NorthStar 8700 Product manual

Northstar Technologies
8700 GPS Position Sensor
8800 Series Beacon Sensors
8900 Series GPS/DGPS Position Sensors
Technical Reference Manual
Revision H
May 1, 1997
Part No. GM8900
© 1997 Northstar Technologies
a division of CMC Electronics, Inc.
Northstar Technologies
30 Sudbury Road
Acton, Massachusetts 01720
Sales: 508/897-6600
Service: 508/897-7251
Fax: [phone]

Revision history
Date Pages Revision
May 1, 1997 ALL H
Ordering information
To receive additional copies of this publication, order the North-
star Sensors Technical Reference Manual (Part No. GM8900).

Limited warranty policy
Northstar 8700, 8800 series, and 8900 series sensors
Northstar Technologies, a division of CMC Electronics, Inc., war-
rants its family of 8700, 8800 series, and 8900 series sensors to be
free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of
two (2) years. This warranty applies to the original purchaser and
to any subsequent owner during the warranty period, which
begins on the date of shipment of the unit, F.O.B. Acton, Massa-
chusetts, to an authorized Northstar dealer.
During the unit’s warranty period, Northstar will repair or replace,
at its option, any part of the unit it finds to be defective due to
faulty material (s) or workmanship. All such repairs and/or
replacements will be performed by Northstar free-of-charge to the
owner, excluding freight costs incurred in shipping to the factory.
Return shipments from Northstar to points within the United
States are made via ground transportation, freight prepaid. Special
shipping charges (overnight, two-day, and so on) are the responsi-
bility of the owner.
To be covered by this warranty, the Northstar equipment must
have been in normal use. The warranty does not apply to units
with defects caused by improper installation, physical damage,
abuse, tampering, lightning, or other abnormal electrical dis-
charge, or to units with defaced or altered serial numbers, or to
units repaired by unauthorized persons or repaired in a manner
that violates Northstar’s recommended service procedures.
All repairs and/or replacements made under this warranty must
be performed at Northstar’s facilities in Acton, Massachusetts.
Performance of warranty work elsewhere will not be authorized,
and Northstar will not pay for any charges for such work. North-
star will not be responsible for payment of any charges imposed
by a Northstar dealer or other party for services requested by
and/or performed for a unit’s owner in connection with this war-
ranty. Such services might include removal or the unit from a
vehicle, inspection, packaging, handling, reinstallation, and the
like.
Northstar assumes no responsibility for any consequential losses
of any nature with respect to any of its products or services sold,
rendered, or delivered. The foregoing is the only warranty
expressed or implied. No other warranty exists.
* Certain Northstar control heads are warranty-protected against
damage due to water leakage, provided the head has not been
tampered with.

Table of Contents
Section 1 - About this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Scope of this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.3 Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.4 Glossary and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.5 Registration card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.6 Service and repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Section 2 - Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Northstar 8700. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.2 Northstar 8800 series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.3 Northstar 8900 series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.4 Sensor dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.5 Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.6 Interfacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Section 3 - Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1 Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Northstar 8700 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3 Northstar 8800 series parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4 Northstar 8900 series parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Section 4 - GPS receivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1 Northstar 8700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.1 Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.2 Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.3 Operating modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Section 5 - Beacon receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.1 Northstar 8800 series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.1.1 About the Northstar 8801 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.1.2 Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.1.3 Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.1.4 Operating modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Section 6 - GPS/beacon combination receivers . . 19
6.1 Northstar 8900 series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1.1 About the Northstar 8901 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1.2 Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1.3 Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Section 7 - Antennas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2 GPS antenna (AN145) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2.2 Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2.3 Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2.4 Mounting location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.3 GPS antenna (AN150) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3.2 Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3.3 Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3.4 Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.3.5 Mounting location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.4 GPS/DGPS combination antenna (AN190/AN200) . . . . . . . . 24
7.4.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.4.2 Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.4.3 Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.4.4 Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.4.5 Mounting location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.5 DGPS-only H-field antenna (AN195). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.5.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.5.2 Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.5.3 Cable length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.5.4 Mounting location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.6 Whip antenna (8410 ACU) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.6.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.6.2 Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7.6.3 Cable length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
7.6.4 Mounting location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Section 8 - Input/output configurations . . . . . . . . . . 29
8.1 I/O ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8.2 Sensor signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8.3 Standard configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8.4 Configuration details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8.5 Connector pin assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.6 Input and output signals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.6.1 RTCM SC-104 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.6.2 BDM control input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.3 BDM monitor input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.4 BDM monitor output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.5 GPS auxiliary input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.6 GPS auxiliary output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.7 GPS primary input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
8.6.8 GPS primary output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8.6.9 Remote POWER ON control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8.6.10 DC power input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8.6.11 Time mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Section 9 - Connector pinouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

