[time-nuts] Possible Amateur Swap Meet/Stuff Day Event at Sphere

[walter shawlee 2]

We will have another Stuff Day event this spring (once the snow is gone,and the 
sea cans are out of our driveway due to the now 8 month long floor repair).  Our 
local ham group has also been kicking around the idea of another swap meet, so 
how do group members feel about a  joint venture with both events here?  we are 
in West Kelowna, BC, about 4 hours from Vancouver. Beautiful area, so a great 
excuse to make a trip!


This kind of event covers a lot more interests, and reaches all over BC, Alberta 
and Washington/Oregon areas.  we have room to put up at least 2 RVs, plus many 
trunk sales sites, as well as lots of indoor space with power, so it can be a 
pretty good way to flog your unwanted ham/test gear, as well as grab some 
goodies from us. We still have a huge pile of time nuts suitable goodies 
available, including time code generators, translators and displays that will go 
dirt cheap, as we really need the space!


I'm interested in all comments, the best event date for everybody (probably a 
saturday), etc. there will be a lot of goodies to cart away, and some 
interesting stuff for hams including an off the air frequency check, power tests 
and more.


If any interest in being part of the event, please email me directly. we can put 
a few people up overnight with no problems.


all the best,

walter & susan

--
Walter Shawlee 2, President
Sphere Research Corporation
3394 Sunnyside Rd.,  West Kelowna,  BC
V1Z 2V4  CANADA  Phone: (250) 769-1834
walt...@sphere.bc.ca
WS2: We're all in one boat, no matter how it looks to you.
Love is all you need. (John Lennon)
But, that doesn't mean other things don't come in handy. (WS2)

___
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 Z3801A Internal Power Supply issues

[paul swed]

I had the same thing happen on 1ks24361
Makes a nasty smell

On Sunday, January 31, 2016, Adrian Godwin  wrote:

> A tant melted on one of my KS-246361 boxes (I guess they're a similar age,
> possibly even the same source). The only one so far to have trouble. It
> failed in such a way that it continued to smoke and load up the power
> supply,
>
> The current drawn from the no-name laptop power supply was still well
> within spec, at least by the time I post-mortem'ed it. But that melted too,
> and took out three levels of circuit breakers. The KS-24361 worked
> perfectly after replacing the cap.
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 4:42 PM, Bob Camp >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > I had one that took out the internal fuse once every 3 to 5 years. After
> > replacing the fuse 3 times, the supply died. Go figure … only 15 years or
> > use.
> >
> > Bob
> > > On Jan 31, 2016, at 9:11 AM, paul swed  > wrote:
> > >
> > > As I mentioned in the another thread this week.
> > > You can indeed replace the failed voltage with just another inverter.
> > > Mine has run this way for 10 years. Mine was a 5 by the way. If it was
> > one
> > > side of the +/-15 I would say you want to replace both.
> > > The entire switcher can be replaced with supplies that work off of 110
> so
> > > you can get rid of the 48 volt supplies.
> > > Good luck
> > > Paul
> > > WB8TSL
> > >
> > > On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 12:04 AM, Alex Pummer  > wrote:
> > >
> > >> power supply runs for a while, output current increases, but voltage
> > stays
> > >> correct -> problem is in the load circuit, load circuit working for a
> > while
> > >> load current increases, but it recovers after pause -> look for some
> > >> tantalum capacitor in the load circuit, they recover often  a few
> times
> > >> before they finally die,
> > >> KJ6UHN
> > >> Alex
> > >>
> > >> On 1/30/2016 6:21 PM, Artek Manuals wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> My Z3801A began to die over the last few days. It would work for an
> > hour
> > >>> or two then produce a receiver error and communications problems.
> Turn
> > it
> > >>> off, let it sit awhile, back on and it would start the survey and
> then
> > >>> begin to recover. Tonight it finally went dead with high current on
> the
> > >>> main input . The feed supply has a 2amp current limit so I have not
> > blown
> > >>> the two 3amp fuses
> > >>>
> > >>> I have a schematic of the supply reverse engineered by Stefan
> > Hegnauere a
> > >>> few years ago (thank you very much) and a limited theory of operation
> > >>> description so I am not totally dead from a troubleshooting point of
> > view
> > >>> although if one of the DC-DC converters is dead then I will likely
> > have to
> > >>> scrap the supply
> > >>>
> > >>> Questions
> > >>> 1) Any prior experience as where to look first I checked the
> > >>> electrolytics and at first glance they seem fine, no loss of magic
> > smoke or
> > >>> any parts obviously hot or bulging. ESR 's look good on those
> > >>> 2) Will this supply function unloaded while I troubleshoot it on the
> > >>> bench out of the unit?
> > >>> 3) Anyone tried independent powering the Z3801? looks like two 5V
> > >>> supplies and +/- 15V..not hard to to do
> > >>> 4) Anyone with a good supply from a parts unit want to part with
> same?
> > >>>
> > >>> Dave
> > >>> NR1DX
> > >>> ArtekManuals.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.
> >
> > ___
> > 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] Prologix_GPIB vi

