Re: [time-nuts] Thermal insulation choice?
In message A4D6324D0FB34C44B981F580DB1652F2@pc52, Tom Van Baak writes: What I did instead was to buy a bunch of cement paving blocks from Home Depot and made an air-tight sarcophagus (Egypt or Chernobyl-style). Lots of thermal mass. My personal best was an old fridge, and if you _really_ want execellent preformance, you circulate a constant temperature liquid in the cooling circuit using a little pump and a peltier. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Question re neutrinos and GPS
On Fri, 6 Jan 2012 15:55:12 -0800 Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote: Hopefully all this GPS-neutrino talk will calm down when other methods to validate the synchronization of the clocks at CERN and LNGS are done (e.g., direct fiber or traveling Cs clocks). According to [1] they already did that. Attila Kinali [1] http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897 -- Why does it take years to find the answers to the questions one should have asked long ago? ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Thermal insulation choice?
How about using Hostess Twinkies? They look like they would have good insulating properties and are well known to never, ever decompose ;-) ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Yes ...and I have 5volts on the antenna center connector. It ran all night, with the same (bad) results ...no satellites. I am beginning to think I have a bad antenna. I have three GPS modules, all acting the same, with no satellites. But, only one antenna to share with them. I'll try to get a better antenna. -Don -- -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Don Latham Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 12:11 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Doesn't this package have a separate pin to provide voltage to the antenna? It needs to be connected to the 5 volt supply... Don Lewis Thanks, Bill, for the thoughts. I am running both the GPS and the antenna of the USB. It shows ~4.9Volts. Maybe I need to use a separate power supply. There is 4.9V on the center terminal of the antenna connector. Maybe I am current-limiting the USBbus. Thanks for the tips on the eBay antennas... I'll see if I need one. -Don -- -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of WB6BNQ Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 7:28 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Hi Don, Among the other comments presented it seems the presumed antenna current might be a little low compared to others. That is, the additional 10 milliamps seems a little low for an active antenna. I would suggest trying to read the voltage on the antenna coax line to see if it is proper. It is possible that the antenna is not working properly or it might not be an active antenna or it may not have enough gain. In that case you would need another antenna to test that theory. But you would need to have the antenna outside with good sky view and wait for 30 minutes or so to find out. I would suggest looking at a proper outside antenna like ones in eBay ADs # 270884223800 or # 130603281022. A friend of mine bought one like these and had good luck with it. The fact that you can get data out of the GPS receiver would suggest that it is ok. Good luck with your project. BillWB6BNQ Don Lewis wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1. VisualGPS installed and running. 2. A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3. Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4. VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5. I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6. The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. -- Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind. R. Bacon If you don't know what it is, don't poke it. Ghost in the Shell Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL Six Mile Systems LLP 17850 Six Mile Road POB 134 Huson, MT, 59846 VOX 406-626-4304 www.lightningforensics.com www.sixmilesystems.com ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Thermal insulation choice?
You could make a form (a mold) with cardboard and use a can of polyurethane insulation to fill it with your OCXO inside (protected by a plastic bag) like the foam-in-place principle. It will be exactly the size you want, pretty stiff, strongly bonded to the cardboard, so it will be easy to mount things on it if needed and with a minimum number of seams. It may be more work than cutting sheets of styrofoam though. Didier KO4BB --Original Message-- From: John Ackermann N8UR Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com To: Time-Nuts ReplyTo: Time-Nuts Subject: [time-nuts] Thermal insulation choice? Sent: Jan 6, 2012 1:39 PM I am looking for a readily available (from Home Depot or other local source) insulating material to use in a chassis that's housing a sensitive OCXO. My goal is just to slow down any external thermal transients so the oven loop has time to react gracefully. I'm thinking of something in sheet form that I could glue to the inside bottom and side of the metal chassis. The trimmed sheet sizes will each probably end up being around 4 x 8 inches. I have enough clearance for a thickness of a half inch or so. I'd like to avoid a bat material as that would be hard to mount neatly. Long lifetime (ie, not getting all crumbly after a few years) is important as I don't expect this oscillator to get cold until I do. Any suggestions of a material to look for? Thanks, John ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don - -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Hi Don, this type of receiver sometimes need a good 15-20 min to find their place... they are not very sensitive... also if the receiver comes-up in NMEA mode then they probably used a spec application and it is much better to config the 20 pin connectors to Rockwell-binarymode and use the LabMon 49 software until the receiver alive and then you can config back to NMEA mode. Rgds Ernie. -Original Message- From: shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com To: Time-Nuts time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 3:21 pm Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall n my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have ever had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts ccasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically ee more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so he same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- rom: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it ender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com ate: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 o: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com eply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very ensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, hen you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna ery near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is kay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the eceiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don - -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. __ ime-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com o unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts nd follow the instructions there. __ ime-nuts mailing
