Re: [time-nuts] Most accurate clock on your wrist
Hey y'all, Interesting site but he's kinda behind the times, so to speak :-) about what modern, more pedestrian watches can do. Back around Christmas I bought a Luminox dive chronometer, model 3HMBM. This is the one with the chrono functions in the form of a little LCD screen under 12 o'clock. I got this one for two reasons. First and foremost, it has tritium-illuminated hands and dial. Second, it's waterproof which means it's also mostly me-proof The analog and digital sections are separate and get set separately, strangely enough. Even more strangely, the analog part keeps better time. When I got the watch I spent a bit of time getting it exactly synced with the NTP-controlled system clock on my computer. I observed it for deviation daily for awhile but it became evident that this frequency wasn't necessary. This is an amazingly accurate watch. I just checked it and it's almost 4 second fast. That works out to about a second a month. This is by far the most accurate watch I own, including my WWVB synced watches. I have two, a G-shock and a combo analog/digital chrono similar to the Luminox. Both drift worse than a second a day if they don't receive a signal. I don't know if there is anything out there any better than the Luminox but I kinda doubt it. A second a month is superb performance for a wristwatch. John On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:20:12 +0200, Sebastian Stolp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi jim, here's the thing you were asking for: http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/omega_megaquartz_2400.html as for myself - i do rely on a seiko 7548 reference quartz watch with a 'drift' of +/- 15 sec. per month. noz bad for a unit used for boiling eggs on a sunday morning ;-) best regards, sebastian Am 17.04.2007 um 01:11 schrieb Palfreyman, Jim L: Hi Folks, What is the most accurate wrist watch you can purchase? Obviously the radio controlled ones are the best, but I'm curious as to the fully self controlled units. Oh and yes I have seen the photo of the caesium clock attached to someone's wrist! Also, on the NIST website they talk about a new development - the atomic clock the size of a grain of rice. I see this as having huge future potential. Does anyone have any news on this development? Oh and yes I want one! Jim Palfreyman ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts --- John De Armond See my website for my current email address http://www.neon-john.com Cleveland, Occupied TN All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope. -Churchill ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
I am in the process of designing a GPIB-Ethernet controller. You think that will be of any interest? I'm not sure who your market is. Hobbyists/hackers probably have different requirements from real businesses and there are probably vast differences from business to business. My general considerations: cost physical setup (cables, power...) software and documentation Your USB version is nice. It avoids the wall wart, and if you are lucky, it doesn't even need any GPIB cables. This is just a hobby for me. Your current price is borderline. If it was only $50, I would have ordered one right away. If it was $300 I wouldn't have ordered one yet. The sample software and documentation was weak. What I really wanted was some code known to work on Linux. (But I'm over that hump now.) A RS-232 version might be interesting. RS-232 is widely available and people know how to program it. It's mature technology. USB is also mature, but less so on Linux. Using the FTDI chip was a good idea. I don't have any interesting boxes old enough to not have USB. Now that I have the USB version working I'd prefer to avoid the wall wart. The Linux glitch that stumped me for a while was in both the USB and normal serial drivers. Your new version fixes that anyway. Ethernet might be interesting, but I see several disadvantages. It needs power. It will be more expensive. It will be more complicated to setup: aside from a TCP connection, you have to assign an IP address to the box. DHCP works great for clients, but it's a pain for servers. Even if the cost wasn't higher, I'd prefer the USB version. All in all, the USB version looks like the sweet spot. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Most accurate clock on your wrist
Hi, Modern temperature compensated quartz movements are typically specified at +_ 10 seconds per year. An example is the Breitling Professional Aerospace I wear daily. Not excessively expensive (£1500) and not so obvious to muggers etc as a Rolex. The best current spec is The Citizen with an A660 movement at +- 5s/year but that's if you wear it at least 12h a day. See http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?goto=1910741rid=0t=tree for some more info. Robert. