The short answer is that there are several different versions of the "FE-5880A" around, but most of the ones that are currently available at low cost are the ones with "FEI P/N 217400-30352-1" on them. The significant characteristics of these specific units are:
1) They need a 5V supply on pin 4 of the D-type connector - none of the other FE-5680As I've seen need this. 2) The output frequency is 10MHz, and is derived by dividing down the internal 60MHz oscillator - these units do not have a programmable DDS on the output, so if you were thinking of programming them to generate some arbitrary frequency then you need to get a different version. 3) Although there is a fine frequency adjust pot on the board, it doesn't appear to do anything - I have checked this with 5 of these units, and they are all the same, so it doesn't look like a fault, it's just the way they are. 4) They do have the "Opt-02" frequency trim on the RS-232 interface, and it works as described - note that the trim range is only a few hundred Hz either side of the nominal 10MHz frequency. 5) Although the output is a sine wave, it's not especially nice - internally it's derived from a square wave fed into a rather simple filter circuit - having said that, none of my test gear has any problem with using it for a reference input, Regards. Pete On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:53 AM, Chris Albertson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> FE-5680A Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard Oscillator Transceivers 10Mhz >> Out > > There was a lot of email about these a short while ago. But is is > still not clear to me if these are even adjustable and if not, how far > have they drifted off of 10Mhz since they were new. I'd like to buy > one and calibrate it to a GPS. > > > Chris Albertson > Redondo Beach, California > > _______________________________________________ > 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.