[Bill Reed]

I have just gotten Labview Home, This is the first serious vi I have written. 
It sweeps an HP3325A , collects data on an HP3478A and sweeps.
The sweep is strip and I would like the Xaxis to be stationary with Fmax and 
Fmin as the limits. I can not find this plot type in the library.

Any suggestions?

Bill Reed

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus


HP3325A_HP3478A_Sweep.vi
Description: Binary data
___
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] Z3801 misbehaving

[Artek Manuals]

John

What software are you running? Are  you are getting the receiver health 
status at the bottom of the status page?


Crank it back up and once the thing goes into HOLD check and tell me if 
the RCVR status says "err"


Dave


On 2/1/2016 9:52 AM, John Green wrote:

After a couple of days of GPS lock, it went into holdover. I briefly
powered it down and it attained lock again in about 15 minutes. But, a
while later, it was back in holdover. I finally coaxed that Sager laptop
into working and after connecting to it with genuine RS232, I still can't
communicate with it. I get zip with Satstat. And, it isn't locking again
either. So, while it will achieve GPS lock, it doesn't seem to want to stay
locked. And, there is that troubling lack of communication. I am
considering trying a different GPS receiver module. I understand that
probably isn't smart unless I try one similar to the one in it. I
understand that the internal processor talks to the GPS module and anything
with a different command set will cause it to think the GPS has gone bad.
At this point, it looks like my options are limited to buying a new, used
one off eBay for $500, or going to the Thunderbolt, which I don't trust. I
have an old desktop PC I am going to try just in case the laptop RS232
voltages weren't up to snuff. And, I am going to try a different cable,
just in case. It probably wouldn't hurt to exercise the RS232 jumpers
either. Anything else I should try?
___
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.




--
Dave
manu...@artekmanuals.com
www.ArtekManuals.com


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

___
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] Z3801 misbehaving

[paul swed]

As much as I like my 3801 most likely will use my bolt
I also have ks24361s so between them have a good idea
The is are reasonable at times

On Monday, February 1, 2016, John Green  wrote:

> After a couple of days of GPS lock, it went into holdover. I briefly
> powered it down and it attained lock again in about 15 minutes. But, a
> while later, it was back in holdover. I finally coaxed that Sager laptop
> into working and after connecting to it with genuine RS232, I still can't
> communicate with it. I get zip with Satstat. And, it isn't locking again
> either. So, while it will achieve GPS lock, it doesn't seem to want to stay
> locked. And, there is that troubling lack of communication. I am
> considering trying a different GPS receiver module. I understand that
> probably isn't smart unless I try one similar to the one in it. I
> understand that the internal processor talks to the GPS module and anything
> with a different command set will cause it to think the GPS has gone bad.
> At this point, it looks like my options are limited to buying a new, used
> one off eBay for $500, or going to the Thunderbolt, which I don't trust. I
> have an old desktop PC I am going to try just in case the laptop RS232
> voltages weren't up to snuff. And, I am going to try a different cable,
> just in case. It probably wouldn't hurt to exercise the RS232 jumpers
> either. Anything else I should try?
> ___
> 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] Prologix_GPIB vi

[Brent Gordon]

There are two ways to do it.  The first is to turn off AutoScale.  You 
can then set the axis to whatever you want.  Right-click on the axis and 
uncheck "AutoScale X".  See AutoScale.png.