9.1 Standard pinouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
9.1.1 Wiring power control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
9.1.2 8700 connector pinouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
9.1.3 8800 connector pinouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9.1.4 8900 connector pinouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
9.1.5 Alternate connector pinouts for the 8900. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Section 10 - NMEA protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
10.1 Beacon monitor control messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
10.1.1 NMEA 0183 format control messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
10.2 GPS serial protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
10.2.1 Input sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
10.2.2 Output sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Section 11 - Beacon receiver binary protocol. . . . . 61
11.1 Beacon receivers (8800 series and 8900 series) . . . . . . . . . 61
11.1.1 Binary control messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
11.2 GPS binary protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Section 12 - 8X00 engine monitor program . . . . . . 63
12.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
12.1.1 BDM data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
12.1.2 GPS data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
12.1.3 Satellite data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12.1.4 Function key tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12.2 Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12.2.1 Hardware and software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12.2.2 Start-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12.2.3 About data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
12.2.4 About scrolling data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
12.2.5 About the monitor message line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
12.3 Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Section 13 - Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Section 14 - Abbreviations and initialisms . . . . . . . 69
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Tables
Table 1 — 8700 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table 2 — 8800 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table 3 — 8801 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 4 — 8900 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 5 — 8901 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Table 6 — I/O ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 7 — Standard configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Table 8 — Configuration 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Table 9 — Configuration 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Table 10 — Configuration 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table 11 — Configuration 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table 12 — Configuration 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table 13 — Hardware pin numbers/signal levels . . . . . . . . . 33
Table 14 — 8700 connector pinouts/config. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Table 15 — 8800 power/interface connector pins/config. 5. 38
Table 16 — 8900 standard connector pinouts/config. 7 . . . . 39
Table 17 — 8900 alternate connector pinouts/config. 6 . . . . 40
Table 18 — 8900 alternate connector pinouts/config. 4 . . . . 41
Table 19 — Command parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Table 20 — Command parameter examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Table 21 — Approved sentence structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Table 22 — NMEA field definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Table 23 — Primary port input sentences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Table 24 — Character/baud rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Table 25 — Initialization command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Table 26 — Example B sentence contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Table 27 — Output-configuration message identifiers. . . . . 49
Table 28 — Set output configuration command . . . . . . . . . . 50
Table 29 — Switch to reprogramming mode command . . . . 50
Table 30 — NVM command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Table 31 — Character/element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Table 32 — Radio-beacon command message . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Table 33 — Primary-port output sentences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Table 34 — Navigation status sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Table 35 — Self-test sentence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Table 36 — Radio-beacon proprietary sentence. . . . . . . . . . 54

Table 37 — GPS-fix data sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Table 38 — Example N sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Table 39 — Geographic position sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Table 40 — GPS DOP and active satellite sentence. . . . . . . 57
Table 41 — GPS-satellites-in-view sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Table 42 — MSS radio-beacon signal status sentence . . . . . 58
Table 43 — Recommended-minimum-specific sentence . . . 59
Table 44 — Track made good/ground-speed sentence . . . . . 59
Table 45 — UTC time, data, and local time-zone sentence . 60
Figures
Figure 1 - 8700/8800 series/8900 series dimensions . . . . . . . 4
Figure 2 - 8700 ALLSTAR engine operating modes . . . . . . 12
Figure 3 - Radio-beacon coverage map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure 4 - Northstar AN145 antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 5 - Northstar AN150 antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 6 - AN190 combination antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 7 - Northstar AN195 H-Field antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Figure 8 - Northstar 8410 ACU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 9 - 8X00 ALLSTAR engine monitor screen . . . . . . . 63