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
I was suggesting tricks I used for the austron and odetics. I do not have a manual on the rockwell. Thats what you would need the command set. Regards Paul. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:03 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Thanks, Paul. How do you 'tell' them? -Don -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of paul swed Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 8:56 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Adding to all of the info indeed it does need to have a clear view. Further say its been off along time and the battery is dead or never existed it can take hours to acquire the first sat. Especially if date and time have not been set. I have recovered older GPS units by actually telling them what PRN to look so they obtain the tables along with the date and time. Yours may be far newer then my circa 1994-1998. Just some thoughts. Regards Paul WB8TSL On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 8:40 PM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Thanks, Hal. Tomorrow, I will take it all outside again and leave it, ...I only left it on the car for 5 minutes or so. My only other 'GPS' experience is my new Garmin for the car, ...it comes up almost instantly. Maybe I should take it apart! :-) -Don --- -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Hal Murray Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 7:29 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work dlewis6...@austin.rr.com said: The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. How long did you leave it on your car? There are two problems in this area. One is being able to hear the satellites. There may not be enough signal at your workbench. It depends upon how sensitive your receiver is. Most of my newer GPS receivers work in my house. Older ones work less well. The other problem is what frequency to listen to. The satellites broadcast the orbit parameters. That lets a receiver calculate the frequency to listen on. (The Doppler correction is important.) In order to do that, you have to know the time. That's why there is a pin for the backup power to the clock. Without knowing the time, the receiver has to do a brute force search which takes a while. I would put it in the best location you can easily get to and wait a while. It may take 15 minutes or longer. I wouldn't get upset if it takes a half hour. Once you get it working outside, you can take it inside and see if it still works. If you unplug it without the backup battery you will have to start over again. You can also just let it run overnight and see if that works. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] HP 10811-60111 - successful repair of NTC damage
Congratulations on a job well done and a saved prize piece of technology. John WA4WDL -- From: Frank Stellmach frank.stellm...@freenet.de Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 9:17 AM To: time-nuts@febo.com Subject: [time-nuts] HP 10811-60111 - successful repair of NTC damage Dear time-nuts, the 10811, sitting in my HP5370B, showed an intermittent heater circuitry failure. It turned out, that the NTC temperature sensor was damaged (1982 vintage). At room temperature it was conducting (100kOhm), but became open during heat up phase, eventually conducting properly at around 82°C, but failing from time to time, i.e. the star symbol on the 5370B turned on frequently, and the reference frequency fluctuated strongly. Normally this is a total damage of this OCXO, as the NTC is epoxied completely into the oven mass, and this whole assembly would have been to be replaced, according to the manual. I doubt, that it's available any more, but definitely not for a reasonable price. I found a compatible NTC replacement, regarding diameter (2,41mm max) and electrical parameters, i.e. Rn(25°C) = 100kOhm, B = 4540K, and an even better accuracy of 1%, i.e. 8.6kOhm at 82.8°C +/- 1°C. It's from epcos, S57867S104F140. Visit epcos.com for data sheet and R(T) table. This NTC has 50mm short and blank wires; I couldn't get the PTFE insulated S861.. type. So the wires had to be insulated with a heat shrink tube, and the NTCs wires had to be assembled straight, without bending them 180 degrees through the 2nd hole in the oven mass. That's also much better regarding reliability. After complete disassembly and carefully milling out the old NTC and the epoxy with a 2.5mm drill, I applied thermal grease at the new NTCs head, and fixed the wires with a small drop of epoxy at the other side of the oven mass. The reassembly was a little bit delicate, due to the short wires, and because the insulation of the wires was thicker than before. But finally, the heater circuitry stabilized normally within 10 minutes. Obviously, the thermal gain was not perceptibly affected by this slightly different assembly. The OCXO now works fine since two weeks, and its drift is in the order of 1e-9 again. Frank ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Ah, thanks, that was enough to get me thinking, to pull me away from my job's problems and back to the fun side. I just replaced my wife's computer, and old obsolete big Dell box, with a sleek new (and much faster) laptop. I was about to throw out the old box but now have a use for the large CPU heatsink/fan assembly. I will mount the FE-5680A to an aluminum plate and then to the heatsink. I don't need the plate thermally, but it makes the mechanical mounting much easier. I'll use some thermally conductive pads between things. I will use something like the circuit you provided (thank you), I have a bunch of those TO-92 temperature sensors with wires attached, more surplus from work, and then will mount the whole thing with power supply into a box where I can set up the air flow like I want. So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? Peter On 1/6/2012 1:51 PM, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I just grabbed something I had around it is a 24 V 0.1 A. I run at 15 V, dimensions are 80X80X24 mm I just bought some 80X80X10 mm and I am sure they will work as well. There are so many choices I recently bought a new one with integrated heat sink and tried it on a FRS all for $ 6 shipping included. Attached are two circuits I use, the top one since I did not have a PC board. I now have a board and I used in an other application the two stage one and if you use a heat sink I recommend replacing the feedback resistor on stage two with a capacitor. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 1:16:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: What kind of temperature controlled fan did you use? On 01/06/12, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I do not understand why this is even discussed. Running at lower temperature will extend life and using a fan with temperature control will cost no more than $ 12 and I challenge any of you how I can get for so little money more than one order of magnitude improvement. As I reported before I started out with heat sink only and quickly realized that I would not be able to measure aging because the last 2 digits where all over the place and unless you have an environment where your lab is within 0.1C you are throwing away the real advantage of a Rb. I did enclose the Rb cell and the OCXO on a FEI 5962B, its modularity lends it self for such testing, it was not worth the effort and the power saving was minimal. Once my aging tests are completed I will test for 15 V voltage sensitivity. