It is just an antenna. If you look on the backside of the GPYes there's a beige square thing. That's the antenna. The external kit just moves that antenna outside the case so you can remotely mount it to have a better view of the satellites. The VK-162 (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01EROIUEW/) is a different story. It basically is a GPYes with a long USB cable on it and is more what you're thinking. That moves the entire GPS module (antenna and everything) outside the Stratux. You can do the same thing by taking your GPYes and putting it on a GPS A to A extension cable, but it doesn't have a nice housing around it like a VK-162. 2 different ways to do pretty much the same thing. Get the antenna away from the noisy electronics in the Stratux case and give it a better view of the sky.
I'm currently using this with a python script to pull gps coordinates on my Rpi zeroW
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EROIUEW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can use a bluetooth OBD reader and connect to the pi. There are some python scripts out there for that as well. They are cheap.
Just want to clear some things up.
/u/date-rape-dolphin is talking about putting the GPS actually IN the Stratux case versus external. To put it external there are 2 options.
Both of these solutions also allow you to put the GPS antenna somewhere it has a better view of the sky and thus GPS satellites.
Yea that was my biggest fear, I think the redundancy may be worth the money or rather not relying on a cheaper GPS chip. Do you think an external GPS puck would work any better for backup or is it essentially the same thing in the Stratux just in a different body? They even have the GPyes in an external puck now too, is the GPyes the newest model vs the VK-162?