Looking for a decent replacement for my u-blox NEO-6M GPS modules I came by super cheap, Chinese, Beitian BN-880 modules from Banggood. According to information found in the internet, it's build based on u-blox Neo-M8N and is capable of receiving signals from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS and SBAS. Plus integrated magnetometer module. Yesterday package finally arrived and here are my first impressions:

  • It's not single board, but 2 boards glued together
  • There is not casing, and cases for popular Neo-6M wont fit. BN-800 is much taller
  • It accepts both 5V and 3.3V voltage and 5V UART level is safe, nothing burned
  • It connected to Cleanflight and iNav without any problems at 38400bps
  • Quick windowsill test showed that indeed it works not only with GPS, but also other positioning systems. When GPS Neo-6M was barely able to acquire 4 satellites, Beitian BN-880 found 9 and a solid 3D fix
  • I did not tested magnetometer yet

Beitian BN-880

Beitian BN-880 Antenna

Beitian BN-880 Side view

Hopefully I will be able to perform more tests next few weekends and provide more info on this module. For now it looks very promising.