The hard way is to force the axis to be what you want.  First you turn 
off AutoScale.  Then you right click on the graph icon in the block 
diagram and go through five menus to select Maximum.  See SetRange.png. 
 Once you have Maximum, you just drag down on the bottom edge of the 
property node to get Minimum.


Brent


On 2/1/2016 11:35 AM, Bill Reed wrote:

I have just gotten Labview Home, This is the first serious vi I have written. 
It sweeps an HP3325A , collects data on an HP3478A and sweeps.
The sweep is strip and I would like the Xaxis to be stationary with Fmax and 
Fmin as the limits. I can not find this plot type in the library.

Any suggestions?

Bill Reed

___
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] Z3801 misbehaving

[John Green]

After a couple of days of GPS lock, it went into holdover. I briefly
powered it down and it attained lock again in about 15 minutes. But, a
while later, it was back in holdover. I finally coaxed that Sager laptop
into working and after connecting to it with genuine RS232, I still can't
communicate with it. I get zip with Satstat. And, it isn't locking again
either. So, while it will achieve GPS lock, it doesn't seem to want to stay
locked. And, there is that troubling lack of communication. I am
considering trying a different GPS receiver module. I understand that
probably isn't smart unless I try one similar to the one in it. I
understand that the internal processor talks to the GPS module and anything
with a different command set will cause it to think the GPS has gone bad.
At this point, it looks like my options are limited to buying a new, used
one off eBay for $500, or going to the Thunderbolt, which I don't trust. I
have an old desktop PC I am going to try just in case the laptop RS232
voltages weren't up to snuff. And, I am going to try a different cable,
just in case. It probably wouldn't hurt to exercise the RS232 jumpers
either. Anything else I should try?
___
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] GPS jumps of -13.7 us?

[Martin Burnicki]

NeT MonK wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 3:29 PM, Chris Caudle  wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, January 29, 2016 1:32 am, NeT MonK wrote:
>>> As a side effect of those glitch in the GPS matrix, the utc_valid_flag
>> was
>>> not anymore set in the stream of the primary master clock, just before my
>>> secondary starts to become active (loss of primary stream) which leads to
>>> linux server  ptp slave to readjust of +36 seconds and jump backward -36
>>> seconds as far as the flags was coming back.
>>
>> The difference between UTC and TAI is 36 seconds.
>>
>> Are you running ptpd or linuxptp on your Linux servers?
>> It sounds like the ptp agent running on your servers interpreted the lack
>> of UTC valid flag to mean that the timestamps were now in TAI, so the
>> server kernel applied the TAI to UTC offset to the time received via PTP.
> 
> 
> Dear Chris,
> 
> I run sfptpd  which is a fork of linux ptpd daemon adapted to solarflare
> network adapter.
> I will have to fine tune it in order to be more resilient in such scenario.

Hm, the task of the PTP slave software is to discipline the PC's *UTC*
time, but this sounds like it even accepts the time from the PTP
(grand)master if the master has *not* set utc_valid flag to 1, i.e. the
master tells the slave it has no idea about the correct UTC time, but
the slave accepts the uncorrected time anyway.

Maybe in this case the slave software should rather generate an error
and discard the PTP source, instead of accepting and using the pure TAI
time, which causes the PC's system time to go wrong.

> But i guess it's not very often the gps system as such incident.

Of course this is not primarily related to GPS. I'd expect is could
under some other confitions that the utc_valid flag is cleared.

Please not with GPS and UTC correction it's somewhat similar. The GPS
satellites also provide the UTC correction data set, but if you start a
GPS receiver in cold boot mode, i.e. without any satellite data already
saved in non-volatile memory, the GPS receiver is unable to convert GPS
time to UTC, until it has received a UTC parameter set from the
satellites. This can take up to 12 minutes since these parameters are
sent repeatedly every 12 minuts.