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 11:35:02 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: A heat sink may not be required, per se, although I would expect that a larger thermal mass and/or thermal regulation via a closed loop fan controller will help smooth out/stabilize temperature effects. On 01/06/12, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469Rc...@omen.com wrote: The Tech Manual does not call for heat sinking (unless I missed something). The top has labels over much of the surface. The bottom has a plastic sheet between the circuitry and bottom plate. It appears the unit was expected to be rather hot when running. I have mine mounted on the out side of the box using standoffs. On 01/06/2012 07:39 AM, Bob Smither wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Chris Albertson wrote: On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 6:11 PM,[1]time-n...@custodes.info wrote: l[2]http://www.freqelec.com/rb_osc_fe5680a.html says 32W peak, but then also 15-18v@700mA, which doesn't make sense. It will pull 35W for the first five or so minutes then the current drops rather suddenly to about 700mA. I have an analog amp meter on my power supply and I can see a switch over after the unit heats up. They must run an internal oven heater full tilt at first then go into regulated mode. Some one else said you can cause the FE5680 to draw more power in steady state mode by adding heat sinking it. Yes that works. Seems the FE5680 wants to be at some set temperature and the heat sink means it takes more power to keep at the set point. I just let the fe5680 rest on a small aluminum plate. Have you measured the case temperature of your FE5680? I put mine on a heat sink and the case temperature stays around 50C. Without the heat sink it was around 60C. Does anyone know what temperature is recommended? The 50C seems a little hot, but the unit appears to work well. - -- Bob Smither, PhD Circuit Concepts, Inc. === == Government is not healthy for children and other living things. -- Jeff Daiell
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
The satellites use helix antennas. John WA4WDL -- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 11:29 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Sure have and a gain of 2 typically. Though if its 10 Mhz, not sure how well that will work. I was doing 5 Mhz at the time and also using buffer amps I think they were LH0036 or 18s. Essentially a gain of 2 stage feeding numbers of buffers. Downside of the approach is that the linear buffer amps suck power. Since I prefer lower power I evolved over the years. Regards Paul. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Peter Gottlieb n...@verizon.net wrote: Ah, thanks, that was enough to get me thinking, to pull me away from my job's problems and back to the fun side. I just replaced my wife's computer, and old obsolete big Dell box, with a sleek new (and much faster) laptop. I was about to throw out the old box but now have a use for the large CPU heatsink/fan assembly. I will mount the FE-5680A to an aluminum plate and then to the heatsink. I don't need the plate thermally, but it makes the mechanical mounting much easier. I'll use some thermally conductive pads between things. I will use something like the circuit you provided (thank you), I have a bunch of those TO-92 temperature sensors with wires attached, more surplus from work, and then will mount the whole thing with power supply into a box where I can set up the air flow like I want. So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? Peter On 1/6/2012 1:51 PM, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I just grabbed something I had around it is a 24 V 0.1 A. I run at 15 V, dimensions are 80X80X24 mm I just bought some 80X80X10 mm and I am sure they will work as well. There are so many choices I recently bought a new one with integrated heat sink and tried it on a FRS all for $ 6 shipping included. Attached are two circuits I use, the top one since I did not have a PC board. I now have a board and I used in an other application the two stage one and if you use a heat sink I recommend replacing the feedback resistor on stage two with a capacitor. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 1:16:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: What kind of temperature controlled fan did you use? On 01/06/12, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I do not understand why this is even discussed. Running at lower temperature will extend life and using a fan with temperature control will cost no more than $ 12 and I challenge any of you how I can get for so little money more than one order of magnitude improvement. As I reported before I started out with heat sink only and quickly realized that I would not be able to measure aging because the last 2 digits where all over the place and unless you have an environment where your lab is within 0.1C you are throwing away the real advantage of a Rb. I did enclose the Rb cell and the OCXO on a FEI 5962B, its modularity lends it self for such testing, it was not worth the effort and the power saving was minimal. Once my aging tests are completed I will test for 15 V voltage sensitivity. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 11:35:02 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: A heat sink may not be required, per se, although I would expect that a larger thermal mass and/or thermal regulation via a closed loop fan controller will help smooth out/stabilize temperature effects. On 01/06/12, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469Rc...@omen.com wrote: The Tech Manual does not call for heat sinking (unless I missed something). The top has labels over much of the surface. The bottom has a plastic sheet between the circuitry and bottom plate. It appears the unit was expected to be rather hot when running. I have mine mounted on the out side of the box using standoffs. On 01/06/2012 07:39 AM, Bob Smither wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Chris Albertson wrote: On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 6:11 PM,[1]time-n...@custodes.info** wrote: l[2]http://www.freqelec.com/**rb_osc_fe5680a.htmlhttp://www.freqelec.com/rb_osc_fe5680a.html says 32W peak, but then also 15-18v@700mA, which doesn't make sense. It will pull 35W for the first five or so minutes then the current drops rather suddenly to about 700mA. I have an analog amp meter on my power supply and I can see a switch over after the unit heats up. They must run an internal oven heater full tilt at first then go into regulated mode. Some one else said you can cause the FE5680 to draw more power in steady state mode by adding heat sinking it. Yes that works. Seems the FE5680 wants to be at some set temperature and the heat sink means it takes more power to keep at the set point. I just let the
