Does anyone have experience with the Maestro A2200 GPS module? I bought this module primarily on price, it's only 15 euro, but the datasheet indicates that sudden removal of power can result in bricking the device.
This seems rather hostile to me – there are many times where a battery could become disconnected and I don't wish the result to be this disastrous. Has anyone used this module and destroyed it like this? Is it fixable afterwards?
I do have a voltage supervisor handy but the datasheet says "the shutdown is complete after maximum 1s". 1 Second! I don't think I can have a capacitor supply current for that length of time!
I'll admit the device will be driven by a Raspberry Pi or similar which has the same requirements for shutdown, but at least I can redo the SD card on a Pi.
Best Answer
As David says above, your milage may vary! It seems the best thing to do with this module is a) don't remove the power b) use a voltage supervisor attached to the reset line.
Elektor, December 2013, have an FPGA project where they use a Maestro module but it is the A2035. They had two modules and bricked one of them but managed to reflash it with a tool from the Maestro website. The A2200 is possibly fixable in the same manner.
(Edit)I'll add from an email from Linx:
The SiRF modules require the controlled removal of power to prevent the internal registers from getting corrupted. The worst case scenario is that the programming gets corrupted and the module no longer functions as specified. This would require us to re-program the module, which cannot be done in the field. The module would have to be accessing key memory areas when power is removed for this to happen, so it would not be a typical failure mode, but is the worst-case.