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neon John Sent: 17 April 2007 07:59 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Most accurate clock on your wrist Hey y'all, Interesting site but he's kinda behind the times, so to speak :-) about what modern, more pedestrian watches can do. Back around Christmas I bought a Luminox dive chronometer, model 3HMBM. This is the one with the chrono functions in the form of a little LCD screen under 12 o'clock. I got this one for two reasons. First and foremost, it has tritium-illuminated hands and dial. Second, it's waterproof which means it's also mostly me-proof The analog and digital sections are separate and get set separately, strangely enough. Even more strangely, the analog part keeps better time. When I got the watch I spent a bit of time getting it exactly synced with the NTP-controlled system clock on my computer. I observed it for deviation daily for awhile but it became evident that this frequency wasn't necessary. This is an amazingly accurate watch. I just checked it and it's almost 4 second fast. That works out to about a second a month. This is by far the most accurate watch I own, including my WWVB synced watches. I have two, a G-shock and a combo analog/digital chrono similar to the Luminox. Both drift worse than a second a day if they don't receive a signal. I don't know if there is anything out there any better than the Luminox but I kinda doubt it. A second a month is superb performance for a wristwatch. John On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:20:12 +0200, Sebastian Stolp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi jim, here's the thing you were asking for: http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/omega_megaquartz_2400.html as for myself - i do rely on a seiko 7548 reference quartz watch with a 'drift' of +/- 15 sec. per month. noz bad for a unit used for boiling eggs on a sunday morning ;-) best regards, sebastian Am 17.04.2007 um 01:11 schrieb Palfreyman, Jim L: Hi Folks, What is the most accurate wrist watch you can purchase? Obviously the radio controlled ones are the best, but I'm curious as to the fully self controlled units. Oh and yes I have seen the photo of the caesium clock attached to someone's wrist! Also, on the NIST website they talk about a new development - the atomic clock the size of a grain of rice. I see this as having huge future potential. Does anyone have any news on this development? Oh and yes I want one! Jim Palfreyman ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts --- John De Armond See my website for my current email address http://www.neon-john.com Cleveland, Occupied TN All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope. -Churchill ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts Genetix Limited - Queensway, New Milton, Hampshire, BH25 5NN Registered in England No. 2660050 www.genetix.com Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual and not necessarily Genetix Ltd (Genetix) or any company associated with it. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient or the person responsible for delivering to the intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify Genetix by telephone on +44 (0)1425 624600. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is strictly forbidden. This mail and any attachments have been scanned for viruses prior to leaving Genetix network. Genetix will not be liable for direct, special, indirect or consequential damages as a result of any virus being passed on, or arising from alteration of the contents of this message by a third party. ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com
Re: [time-nuts] Most accurate clock on your wrist
Jim Palfreyman wrote: Also, on the NIST website they talk about a new development - the atomic clock the size of a grain of rice. I see this as having huge future potential. Does anyone have any news on this development? Development continues - they are trying to reduce the power consumption by an order of magnitude to about 30mW so it can work in battery-powered equipment. Oh and yes I want one! Join the queue! ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Most accurate clock on your wrist
Probably my favorite watch ever is the Abicus Wrist PDA. While it is not inherently extremely accurate, the battery is only good for a day or two without recharge, so normally you connect it to a USB port every night for charging/HotSync... at which time it resets to the clock of the computer you're synching too. Just make sure that machine has a good NTP setup and you'll have time as good as a WWVB watch as well as a surprising amount of computing power backed by 8mb of memory on your wrist at all times. Those who get bored with a single watch face can hit one of the several interface buttons and switch to other face programs. It's also handy for carrying e-books (make sure your eyeglasses prescription is current if over 40). I wore mine religiously (despite the inherent fashion crime) until replacing several items of everyday personal electronics (camera, cellphone, PDA watch) with a Treo 680. As much fun as the watch was, going from 8MB to 8GB of memory, a bigger, full-color display, decent audio and mobile internet was a compelling argument. And the Treo syncs itself to the cell network clock automatically. Wrist PDAs go for $60-80 US on eBay these days. http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/08/reading_website.html http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=31360 -- 73 de Maggie K3XS Editor, Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club Blurb - http://www.phil-mont.org Elecraft K2 #1641 -- AOPA 925383 -- ARRL 39280-- ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