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
I am not suggesting this as a replacement for a proper GPS antenna. I am suggesting it as a inexpensive sanity check. The loss from receiving a circularly polarized signal with a linearly polarized antenna (or the reverse) is 3db. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:29:54 +0100, Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
This cheaper eBay antenna I have says it is for 1575.42MHz. Is that anywhere near what it should be? -Don -- -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 11:17 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work I am not suggesting this as a replacement for a proper GPS antenna. I am suggesting it as a inexpensive sanity check. The loss from receiving a circularly polarized signal with a linearly polarized antenna (or the reverse) is 3db. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:29:54 +0100, Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
How long a wire? Thanks -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 11:17 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work I am not suggesting this as a replacement for a proper GPS antenna. I am suggesting it as a inexpensive sanity check. The loss from receiving a circularly polarized signal with a linearly polarized antenna (or the reverse) is 3db. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:29:54 +0100, Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it Sender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very sensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, then you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna very near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is okay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the receiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Ernie: Do you have a link, pls, ...to LM49 that will work with WindowsXP? Thanks, ...-Don -- -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Erno Peres Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 8:40 AM To: shali...@gmail.com; time-nuts@febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Hi Don, this type of receiver sometimes need a good 15-20 min to find their place... they are not very sensitive... also if the receiver comes-up in NMEA mode then they probably used a spec application and it is much better to config the 20 pin connectors to Rockwell-binary mode and use the LabMon 49 software until the receiver alive and then you can config back to NMEA mode. Rgds Ernie. -Original Message- From: shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com To: Time-Nuts time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 3:21 pm Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall n my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have ever had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts ccasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically ee more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so he same setup farther north may not work as well. Didier KO4BB Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... -Original Message- rom: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it ender: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com ate: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 o: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com eply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Absolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very ensitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, hen you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna ery near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is kay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the eceiver download the almanac. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don - -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Don, I've been following this thread and did some research on your module. See below, as there may be some clues, especially on connection of Pin 10, Pin 13. Both need to be +5V, Pin 10 keeps the RTC powered (so that if you switch of GPS, you don't lose almanac). Pin 13 looks like it needs to be kept at +5V to turn on GPS. This may be where your problem lies. I find it difficult to believe that all three units are faulty. Good luck! Rob Kimberley The Rockwell 12-channel GPS module (Part number: TU00-D200-401) module is high performance, low power, 12-channel GPS receiver. Its far reaching capability meets the sensitivity requirements of car navigation as well as other location-based applications. Dimension: 50.98 x 71.12 x 12.29 mm Antenna Connector: MCX This GPS module communicates to your computer or other system via a custom 20-pin interface (for pin-out see below) using NMEA-0183 (ASCII) over TTL. A TTL to RS-232 adaptor will need to be built for communications to a standard PC. Pin-out for this unit is as follows: Pin 1: Antenna power input. Normally 3-5 volts. Maximum 12v, 100mA. Pin 2: GPS unit power input. 5.0 volts DC. Draws approximately 175mA. Pin 4: NMEA/Binary mode select. +5v for NMEA. Ov or floating for binary mode. Pin 5: Battery backup for RTC only (internal clock). 2.5-5 volts. Pin 6: Serial Data Out. Output of GPS messages. 0/5v level RS-232 signal. Pin 7: Time Mark Out. IHz (1PPS) timing output. Pin 8: CTS/DTR Serial Data control. Ov or floating for normal. 5v stops serial output. Pin 9: Serial Data In. Commands or data sent into GPS here. 0/5v level RS-232. Pin 10: Battery backup for Sram and RTC. 2.5-5 volts. Pin 13: Master Reset. +5v to turn on GPS. Ov or floating to turn off and reset. Pin 18: Serial Data In from DGPS correction receiver. 0/5v level RS-232 Pin 20: Baud Rate select. Ov for 4800 baud. 5v or floating for 9600 baud. Pins 3, 11, 14, 17, 19 all Grounded Pins 12, 15, 16 No Connection http://ke6mto.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/gps2b.pdf http://ke6mto.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/gps2a.pdf ___ -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Don Lewis Sent: 07 January 2012 00:24 To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement' Subject: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1. VisualGPS installed and running. 2. A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3. Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4. VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5. I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6. The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 8:39 AM, Peter Gottlieb n...