Waveshare has released a breakout board for the Quectel LG290P quad-band GNSS module priced at roughly half what competing options cost. The board delivers centimeter-level RTK positioning for robotics, precision agriculture, surveying, and other applications requiring high-accuracy location data.
The LG290P supports GPS, BDS, Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS, and NavIC satellite constellations across L1, L2, L5, and E6 frequency bands. It achieves 0.8 cm (0.3 inches) horizontal accuracy and 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) vertical accuracy in RTK mode, with positioning convergence under five seconds. The module tracks up to 1,040 channels simultaneously and includes built-in narrow-band jamming detection and cancellation. Navigation rates reach 10 to 20 Hz depending on configuration.
The breakout board measures 3.3 cm x 3.3 cm (1.3 inches x 1.3 inches) without the antenna connector and expands to 5.0 cm x 3.3 cm (2.0 inches x 1.3 inches) with the SMA connector installed. It features castellated mounting pads, a USB-C port for power and UART communication, dual JST Qwiic connectors for I2C and UART expansion, and an RTC battery connector for faster time to first fix. The board draws under 100 mA at 5V and operates from negative 40 degrees Celsius to 85 degrees Celsius (negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees Fahrenheit).
Waveshare provides example code for Raspberry Pi (Python), ESP32 (Arduino), and Raspberry Pi Pico (MicroPython) alongside documentation on the official wiki. The module outputs standard NMEA 0183 and RTCM 3.x formats and works with RTKLIB, RTKBASE, STRSVR, and other GNSS processing tools. Windows users can configure and test the hardware using Quectel's QGNSS utility.
The LG290P GNSS RTK breakout board sells for $90 (83 euros) on the Waveshare store and $109 (100 euros) elsewhere. SparkFun's competing quad-band breakout currently costs $190 (175 euros), making Waveshare's option significantly more affordable for developers and engineers working on precision positioning projects.