John Miles wrote: I'll admit I'm kind of surprised at all of the users sticking up for RS-232. I would've thought Abdul would be safe in abandoning his internal RS-232 data pathway between the Atmel and FTDI chip. What are some examples of RS-232 hosts that need to talk to GPIB test equipment? Old/retired laptops being used as dumb terminals? Legacy DOS apps that don't have any form of USB support? Both? My main data-logging machine has six serial ports (2 on the mobo, four more via PCI adapter) and two NI GPIB cards. I also have serial cable strung all around the lab. I can use USB, but a relatively inexpensive serial solution is easier to drop in and offers more flexibility (for example, use a $150 Soekris single board computer as a logging device as well as super-duper time server; it has two serial but no USB). John ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Tom Van Baak writes: Another example is GPS receivers. How would it be if they only came with USB interfaces? Consumers wouldn't care, they might even prefer it, but consider why it would drive us engineers crazy. The biggest mistake in USB, was that they didn't define mandatory device models, like for instance SCSI. How anybody could come up with USB and not immediately say to themselves We better define a async serial profile right away or it will be bedlam is beyond me. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 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 https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
If a device is USB-only you pretty much have to just plug it into a wintel PC, install their OS-dependent software, and take what you're given. That's more accurate than I like, but some of the devices do work on Linux and/or FreeBSD. Devices that are simple enough to work over RS-232 are usually equally simple on USB. Yes, it's messy if they don't release documentation. -- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
In a message dated 4/17/2007 10:28:31 Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What are some examples of RS-232 hosts that need to talk to GPIB test equipment? Old/retired laptops being used as dumb terminals? Legacy DOS apps that don't have any form of USB support? Both? -- john, KE5FX Hi John, in our case (Jackson-Labs FireFox Signal Generator) we use the Signal Generators' internal RS-232 port to drive a GPIP HP power meter such as the 436 etc to do an automatic RF level calibration of the generator. The Signal Generator becomes a GPIB host via it's RS232 port and a modified version of the Abdul board and controls the RF Power meter (setting frequency, and other parameters in the meter, and reading the RF power from the meter). Later models of the Agilent power meter such as the E4418 series have a built in RS-232 port and can connect directly to our FireFox generator - a simple null-modem cable does the trick. These power meters don't have USB ports, and if they did, we would have to have a USB host on our generator - a nightmare scenario for our software. So we get the best of all three worlds: * We ship a commercial RS-232 to USB adaptor with our generator for users who don't have RS-232 ports on their PC's anymore, so USB is fully supported and it adds less than $20 to the production cost of the generator to support both USB and RS-232. * We can drive the newer Agilent power meters directly if they have RS-232 ports (E4418 etc) * We can drive the older Agilent GPIB-only power meters such as the 436 using a modified version of the Abdul USB to GPIB board which was modified to have a true RS-232 connector. By the way: the biggest drawback of a USB port on an embedded system in my opinion is that users expect to be able to plug-in any type of device (USB HDD, USB Memory Stick, USB Printers etc) and have them work magically. That doesen't even work properly on Windows sometimes. bye, Said ** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
I'll give you a recent example. I have a bunch of AC power meters in my lab (model: Watts Up PRO) that have RS232 output and I wrote software that logs and plots the data. A while back I picked up cheap serial-ethernet converters and now I get all the same data over my house LAN. If these were USB devices I'd be stuck with their software, their logs, their plots, and have to locate a Windows PC near each meter. Ironically, like Prologix, the company that makes these AC meters also just went USB so this flexibility is now lost. TVB - check out the power meters from: http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html Still RS-232 (or now ethernet ready), and they work great. I'm a happy customer. Tom Frank ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Watts Up (was Re: Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...)
BTW, one digital power meter that I gave up on is: http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html Would appreciate any comments you have on this. I'd be curious to know what problem you had. I've been using the 1851, and found it reliable and accurate. And it works just as well on 400 Hz power, which was the real objective. Tom Frank ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Watts Up (was Re: Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...)