@verizon.net wrote: Ah, thanks, that was enough to get me thinking, to pull me away from my job's problems and back to the fun side. I just replaced my wife's computer, and old obsolete big Dell box, with a sleek new (and much faster) laptop. I was about to throw out the old box but now have a use for the large CPU heatsink/fan assembly. I will mount the FE-5680A to an aluminum plate and then to the heatsink. I don't need the plate thermally, but it makes the mechanical mounting much easier. I'll use some thermally conductive pads between things. I will use something like the circuit you provided (thank you), I have a bunch of those TO-92 temperature sensors with wires attached, more surplus from work, and then will mount the whole thing with power supply into a box where I can set up the air flow like I want. So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? I think this is exactly what you want. An RF distribution amp using video amplifier chips. The kit is no longer available but the schematic is. Look near the end of the user manual and you can get that here. This design is well tested and people way it works well. http://www.tapr.org/kits_tadd-1.html The transformers in the above are not available but I bet you could take some using toroid cores. I guess you could also use an n-way splitter from Mini Circuits, Or maybe multiple splitters with just one RF power amp. I think I will build an analog fan controller too. But in the long term I want a digital fan controller. They cost about the same to build. Get a tiny avr, that's uP in an 8-pin DIP package for about $2. This will have an A/D converter for the temp sensor and PWM for the motor but the good part about a digital controller is you can read the tachometer output from a three wire fan and now you can control the exact RPM. The loop can be very stable. Actually a digital controller would have two loops, one to server the fan to the set RPM and one to control the RPM based on temperature.I think you get the best result from the largest fan you can fit in there running at a very low RPM. These digital controllers can hold the temperature very close. I happen to like Atmel AVR chips, a PIC could also work. So I Googled AVR fan controller source code and found dozens of published projects. Seems it is the project many beginners do right after the blinking LED. Peter On 1/6/2012 1:51 PM, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I just grabbed something I had around it is a 24 V 0.1 A. I run at 15 V, dimensions are 80X80X24 mm I just bought some 80X80X10 mm and I am sure they will work as well. There are so many choices I recently bought a new one with integrated heat sink and tried it on a FRS all for $ 6 shipping included. Attached are two circuits I use, the top one since I did not have a PC board. I now have a board and I used in an other application the two stage one and if you use a heat sink I recommend replacing the feedback resistor on stage two with a capacitor. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 1:16:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: What kind of temperature controlled fan did you use? On 01/06/12, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I do not understand why this is even discussed. Running at lower temperature will extend life and using a fan with temperature control will cost no more than $ 12 and I challenge any of you how I can get for so little money more than one order of magnitude improvement. As I reported before I started out with heat sink only and quickly realized that I would not be able to measure aging because the last 2 digits where all over the place and unless you have an environment where your lab is within 0.1C you are throwing away the real advantage of a Rb. I did enclose the Rb cell and the OCXO on a FEI 5962B, its modularity lends it self for such testing, it was not worth the effort and the power saving was minimal. Once my aging tests are completed I will test for 15 V voltage sensitivity. Bert Kehren In a message dated 1/6/2012 11:35:02 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, n...@verizon.net writes: A heat sink may not be required, per se, although I would expect that a larger thermal mass and/or thermal regulation via a closed loop fan controller will help smooth out/stabilize temperature effects. On 01/06/12, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469Rc...@omen.com wrote: The Tech Manual does not call for heat sinking (unless I missed something). The top has labels over much of the surface. The bottom has a plastic sheet between
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
The FD-5680A specifications say the output is a 0.5 V RMS sine wave into 50 ohms so there are lots of options if that is the signal you want to distribute. There are a number of medium power operational amplifiers specified for video applications which will operate at a gain of 2 allowing back termination without signal loss while driving several 50 ohm loads in parallel. Most will be current feedback but there are a few voltage feedback ones as well. If you use low supply voltages, then you will need to watch the input common mode voltage range and output voltage range. AC coupling will make that easy. http://www.linear.com/product/LT1206 This amplifier is lower output current but operated at lower supply voltages as well. I might try it with an emitter follower buffer. http://www.linear.com/product/LT1192 Since you are dealing with just a low level sine wave, a single transistor amplifier for each channel would work fine as well. I would probably convert the sine wave into a logic level square wave and maybe use some 50 ohm interface drivers. On Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:39:32 -0500, Peter Gottlieb n...@verizon.net wrote: So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
The 1/4 wave of 1.5 GHz is about 5 centimeters. I would expose that much of the center conductor and then angle the shield wires (also 5 centimeters) down at 45 degrees into a cone which will be 135 degrees from the center conductor. Use a very short feedline and use it outdoors. It will not be pretty or high performance but it will be cheap in money and time and may restore sanity. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 11:25:19 -0600, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: How long a wire? -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 11:17 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work I am not suggesting this as a replacement for a proper GPS antenna. I am suggesting it as a inexpensive sanity check. The loss from receiving a circularly polarized signal with a linearly polarized antenna (or the reverse) is 3db. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:29:54 +0100, Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: Just take care that GPS signal is right-hand circularly polarized. For those interested in building GPS antennae I recommend the QFH-type antenna: quite complex but it is the same antenna actually used to transmit from the birds. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:02 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: I have done the same thing with an amplified patch antenna facing out the window. I wonder in this case if making a rough 1/4 wave antenna out of a very short feedline would be enough for a cheap outdoor sanity check. On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:21:09 +, shali...@gmail.com wrote: I test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the wall in my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I have never had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, Thunderbolts occasionally go on holdover, but never for very long. Of course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they typically see more satellites and don't go into holdover. I am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, so the same setup farther north may not work as well. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
