[time-nuts] Sound Cards for locking to GPSDO 10 MHz references
Lux, James P
james.p.lux at jpl.nasa.gov
Tue Jun 2 17:47:33 UTC 2009
> -----Original Message-----
> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of Magnus Danielson
> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 10:08 AM
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Sound Cards for locking to GPSDO 10
> MHz references
>
> >
> >
> > Some of the "pro" sound interfaces have a "word clock" input.
> >
> > There are a variety of things that take a external input
> and generate a S/PDIF that's properly timed, as well. Lots of
> boxes will take a S/PDIF sync input (e.g. the Edirol FA-66
> which was used by lots of Flex-Radio folk), so maybe that's
> something you could easily generate from your 10MHz.
> >
> > A chart at Cakewalk shows that MOTU has a USB interface (828MkII)
> > which has a word clock sync. It's going to be a pricey
> beast though,
> > with 8in/8out ($800?)
> >
> > Even if you have a word clock input, you're going to have to
> > synthesize that from the 10 MHz. Maybe it's easier to just make a
> > S/PDIF which is a MUCH more common sync signal. ( I think S/PDIF is
> > something like 3 MHz)
>
> S/P-DIF [iec60958-3] has a baudrate which is 128 x sample
> rate and a bit rate which is 64 x sample rate, which is
> inherited properties from AES/EBU [aes3] [tech3250] [iec60958-4].
>
> Locking up a S/P-DIF (128 x sample rate) is about the same
> job as locking up a superclock (256 x sample rate) or
> wordclock (1 x sample rate).
However, if you're buying an off the shelf audio interface, you're stuck with whatever the mfr is providing for a sync input, and a (very) casual inspection of what's available these days (particularly at low cost) shows that S/PDIF seems to be the most common.
More information about the time-nuts
mailing list