Section 1 - About this manual
05/01/97 REV H PAGE 1
Section 1 - About this manual
To use this manual effectively, please read this entire two-page section
first. This document doesn’t contain basic installation information. If
you’re looking for instructions about mounting the sensors and antennas,
connecting the cables, or other details on interfacing the Northstar sen-
sors to other Northstar receivers, please refer to the corresponding North-
star Installation Manual.
1.1 Scope of this manual
1.1.1 Audience The Northstar Sensors Technical Reference Manual is intended for readers
with a good technical knowledge of the components of GPS consumer
navigational instruments. This audience includes engineers and other
technical product-development persons in original equipment manufac-
turer (OEM) environments; experienced dealers of marine, land-based, or
other navigational equipment; and small start-up companies, all looking
for ways to interface their products with Northstar sensors.
1.1.2 Contents This manual presents this technical information in a logical, easy-to-use
format; each section is organized for access to specific information. In this
way, you can go directly to the source of that information without sifting
through unnecessary levels to find what you need.
The manual covers the following products:
•Northstar 8700 GPS Position Sensor
•Northstar 8800 Series Beacon Sensors
•Northstar 8900 Series GPS/DGPS Position Sensors
Additional high-level information about antennas, pinouts and configura-
tions, NMEA protocol, beacon binary protocol, RS-422 and RS-232 inter-
faces, and the 8X00 ALLSTAR Engine Monitor Program is all contained
within this manual. In fact, if you own this Northstar Sensors Technical
Reference Manual, you should have received a copy of the Northstar
8X00 ALLSTAR Engine Monitor Program. (If you didn’t receive this pro-
gram, call the Northstar sales department and order Northstar Part Num-
ber GS8900, shipped on a 3-½ inch diskette at no charge.)
This document supersedes the Northstar Installation and Operation Man-
ual (Northstar Part Number GM8900, Revision G).
1.1.3 Conventions The conventions listed below are used throughout the manual to consis-
tently refer to certain information, as follows:
NOTE and CAUTION are the headings for text boxes containing important
reader information. Be sure to read the information in these note and
caution boxes.
NMEA command is the bold typeface used when the text refers to a com-
mand given to, or output by, the sensors; NMEA command is the typeface
(without bold) used when a table refers to a command given to, or output
by, the sensors.

Section 1 - About this manual
PAGE 2 05/01/97 REV H
1.1.4 Glossary and
acronyms
This manual contains two separate sections to clarify technical terms,
abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms. Each new term is defined when
it first appears; however, a term once defined is not redefined each time it
appears. Consequently, you may want to refer to the back of this manual
if you find a term you don’t understand.
1.1.5 Registration
card
Make sure you fill out the owner’s registration card included with the
sensor and return it to Northstar Technologies. We must have your com-
plete mailing address (not just a company name) so we can send you any
future product information.
1.1.6 Service and
repair
In case of an operating problem with a Northstar sensor, you may contact
your dealer or return the sensor to the Northstar factory for diagnosis
and repair. Be as complete and accurate as possible when you describe an
operating problem. If you need immediate assistance, feel free to call
Northstar service at [phone].
Each sensor is covered by a two-year limited warranty, which, in sum-
mary, states that if a sensor is returned to the factory by the owner during
the warranty period, Northstar will repair or replace, free-of-charge, any
part found to be defective due to faulty materials or workmanship, if the
sensor has been properly installed and hasn’t been abused. The only cost
to the owner will be the one-way shipping charges that might be imposed
by the dealer.
Shipments to Northstar Technologies should be made to the following
address:
Northstar Technologies, 30 Sudbury Road, Acton, MA 01720
If you have special overnight or two-day shipping requirements (UPS or
Federal Express), please call the Northstar factory for turnaround time
and freight costs before shipping your sensor.
Refer to the Limited Warranty Policy at the beginning of this manual for
further details on warranty and service policies and procedures.