That would be the 21-1850 (typo). Sorry. Tom Frank On Apr 17, 2007, at 8:47 PM, Thomas A. Frank wrote: BTW, one digital power meter that I gave up on is: http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html Would appreciate any comments you have on this. I'd be curious to know what problem you had. I've been using the 1851, and found it reliable and accurate. And it works just as well on 400 Hz power, which was the real objective. Tom Frank ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Watts Up
From: Thomas A. Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Watts Up (was Re: Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:47:10 -0400 Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] BTW, one digital power meter that I gave up on is: http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html Would appreciate any comments you have on this. I'd be curious to know what problem you had. I've been using the 1851, and found it reliable and accurate. And it works just as well on 400 Hz power, which was the real objective. Where are you running 400 Hz? Are you a flyer boy or? Cheers, Magnus ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
Tom Van Baak [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If a device is USB-only you pretty much have to just plug it into a wintel PC, install their OS-dependent software, and take what you're given. There's not much in the way of OS-dependent software, at least not in the conventional sense of must install custom driver or it won't work. USB serial adapters of the FDTI ilk just work in Windows and Linux. (Yes, a manufacturer can assign its own ID, and that will require a custom wrapper for the standard driver ... but it doesn't happen that much, as it is ordinarily a bad idea.) Serial usb devices -- most USB devices in fact -- work quite well on non-x86 hardware, too. I can tell you from experience, mostly with ARM platforms (XScale and StrongARM). (I worked on the OHCI usb host controller driver for the StrongARM SA1110 for Linux. Don't get me started on the silicon bugs in this part.) Poul-Henning Kamp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The biggest mistake in USB, was that they didn't define mandatory device models, like for instance SCSI. What are you talking about? The standard USB Mass Storage model can directly encapsulate and transport SCSI commands. In fact that's about all it can do. The entire spec is only 7 pages, because it is layered on top of all the T10 specs. Furthermore, there are a number of other standard device models: hid, cdc, audio, et al. There's an entire working group (DWG) for this. Arguably there are few ad hoc device interfaces that ought to be standardized, but the state isn't dire. I look at that as the market at work. (Compare this situation to that of Bluetooth. There are several half-baked and useless device profiles in the specs that were defined too soon in the specification process, before experience with the devices could be considered and reflected back into the specs.) -ch ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
I struck gold, I got two brand new units in original packaging with manuals and cables for $90 on eBay a year ago or so... The seller had 2 in a Dutch auction for $90 each, and I was going to buy one but I missed the deadline and the units did not sell... As I was writing him an email to ask if he was still willing to sell one unit at that price, I saw he had reposted them at $90 for 2, BIN. I jumped on it. Actually, my favorite is the Black Box Serial-488 Controller (it was designed by IOTech, who sells essentially the same unit as the Serial488A). It's a monster compared to the IOTech Micro488/P, but the separate power supply eliminates the requirement for modem control lines and I can use a simple 3 wire cable, and the unit don't care how many unpowered devices there are on the bus. Since I have a dozen or so instruments daisy chained at all times, it's a little more convenient. I replaced the 3 terminal 5V linear regulator inside with a small switcher, so it runs cool from a standard wall wart instead of a 1A supply. My logging software can handle either controller though, so with my setup, it does not really matter which one I use. The Micro488/P is neat though, I must admit. Didier KO4BB Tom Van Baak wrote: As someone pointed out, a Serial-USB adapter cost only about $10 (www.geeks.com), and I would not mind having a GPIB-Serial device, and attach a Serial-USB if I want to. Once you provide USB only, that's it, it will be USB or nothing. The one drawback of a Serial only controller is that you probably need a separate power supply. It's not the end of the world though. It's not an absolute obligation either. I have a pair of IOTech Micro488/P controllers that are powered from the serial port. They use a Motorola 68HC05 chip internally and work well, even with the serial port from my Dell laptop. The command set is simple and effective, I would recommend it. When bought new, these IOTech serial controllers cost an arm, both legs and an eye... eBay to the rescue :-) Didier I'm happy to hear someone else is using the IoTech Micro488/P. It's my all-time favorite GPIB controller. /tvb ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