Without UTC correction parameters the receiver can be used for
navigation, but not for timing. If a timing GPS receiver would declare
itself "synchronized" in this state then the time which is output would
be GPS time only, not UTC, and a time discipline software which accepted
the time from the GPS in this state would also set the PC system time
wrong by 17 seconds, since this is the current difference between UTC
and GPS system time.

Martin

___
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] GPS jumps of -13.7 us?

[Chris Caudle]

On Mon, February 1, 2016 9:49 am, Martin Burnicki wrote:
> Hm, the task of the PTP slave software is to discipline the PC's *UTC*
> time,

Typically, but I don't think there is a requirement to discipline the UTC
system time.  You could maintain a separate PTP time domain, or run the
system clock as TAI (or GPS) and let the system software convert as
needed.
But of course flexibility offers the opportunity to interpret incorrectly...

> but this sounds like it even accepts the time from the PTP
> (grand)master if the master has *not* set utc_valid flag to 1, i.e. the
> master tells the slave it has no idea about the correct UTC time, but
> the slave accepts the uncorrected time anyway.

I think it might be a slightly more subtle error.  It appears that the
master cleared the flag to indicate "this time is no longer correctly and
fully synchronized to UTC time," no more and no less.  It appears that the
slave interpreted the lack of set flag to mean "this time is the correct
TAI timestamp," which is obviously not the same thing as "this time is not
fully synchronized to UTC."

> Maybe in this case the slave software should rather generate an error
> and discard the PTP source, instead of accepting and using the pure TAI
> time, which causes the PC's system time to go wrong.

Yes, some variation of setting an error flag would be more appropriate.
It seems that a more reliable method would have a UTC_Valid flag, and a
separate field to indicate that the time stamp should be interpreted as
UTC, GPS, or TAI, or unsynchronized time (i.e. possibly syntonized but not
set from the accepted epoch).  In that case the UTC_valid flag should
probably really be a "timestamp_valid" flag, or "timesource_synchronized"
flag, some kind of indication that the source of the timestamp is thought
to meet the standard implied by the source field.


-- 
Chris Caudle


___
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] Prologix_GPIB vi

[Norm n3ykf]

Setup for axes labels and scale are in a sub menu of the display VI.
Labview rocks. User since ver 7!

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 1:35 PM, Bill Reed  wrote:
> I have just gotten Labview Home, This is the first serious vi I have written. 
> It sweeps an HP3325A , collects data on an HP3478A and sweeps.
> The sweep is strip and I would like the Xaxis to be stationary with Fmax and 
> Fmin as the limits. I can not find this plot type in the library.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Bill Reed
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
> ___
> 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] Z3801 misbehaving

[Pete Lancashire]

I have a long shot.

If you really do not think it is not anything to do with not getting a
signal into the 3801, antenna, cable, connectors etc. I may have a
replacement GPS module but will have to be confirmed by the group.

The module is a 8 Channel Motorola Oncore

http://petelancashire.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5249

I'll send you one if you want to try it out. Only 'cost' I ask is it work
let me know.

-pete









On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 6:52 AM, John Green  wrote:

> After a couple of days of GPS lock, it went into holdover. I briefly
> powered it down and it attained lock again in about 15 minutes. But, a
> while later, it was back in holdover. I finally coaxed that Sager laptop
> into working and after connecting to it with genuine RS232, I still can't
> communicate with it. I get zip with Satstat. And, it isn't locking again
> either. So, while it will achieve GPS lock, it doesn't seem to want to stay
> locked. And, there is that troubling lack of communication. I am
> considering trying a different GPS receiver module. I understand that
> probably isn't smart unless I try one similar to the one in it. I
> understand that the internal processor talks to the GPS module and anything
> with a different command set will cause it to think the GPS has gone bad.
> At this point, it looks like my options are limited to buying a new, used
> one off eBay for $500, or going to the Thunderbolt, which I don't trust. I
> have an old desktop PC I am going to try just in case the laptop RS232
> voltages weren't up to snuff. And, I am going to try a different cable,
> just in case. It probably wouldn't hurt to exercise the RS232 jumpers
> either. Anything else I should try?
> ___
> 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.