Section 2 - Introduction
05/01/97 REV H PAGE 3
Section 2 - Introduction
2.1 Overview
Northstar’s family of position sensors, comprised of models 8700, the
8800 series, and the 8900 series, features self-contained, 12-channel GPS
modules with two-channel, automatic, medium-frequency radio-beacon
receivers, packaged in rugged “black box” aluminum enclosures.
These high-performance units provide reliable GPS and/or DGPS posi-
tioning for the following applications:
•Custom OEM systems requiring superior, “all-in-view” GPS perfor-
mance
•Automatic vehicle location (AVL) and monitoring systems, including
railroads, highways, emergency, public transportation, and trucking
•Mobile ground information systems (GIS) data acquisition, including
asset management and mapping
•Precision agriculture, including yield mapping, yield monitoring, and
sampling
•Forestry, including aerial spraying, planting, and forest mapping
•Surveying/mapping, including aerial, highway, and legal surveys;
utility mapping
•Marine navigation
2.1.1 Northstar
8700
The Northstar 8700 is a 12-parallel-channel, DGPS-ready, fast-acquisition
GPS receiver that continuously tracks all available satellites. The 8700
accepts DGPS corrections from any source of Radio Technical Commis-
sion for Maritime Services (RTCM) SC-104 data. See Section 4, “GPS
Receivers,” for complete information about the Northstar 8700.
2.1.2 Northstar
8800 series
The Northstar 8800 series (comprised of either the 8800 or the 8801, an
8800 bundled for agricultural applications) is a two-channel, auto-tuning,
Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) radio-beacon receiver, also known as a bea-
con demodulator, or BDM, which supplies fully automatic differential
corrections for an external DGPS-ready receiver. While the 8800 series’
Channel 1 processes real-time corrections, Channel 2 automatically
searches for alternates. The 8800 series works worldwide with beacons
that conform to the SC-104 specification.
See Section 5, “Beacon Receivers” for complete information about the
Northstar 8800 series.
2.1.3 Northstar
8900 series
Northstar combines the 8700 and the 8800 to form the Northstar 8900
series of sensors, which provide optimum performance in self-contained,
fully automatic DGPS units. See Section 6, “GPS/Beacon Combination
Receivers” for complete information about the Northstar 8900 series.

Section 2 - Introduction
PAGE 4 05/01/97 REV H
2.1.4 Sensor
dimensions
The sensors share common dimensions as outlined below.
•Height = 2.0 inches
•Width = 4.6 inches
•Depth = 8.9 inches
•Weight < 2 pounds
FIGURE 1 - 8700/8800 series/8900 series dimensions
2.1.5 Power Each sensor is easy to use: Just connect the antenna and supply the
power.
Status indicator light
(A
l
l dimensions in inches
)
CAUTION!
Before you apply power to the system, double-check
all wiring. A small, but significant number of units
sustain damage because of incorrectly wired connec-
tions. This damage isn’t covered under warranty. Be
sure you don’t apply primary voltage directly to any
of the signal input/output wires of the GPS sensor;
this may vaporize circuit-board conductors within
the sensor.
NOTE:
The information below only applies to the Northstar
8800 series and 8900 series sensors; NOT to the
Northstar 8700 sensor.

Section 2 - Introduction
05/01/97 REV H PAGE 5
The status indicator light illuminates when the unit’s power is turned on.
When you first turn power on, the light turns green for just a few sec-
onds. The light then turns red, and stays red as long as the sensor is
searching for a beacon. Once the sensor has locked onto a beacon, the
light will then turn green.
Another function of the status indicator light is flashing red/green. The
light will only flash red/green if the beacon antenna (not GPS) is open or
shorted. Check your antenna or antenna wiring to determine the prob-
lem, if you see the flashing red/green light. Once the problem has been
fixed, the light will turn red for as long as several minutes, while the sen-
sor searches for a beacon. The light will return to green once it has locked
onto a beacon.
The status indicator light in the 8800 and 8900 sensors refers to beacon
status, not GPS status.
2.1.6 Interfacing You can interface Northstar position sensors to a wide variety of external
devices, such as navigators, computers, yield monitors, and so on. These
external devices, or host systems, receive and process the data from the
sensor, and in some applications, may control the sensor.
Each sensor has two, full-duplex serial I/O ports that may be connected to
a host system in a variety of ways and for different applications. The func-
tion of each I/O port is determined by a Programmed Array Logic (PAL)
chip that acts as a matrix switch, which can configure the I/O port to sev-
eral configurations.
All three sensors use identical I/O hardware and circuitry, configured for
specific applications by jumper options controlling the PAL chip. Any one
of the eight standard configurations (see Section 8, “Input/Output Config-
urations” for a complete list of standard configurations) is selectable from
combinations of three jumper pins located on the 25-pin data/power con-
nector.
The standard, recommended configuration for each sensor described in
this manual is further described in its corresponding Northstar Installa-
tion Manual. Custom configurations also may be available for large quan-
tities of sensors as special orders.