The good news in that regard is that it appears FTDI pretty much owns the USB-Serial adapter market, at least in the US, so we almost have a standard there... Didier KO4BB Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Tom Van Baak writes: Another example is GPS receivers. How would it be if they only came with USB interfaces? Consumers wouldn't care, they might even prefer it, but consider why it would drive us engineers crazy. The biggest mistake in USB, was that they didn't define mandatory device models, like for instance SCSI. How anybody could come up with USB and not immediately say to themselves We better define a async serial profile right away or it will be bedlam is beyond me. ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
In message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Didier Juges [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: : The good news in that regard is that it appears FTDI pretty much owns : the USB-Serial adapter market, at least in the US, so we almost have a : standard there... Well, there is the umodem standard... But 3/4 of all the FreeBSD usb drivers are for slightly different serial devices... Warner ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
The public beta of the Windows configuration app for Prologix boards is here: http://www.ke5fx.com/gpib/setup.exe This is actually a complete GPIB Toolkit release, but you can run the PROLOGIX.EXE app independently of anything else. It's a standalone program with no dependencies on the rest of the package. (Parenthetically, if anyone on the list has access to an Agilent PSA-class spectrum analyzer with a Prologix or NI GPIB interface and is interested helping test the new SCPI support in this release, please drop me a note offline.) PROLOGIX.EXE should be a very handy tool for Prologix users running Windows, at least once it's fully debugged. I'd appreciate any comments/bug reports on it. -- john, KE5FX The new Win32 configuration program is actually looking pretty sharp; if anyone with a version 3.xx or 4.xx board wants to help beta-test it, drop me a line offlist at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and I'll send a copy. -- john, KE5FX John Miles said the following on 04/15/2007 04:37 PM: You can try sending the command ++rst to force the Atmel chip to cold-boot itself. That takes about 5 seconds. Hmmm... that command isn't documented in the on-line manual. I'm getting the feeling that one of the problems with this device is that the docs are quite incomplete. For example, according to email I got today from the developer, the latest version no longer cares at all about the serial params. Which makes sense because the docs that are on the web site don't mention the port settings at all. But if you read any of the google hits, you'll find a bunch of messages (mainly on time-nuts!) about the need to get the 115200, N81 settings correct. John ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...
John, You are too late by about a week or two, we had a rental for about 6 months and just sent it back last week... Forgot which model exactly, but it was the 40 or 50 GHz model. Very spiffy. I have a new Prologix controller on the way and I intend to check it on everything I can lay my hands on :-) The two older models I already have have been getting good use as a HP 8566B plotter emulator for one (at work), and a Tek 494P plotter emulator (at home) for the other. Didier KO4BB John Miles wrote: The public beta of the Windows configuration app for Prologix boards is here: http://www.ke5fx.com/gpib/setup.exe This is actually a complete GPIB Toolkit release, but you can run the PROLOGIX.EXE app independently of anything else. It's a standalone program with no dependencies on the rest of the package. (Parenthetically, if anyone on the list has access to an Agilent PSA-class spectrum analyzer with a Prologix or NI GPIB interface and is interested helping test the new SCPI support in this release, please drop me a note offline.) PROLOGIX.EXE should be a very handy tool for Prologix users running Windows, at least once it's fully debugged. I'd appreciate any comments/bug reports on it. -- john, KE5FX The new Win32 configuration program is actually looking pretty sharp; if anyone with a version 3.xx or 4.xx board wants to help beta-test it, drop me a line offlist at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and I'll send a copy. -- john, KE5FX John Miles said the following on 04/15/2007 04:37 PM: You can try sending the command ++rst to force the Atmel chip to cold-boot itself. That takes about 5 seconds. Hmmm... that command isn't documented in the on-line manual. I'm getting the feeling that one of the problems with this device is that the docs are quite incomplete. For example, according to email I got today from the developer, the latest version no longer cares at all about the serial params. Which makes sense because the docs that are on the web site don't mention the port settings at all. But if you read any of the google hits, you'll find a bunch of messages (mainly on time-nuts!) about the need to get the 115200, N81 settings correct. John ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
Re: [time-nuts] Watts Up (was Re: Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...)
