Hi Simple answers:
Will you have fun - yes indeed. Will a $100 rubidium deliver more accurate time long term than a GPS - no. To get close to what the GPS delivers you will need to go at least to a Cesium standard. Getting one with a working tube is not going to be cheap. Once you do, the tube has a finite lifetime. They are an expensive thing to replace when they wear out. Most manufacturers rate the tube life in the 5 to 10 year range. The rubidium also has wear out mechanisms. Most people seem to get 10+ years out of them in continuos use. Lots to play with. Bob On Dec 11, 2009, at 7:00 AM, Charl wrote: > Dear Hal and others, > > Thank you for your suggestions. I suppose I should have emphasised that I > was looking to have my own reference, i.e. something not dependent on GPS, > LORAN, or other signals from the aether. Indeed I might get better accuracy > for less money by tapping the GPS time signal, but to me that's not as much > fun as building my own atomic reference. > Hal, is there much difference in quality for these rubidium tubes? Will I > get what I pay for? In any case, you make a good point about measuring the > accuracy. I'm a university student, so perhaps I can pay the physics > department a visit. Otherwise, maybe I could compare it to the GPS signal? > > Kind regards, > Charl > > > > On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Hal Murray <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >>> I'm hoping to build my own circuit around the device, which might cut >>> down the costs somewhat. Some rubidium sources on eBay go for less >>> than $100, but I'm not sure what quality to expect. Any advice or >>> suggestions are appreciated! >> >> Short answer: Sure, get one of the $100 rubidium boxes and see what you >> can >> do with it. >> >> Long answer: You just stuck you toe into a huge tar pit. Pick a corner >> that >> seems like fun and dive in. >> >> How are you planning to measure if whatever you build is any good? >> >> >> >> -- >> These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