Section 2 - Introduction
PAGE 6 05/01/97 REV H

Section 3 - Packaging
05/01/97 REV H PAGE 7
Section 3 - Packaging
3.1 Housing
The sensor is housed in a rugged aluminum enclosure with a mounting
flange.
The sensor enclosure includes keyhole slots, located at the rear of the
sensors, which aid in installations of limited access. You can mount the
sensors either horizontally or vertically; see Figure 1 in Section 2, “Intro-
duction,” for case and mounting dimensions.
Northstar ships each sensor system with the following parts; check with
Northstar if these parts aren’t included with your sensor.
3.2 Northstar 8700 parts
Table 1: 8700 parts
3.3 Northstar 8800 series parts
Table 2: 8800 parts
NOTE:
The housing isn’t completely waterproof, so keep the
sensor away from direct contact with water spray or
splash.
Part # Description
8700–A 8700 GPS position sensor
8700–PK
KS130
KS131
KS133
8700 parts kit, consisting of:
25-pin female DB–25 connector
DB–25 shielded junction shell
DB-25 short screw lock for KS131
GM630 Northstar 8700 GPS Sensor Installation Manual
Part # Description
8800–A 8800 beacon sensor
8900–PK
KS130
KS131
KS133
8900 series parts kit, consisting of:
25-pin female DB-25 connector
DB–25 shielded junction shell
DB-25 short screw lock for KS131
8410 Optional DGPS antenna coupling unit (ACU) used
with four-foot whip antenna

Section 3 - Packaging
PAGE 8 05/01/97 REV H
Table 3: 8801 parts
3.4 Northstar 8900 series parts
Table 4: 8900 parts
WC100 DGPS antenna connecting cable (RG-58U coaxial, 25
feet). Standard with 8410
AN195 Optional H-field DGPS-only antenna with 20 feet of
RG-59U coaxial cable
GM635 Northstar 8800 and 8801 Beacon Receivers Installa-
tion Manual
Part # Description
8800–A 8800 beacon sensor
8801-CA Interface cable with nine-pin I/O connector and
power leads
AN195 H-field DGPS-only antenna with 20 feet of RG-59U
coaxial cable
GM635 Northstar 8800 and 8801 Beacon Receivers Installa-
tion Manual
Part # Description
8900–A 8900 integrated GPS/DGPS position sensor
8900–PK
KS130
KS131
KS133
8900 parts kit, consisting of:
25-pin female DB-25 connector
DB–25 shielded junction shell
Short screw lock for KS131
8410 Optional DGPS antenna coupling unit (not used with
combo antenna).
WC100 DGPS antenna connecting cable (RG-58U coaxial, 25
feet). Not used with combo antenna. Standard with
8410.
AN145 Optional GPS antenna (includes 25 feet of RG-59U
cable)
AN150 Optional GPS active antenna (includes 50 feet of
RG-59U cable)
AN190 Optional GPS/DGPS combo antenna with external
splitter. Includes 50 feet of RG-59U cable.
AN195 Optional H-field DGPS-only antenna. Includes 20
feet of RG-59U cable.

Section 3 - Packaging
05/01/97 REV H PAGE 9
Table 5: 8901 parts
GM640 Northstar 8900 DGPS Sensor Installation Manual
8902-CA Optional interfacing cable for connecting to North-
star 800 series GPS-ready Lorans (only supplied with
units for connection to 800-GPS or 800X-GPS, if
specified at time of order.
Part # Description
8901-A 8901 integrated GPS/DGPS position sensor with
internal splitter
AN200 Combination antenna with 20 feet of RG-59U coaxial
cable
GM-625 Northstar 8901/8901AL Ag DGPS Sensors Field Instal-
lation Manual
8901-CA Optional interfacing cable for agricultural applica-
tions
8903-CA Optional interfacing cable for AgLeader applications
(included with Northstar 8901AL sensor)

Section 3 - Packaging
PAGE 10 05/01/97 REV H