I ultimately went with the 1 rf amp and splitter method which allowed lower current consumption and single supply operation. I had seen this approach in celsite dist amps. I used a fet IR 510 as I recall cheap and available. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 12:53 PM, David davidwh...@gmail.com wrote: The FD-5680A specifications say the output is a 0.5 V RMS sine wave into 50 ohms so there are lots of options if that is the signal you want to distribute. There are a number of medium power operational amplifiers specified for video applications which will operate at a gain of 2 allowing back termination without signal loss while driving several 50 ohm loads in parallel. Most will be current feedback but there are a few voltage feedback ones as well. If you use low supply voltages, then you will need to watch the input common mode voltage range and output voltage range. AC coupling will make that easy. http://www.linear.com/product/LT1206 This amplifier is lower output current but operated at lower supply voltages as well. I might try it with an emitter follower buffer. http://www.linear.com/product/LT1192 Since you are dealing with just a low level sine wave, a single transistor amplifier for each channel would work fine as well. I would probably convert the sine wave into a logic level square wave and maybe use some 50 ohm interface drivers. On Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:39:32 -0500, Peter Gottlieb n...@verizon.net wrote: So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
On Jan 7, 2012, at 10:39 AM, Chris Albertson wrote: I think this is exactly what you want. An RF distribution amp using video amplifier chips. The kit is no longer available but the schematic is. Look near the end of the user manual and you can get that here. This design is well tested and people way it works well. http://www.tapr.org/kits_tadd-1.html The transformers in the above are not available but I bet you could take some using toroid cores. TAPR told me last year that the kit discontinuance was due to the Maxim RF amplifiers becoming unavailable. I believe the T1-X65 transformers [1] I just bought from Mini-circuits are similar or identical to the transformer mentioned in the schematic. Kevin [1] http://www.minicircuits.com/MCLStore/ModelPriceDisplay?13259623730480.6126895864089323 ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Kevin Rosenberg said the following on 01/07/2012 02:02 PM: TAPR told me last year that the kit discontinuance was due to the Maxim RF amplifiers becoming unavailable. I believe the T1-X65 transformers [1] I just bought from Mini-circuits are similar or identical to the transformer mentioned in the schematic. Yes, the Max477 chips have become unobtainium. Minicircuits still sells the T1-1 transformers, so no problems there. I've heard from someone who was going to try to substitute an Analog Devices chip that was supposedly drop-in compatible, but haven't had an update on whether that worked. There is a replacement for the TADD-1 in the works, coming along slowly, slowly (but with recent activity and progress). John ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
dlewis6...@austin.rr.com said: It ran all night, with the same (bad) results ...no satellites. I am beginning to think I have a bad antenna. I have three GPS modules, all acting the same, with no satellites. But, only one antenna to share with them. Have you tried it outside for at least an hour? If not, I haven't seen anything to indicate that it is not working right. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A? (TADD-1 components)
On 1/7/2012 12:23 PM, John Ackermann N8UR wrote: I've heard from someone who was going to try to substitute an Analog Devices chip that was supposedly drop-in compatible, but haven't had an update on whether that worked. Yes it does John. I thought I'd already said the AD8055A is a drop in replacement, assuming I'm the someone. I have two boards running with them. It is still available in a DIP version as well. Dan ac6ao ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
Don, the LabMon sw running only under DOS system..! rgds Ernie -Original Message- From: Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement' time-nuts@febo.com; shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com Sent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 6:30 pm Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Ernie: Do you have a link, pls, ...to LM49 that will work with WindowsXP? hanks, ...-Don -- Original Message- rom: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On ehalf Of Erno Peres ent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 8:40 AM o: shali...@gmail.com; time-nuts@febo.com ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work i Don, this type of receiver sometimes need a good 15-20 min to find their place... hey are not very sensitive... lso if the receiver comes-up in NMEA mode then they probably used a spec pplication and it s much better to config the 20 pin connectors to Rockwell-binary ode and use the LabMon 49 software until the receiver alive and then ou can config back to NMEA mode. Rgds Ernie. Original Message- rom: shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com o: Time-Nuts time-nuts@febo.com ent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 3:21 pm ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the all my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I ave ver had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, hunderbolts casionally go on holdover, but never for very long. f course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they ypically e more satellites and don't go into holdover. am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, o e same setup farther north may not work as well. idier KO4BB ent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... Original Message- om: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it nder: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com te: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 : Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com ply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com bject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work bsolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very nsitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, en you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna ry near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is ay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the ceiver download the almanac. n Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don - -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna??? But it is what I could afford and thought it would be cheap to learn on. Thanks for your help. -Don ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?
