add the INS smart solution type in the main page
  • EKIFW-2369 - Add new SBG_ECOM_LOG_EKF_VELOCITY_BODY message
  • EKIFW-2370 - Add new SBG_ECOM_LOG_EKF_ROT_ACCEL_NED message
  • EKIFW-2371 - Add new SBG_ECOM_LOG_EKF_ROT_ACCEL_BODY message
  • EKIFW-2393 - Add a new Hypack preset with additional messages for Post-Processing
  • EKIFW-2395 - Septentrio: Add a new setting to let the user select the internal GNSS static IP address
  • EKIFW-2409 - Add a new RMC NMEA output based on internal GNSS data
  • EKIFW-2410 - Add a new VTG NMEA output based on internal GNSS data
  • EKIFW-2411 - Add a new HDT NMEA output based on internal GNSS data
  • EKIFW-2436 - Settings: Store each setting version if updated while the product data logger is running

Improvements

  • EKIFW-2452 - EKF: Improved abnormal operations detection and filter reset in RTK modes
  • EKIFW-1949 - Improve web interface for Port B and Port E when they are not available (EKINOX/APOGEE)
  • EKIFW-2419 - Improve EKF initialization and VG resilience and performance under vibrating conditions
  • EKIFW-2246 - Improved clock steering initial convergence time and robustness
  • EKIFW-2273 - Improved internal GNSS boot procedure
  • EKIFW-281 - Add support for serial port reconfiguration without resetting the device
  • EKIFW-2201 - NTRIP: Improve reliability when connecting to slow network and NTRIP servers 
  • EKIFW-2218 - Improved NAVSIGHT-T internal GNSS details reporting
  • EKIFW-1982 - Settings: Allow SYNC OUT settings changes without reboot
  • EKIFW-2040 - Add support for u-blox antenna supervisor
  • EKIFW-2046 - Update boot loader stage 2 for NHPI support
  • EKIFW-2184 - Replace GPS by GNSS in GUI labels
  • EKIFW-2186 - Improve Web interface status page readability
  • EKIFW-2188 - Remove GNSS antenna selection for external GNSS receivers
  • EKIFW-2211 - Settings: Add Ethernet output interfaces settings changes without reboot
  • EKIFW-2232 - Replaced deprecated api/v0/status path with new api/v1 ones
  • EKIFW-2233 - Updated api/v0/data to api/v1/data with modern json payload
  • EKIFW-2236 - Added heave standard deviation on the web interface instead of max heave
  • EKIFW-2243 - Improve internal clock stability during long PPS outages
  • EKIFW-2248 - Improve interface reporting and status
  • EKIFW-2265 - Web: Explicit output lever arm convention in interface
  • EKIFW-2266 - Extend the clock/UTC synchronization status duration from 3 to 35 minutes
  • EKIFW-2268 - Web: Improve interface status reporting with more detailed info
  • EKIFW-2295 - Uniformized antenna selection for all internal GNSS receivers
  • EKIFW-2297 - Updated antenna database to latest IGS20 released on 2 October 2022
  • EKIFW-2322 - Reduced PPS/Sync Out delay and jitter to 5us
  • EKIFW-2323 - Increased tolerance to external clock variations
  • EKIFW-2326 - Web: Indicate IMU Data as a legacy message that should not be used
  • EKIFW-2331 - Improved NTRIP client to work with more non-conforming NTRIP v1.0 casters
  • EKIFW-2351 - UTC status now stays in initialized state once a valid UTC information is received
  • EKIFW-2355 - Improve the returned standard deviations values returned in GNSS HDT messages
  • EKIFW-2358 - Increased internal Septentrio receiver PPS generation to 15 mins following an outage
  • EKIFW-2359 - Internal Novatel GNSS now only outputs a PPS once time is fine aligned
  • EKIFW-2368 - Changed the default year from 2013 to 2019
  • EKIFW-2374 - Novatel: Add support to very long base line RTK processing modes for Novatel receivers
  • EKIFW-2378 - Output: Updated PHOCT yawRate from body Z rate to proper Down Rate
  • EKIFW-2379 - Output: Updated PSBGB X/Y/Z rate from uncompensated to compensated
  • EKIFW-2383 - Allowed PSGBG output log for all motion profiles
  • EKIFW-2389 - Web: Improved Raw Data / Measurements page look and feel
  • EKIFW-2391 - Network: Reports the product hostname for DHCP server
  • EKIFW-2392 - Updated Hypack preset to support latest software version
  • EKIFW-2398 - Settings: Updated default Ethernet Static Ipv4 settings to use more standard values
  • EKIFW-2402 - Preset: Add diagnostic output in post processing preset
  • EKIFW-2405 - Web: Update QPS output preset
  • EKIFW-2412 - Compute local parameters such as gravity and magnetic declination from GNSS PVT or INS
  • EKIFW-2435 - Web: Add heave output at the Center Of Gravity (COG) lever arm
  • EKIFW-2438 - Ublox: always output the pitch even if invalid with an associated std of 90°
  • EKIFW-2443 - Update api/v1/info definition 'calibrationVersion' to 'mnfVersion'
  • EKIFW-2193 - Improved INS model selection / description to inlude EKINOX v2/v3/v4

Bug Fixes

  • EKIFW-2340 - Fix UDP sbgECom command that is not responding on 52140 port
  • EKIFW-2422 - BREAKING CHANGE: Updated CMD_API_GET ID (46) to (48) to fix a conflict
  • EKIFW-2244 - Fix TCP reconnection on time-outs
  • EKIFW-2272 - Fix missed SYNC OUT signals on first PPS reception
  • EKIFW-2337 - Removed Marine Harsh Survey profile & Delayed Heave for Quanta Plus/Extra v2
  • EKIFW-2075 - Web: Fix CAN bus status that is not correctly reported
  • EKIFW-2182 - Web: 3D view crashes when backpack motion profile is selected
  • EKIFW-2230 - Fix missing dual antenna base line information for navigation filter
  • EKIFW-2249 - Fixed new firmware update check that might fail
  • EKIFW-2269 - Fix default data output preset on Quanta micro
  • EKIFW-2278 - HPI Web Interface login system not working
  • EKIFW-2335 - Remove Ekinox Surface v2 and Subsea v2 IMU from Navsight IMU selection
  • EKIFW-2336 - Web: Only display delayed heave status if available for the product
  • EKIFW-2381 - Fix KBM & PHLIN logs that were available for none marine motion profiles
  • EKIFW-2382 - Correctly reset the output INS data following hot settings changed
  • EKIFW-2397 - Web: Remove Ethernet mode 'Off' option as it is not supported
  • EKIFW-2148 - Web: Add missing ZUPT/ZARU information in motion profiles descriptions
  • EKIFW-2349 - Fix PTP EUI-64 encoding
  • EKIFW-2354 - Web: Update Navsight Ekinox performance to advertised RTK performance

Removed Features

  • EKIFW-2231 - Removed POS_OMNISTAR GNSS position type and replaced it by POS_PPP_FLOAT
  • EKIFW-2401 - Removed extrapolation on IMU Data output and align behavior with new ROT / ACCEL