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:44:31 -0700, Tom Van Baak [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ... If you have the capability of testing your WUPs, I'd certainly be interested in what you find. I'd like to think that maybe the problem is in just this one revision of firmware. But I suspect not. John Thanks much for your thoughts about the WUP. I might have guessed there were power-nuts out there! Very interesting. I'm sure there are -nuts for just about everything. Me, I collect generators and inverters and utility equipment like you do cesium beam clocks :-) My only problem is that I have too many nut-isms for the available funds I guess I haven't worried about the power factor. What I do very much like about the WUP is the well-designed (and even documented) serial interface, the choice of command/response or periodic talk-only modes, and the clean design inside. yes, that's what prompted me to buy one in the first place. I was doubly dismayed when I found the measurements to be junk. You can see some of my WUP power plots here: http://www.leapsecond.com/lab/lab.htm Ya know, ever time I go to your site I get frustrated. You seem to get so much done and I have so much trouble getting anything done. Age-related, I think, as I used to get things done too. Anyway, for your electrical data, what are the red and black plots? I'm guessing actual data and curve fitted respectively. Also, are the utilities you list at the bottom of the page available anywhere? I have not done much accuracy testing. For my lab, at this point at least, I'm much more concerned with power stability than accuracy. One of my big surprises was that none of my fancy UPS's give good power stability, so I'm migrating to online or double conversion UPS's which solve this problem. I've been running my computers and some of the more sensitive instruments like that for years. Mine's homemade, a high current 12 volt supply, some AGM batteries and cheap inverters. I really like these converters: http://www.progressivedyn.com/hotdeals.html I just bought another PD9280R for a project. I like most all the ChiCom inverters I've tested. Power to Go is a good one. So is the 2kw one that Harbor Freight has on sale right now. All are modified sine inverters but nothing I power minds the distortion. BTW, one digital power meter that I gave up on is: http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html Would appreciate any comments you have on this. I don't have any experience with that one. My initial impression is that they sure are expensive. The other power meters I'm using are by DMMetering. See eBay item 170102236411 and others by the same seller. These are 800 pulses per kWh and I log their data using a Newport/Omega iFPX internet counter: http://www.newportus.com/i/ifpx.htm That DMMetering unit looks slick. I'm fighting off the urge to buy it now. probably would have if it were anywhere other than Sleazebay. The Newport thing is also slick, though it seems a bit expensive for the low count rate you're dealing with. For low rates like that I'm fond of banging the *ack line of a PC parallel port and letting a bit of custom code I wrote service the interrupt and accumulate counts. Another company I'm fond of doing business with is this one: http://www.bb-elec.com/products.asp I haven't tried their logging/control products yet but everything else I've bought over the years has been very high quality for the money. I've monitored DC power with these two: RC Electronics, Watts UP WU100 http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/ http://www.powerwerx.com/category.asp?CtgID=3587 I have a couple of these. Nice little instruments. I haven't done a complete calibration check yet but the readings I've observed seem reasonable. I sure wish they'd quit infringing on the other Watts UP trademark. Very confusing when I try to recommend these instruments to people. Medusa Power Analyzer II (yet another vendor that dropped RS232 for USB) http://www.medusaproducts.com/ http://www.westmountainradio.com/PWRmetersRC.htm Looks like a DC Watts Up knockoff. I'm like you, I REALLY dislike USB on test instruments. I recently bought one of these OXSL-689 instruments: http://www.omega.com/pptst/OSXL680.html I didn't think much of the USB interface. I just figured they'd have implemented it similar to an RS-232 interface. Noo. A crappy windoze GUI program, no API and no command line utility. I am greatly annoyed, as I planned on using it with a pocket-PC. I am not a happy camper! John --- John De Armond See my website for my current email address http://www.neon-john.com Cleveland, Occupied TN All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope. -Churchill ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
[time-nuts] FMT
The next FMT will be Wednesday night April 18. It will be one hour later than normal this week. 11:30 PM EDT 10:30 PM CDT 9:30 PM MDT 8:30 PM PDT 3:30 UTC (Thursday UTC) 80 near 355 Hz 40 near 7055000 Hz 160 near 1887000 Hz Send your results and comments with in 22 hours to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Put Sudden FMT, your Call, your state, and frequency in Hz, in the subject line. i.e. - Sudden FMT, K5CM, OK, 3550300.1 Hz, 7055034.73 Hz, 1887128.55 Hz http://pages.suddenlink.net/k5cm Connie K5CM ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