I got a demo of a national network quality (and price) digital TV encoder from a ham friend in the industry. It took about 6 seconds delay itself to encode images. The compression has a lot of state and multiple heuristic systems as well (face trackers, for example). Leigh/WA5ZNU On 01/01/2012 09:09 PM, David I. Emery wrote: On Sun, Jan 01, 2012 at 05:54:46PM -0800, J. Forster wrote: To me the ball drop/fireworks was different from the on-screen time on FOX by a few secnds. I was watching the media pool HD satellite feed on AMC-1 and through a broadcast grade IRD (ex PBS Bitlink ) it appeared to be about 2 seconds slow relative to my house NTP timing. This would about exactly match what I would expect for uplink encoder, satellite path, and decoder delays. I would expect a TV station using that feed might add anywhere from 1-6 seconds to the delay in their internal processing to OTA... and a digital cable system might add further delay to that (couple of more seconds at least). Real time TV these days is only RELATIVELY real time. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
So, here's a question. One app is a rack of gear which all needs to get the 10 MHz. I could just go find some distribution amp, but I would prefer to build something. Has anyone done this? Sine or square wave? I was thinking perhaps a good solid reasonably high power op amp buffer feeding resistors to each output to each piece of gear? Anyone done this and found any gotchas or success stories? The advantage of that scheme is simplicity. The disadvantage is reduced isolation in case you have crap coming back from one of the devices you are feeding. I second the suggestion to scan the documentation for the TAPR distribution amplifier. There are actually two of them, one for RF and another for PPS/digital. http://www.tapr.org/kits_tadd-1.html http://www.tapr.org/~n8ur/TADD-1_Manual.pdf http://www.tapr.org/kits_tadd-3.html http://www.tapr.org/~n8ur/TADD-3_Manual.pdf Thanks John. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work
I made a mistake: I see that block IIR satellites have simple helix. Now I'm trying to locate the PDF where I saw the QFH for use on GPS satellites but maybe only the first generation had the QFH. On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 11:42 PM, Erno Peres erniepe...@aol.com wrote: Don, the LabMon sw running only under DOS system..! rgds Ernie -Original Message- From: Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement' time-nuts@febo.com; shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com Sent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 6:30 pm Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Ernie: Do you have a link, pls, ...to LM49 that will work with WindowsXP? hanks, ...-Don -- Original Message- rom: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On ehalf Of Erno Peres ent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 8:40 AM o: shali...@gmail.com; time-nuts@febo.com ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work i Don, this type of receiver sometimes need a good 15-20 min to find their place... hey are not very sensitive... lso if the receiver comes-up in NMEA mode then they probably used a spec pplication and it s much better to config the 20 pin connectors to Rockwell-binary ode and use the LabMon 49 software until the receiver alive and then ou can config back to NMEA mode. Rgds Ernie. Original Message- rom: shalimr9 shali...@gmail.com o: Time-Nuts time-nuts@febo.com ent: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 3:21 pm ubject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work test all my GPS receivers with a hockey puck type antenna attached to the all my hamshack, which is upstairs, but under the ceiling and the roof and I ave ver had one fail to lock within reasonable time. With this setup, hunderbolts casionally go on holdover, but never for very long. f course, when I plug them in the external Symmetricom antenna, they ypically e more satellites and don't go into holdover. am in Northwest Florida, so probably at a lower latitude than most of you, o e same setup farther north may not work as well. idier KO4BB ent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things... Original Message- om: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it nder: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com te: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 02:00:21 : Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com ply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com bject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work bsolutely yes, the antenna must see the sky, not the ceiling. Even very nsitive GPS receivers must have a good view of the sky for the first fix, en you can bring the antenna indoor. You can try positioning the antenna ry near a window for just a test but better a good view. The car roof is ay but you must wait several minutes (12 minutes at most) to let the ceiver download the almanac. n Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Maybe I didn't take positioning seriously. The antenna is currently on a shelf above my workbench, there is a ceiling and an upstairs above it. Then the roof. Is it very critical to be outside in order to 'see' the sky? I did take it out once and set the antenna on my car roof, but still no satellites. -Don - -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of bownes Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:49 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Cc: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Getting my Rockwell D200 GPS to work Step one...is the antenna in a location where it can see they sky? Sorry if it is a stupid question but you already said it was plugged in. :) On Jan 6, 2012, at 19:24, Don Lewis dlewis6...@austin.rr.com wrote: Can someone please give me some pointers (my first time with a GPS module). A little hand-holding, pls. I bought three of these Rockwell D200 GPS receivers. (It's little GPS PWB with an antenna connector and pins for connecting to the RS232- PC) All three 'appear' to work the same way (no apparent capture of satellites). Here's what I have: 1.VisualGPS installed and running. 2.A small USB-RS232 card installed and appears to be operational. 3.Small GPS active antenna plugged in. 4.VisualGPS monitor just repeatedly displays: $GPGGA,,0,00,,,*66 5.I think I understand this to be NMEA code to mean no satellites have been acquired. 6.The Rockwell D200 draws ~180ma (5V) with no antenna and ~190ma with the small active antenna plugged in. What am I doing wrong? Other than maybe cheap china gps' and antenna???
