Recently some Datum Startloc II GPSDO's appeared on Ebay (originally around
$50, now $100). The main seller appears to be in Canada. These are a telco
type GPSDO that appears to be an attempt at a replacement for Trimble
Thunderbolts. I recently got one in and did some playing with it (Lady Heather
can now tolerate the beastie). They run on 24V, speak TSIP, use a Motorola 8
channel UT receiver, the RS-232 connector is a male and needs a null modem
cable to connect to a computer. Serial protocol is 9600:8N1
Ok, it's wart time:
They do an unstoppable survey when powered on. They say it will be a 14400
sample / 4 hour survey, but (thankfully) it is closer to 30 minutes. It does
not appear to save the surveyed position in EEPROM... probably doesn't even
have an EEPROM.
It won't let you enter a surveyed position or work in a position hold mode or
let you change the receiver mode (2D/3D/position hold, etc). When it enters
overdetermined clock mode, the lat and lon data appear fixed but the altitude
changes.
The satellite info message reports the signal level, BUT THE AZIMUTH AND
ELEVATION FIELDS ARE 0... BASTARDS! No antenna signal level map for you!
It always reports a temperature of 30C.
It does not report actual antenna open/short/OK status. It says everything is
always OK... nothing to worry about... move along.
The manufacturing date message reports the month as 0. The hardware and
firmware version months are OK.
You can't change the antenna elevation mask angle or signal level mask value or
motion filter settings or oscillator disciplining settings or pretty much any
fun / useful stuff. The values it sends back for the elevation and signal
level masks are random garbage. You can set the cable delay (but loses it when
powered off, seems to default to around 150 feet of coax).
It seems to send back requested data whenever it wants (if ever).
There are probably other warts, these are just the few that raised their ugly
little heads first.
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