[time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Most gear probably won't care whether it's sinusoidal or square as long as the amplitude is right, but if you try to send square waves, then the question is how square do they need to be. Sharp edges may convey better timing information, but may also cause ringing and other effects. I think reasonably clean sine waves or highly rounded square waves are best, and easiest to send around, and you know how much bandwidth is needed. Ed ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Most of the gear I have expects TTL levels or better. A 0.6 volt RMS sine wave (1.2 volts peak to peak) could be a problem. As far as ringing, I would design something with back termination and slew rate limiting and expect the receiver to terminate to ground which is almost always the situation. I looked at the TADD-3 design and it sacrifices back termination impedance for signal swing which results in ringing but I presume not too much if people were using it successfully. If there are time nuts then why not impedance, edge, and transconductance nuts? On Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:11:59 -0800, ed breya e...@telight.com wrote: Most gear probably won't care whether it's sinusoidal or square as long as the amplitude is right, but if you try to send square waves, then the question is how square do they need to be. Sharp edges may convey better timing information, but may also cause ringing and other effects. I think reasonably clean sine waves or highly rounded square waves are best, and easiest to send around, and you know how much bandwidth is needed. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] Temperature and signal amp for 'Bay FE-5680A?
Oh, there are definitely edge nuts. I've seen quite a number of posts regarding measurement and attainment of ultrafast edges. I've also seen impedance nuts (and of course those who think it is fine to randomly intermix 75 ohm and 50 ohm cables in systems). But I have yet to run into a transconductance nut! On 1/7/2012 8:39 PM, David wrote: Most of the gear I have expects TTL levels or better. A 0.6 volt RMS sine wave (1.2 volts peak to peak) could be a problem. As far as ringing, I would design something with back termination and slew rate limiting and expect the receiver to terminate to ground which is almost always the situation. I looked at the TADD-3 design and it sacrifices back termination impedance for signal swing which results in ringing but I presume not too much if people were using it successfully. If there are time nuts then why not impedance, edge, and transconductance nuts? On Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:11:59 -0800, ed breyae...@telight.com wrote: Most gear probably won't care whether it's sinusoidal or square as long as the amplitude is right, but if you try to send square waves, then the question is how square do they need to be. Sharp edges may convey better timing information, but may also cause ringing and other effects. I think reasonably clean sine waves or highly rounded square waves are best, and easiest to send around, and you know how much bandwidth is needed. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?
It was accurate. I was right there using Android UTC time application. Also about the leap-second on July 1st, this will allow revealing whether Samsung just did a 15-second offset hack to get around Google bug 5485 (that makes non-Samsung Android phones currently 15 seconds fast), or if really they tweaked firmware to derive utc-disciplined data rather than gps. Cheers, Chris On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 20:46, Jim Palfreyman jim77...@gmail.com wrote: Hi folks, Ignoring the travesty of a lyric change on John Lennon's classic song, did anyone check to see if the clock countdown in Times Square was actually accurate? In times gone past countdowns have been notoriously off (worst I saw was a tv personality using his own watch and it was 25 seconds out). Oh and why we're at it here is my worst time-nut story... Pulled up in a Loading Zone 8-6pm at 18:00:10. Got out, came back 4 minutes later to find a parking officer giving me a ticket. Me: Look at the time (showing my watch) - it's 6:04 Him: Not by my watch (which said 5:59 at that point). Me (massive sarcasm voice): So. Let me get this straight. Despite worldwide time standards keeping clocks accurate to billionths of a second and costing millions of dollars, all that is now been binned and we now keep world official time by your watch. Is that right?. Him: Bu... Me (interrupting and pulling out mobile): Let's listen to the national time standard shall we? (I dial and put on speaker - his watch is a good solid 5 minutes slow). Him: Walks off screwing up ticket. The sheer arrogance of the Not by my watch comment irks me to this day. Jim ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Labmon software for older Jupiter GPS modules
I have several newer versions of the old Labmon DOS software for use with the older Jupiter GPS modules. I believe they're versions 6 and 7. I also have WinLabmon. Please respond off list if interested. Bob ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
