[time-nuts] 4501 Netclock

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Thu Apr 22 07:03:09 UTC 2010


> Has anyone successfully used a Thunderbolt GPS  with a 4501 Netclock  based
> on the design that John Ackermann describes on his web page. 

I assume you are talking about:
  http://www.febo.com/pages/soekris/

Calling it a Netclock confuses google searching.


> What I am concerned about is whether or not the Thunderbolt  RS-232  port
> supplies the time information in the correct format. 

If you are using ntpd, the Palisade driver (29) has an option to support 
TBolts.  It works fine for me, but I'm running on a vanilla PC rather than a 
Soekris box.

I think that driver is included in the normal build.  If not, you will have 
to rebuild ntpd.


> If NanoBSD is the best way to go, that is the OS that I will use. I  am
> trying to avoid loading a PC with another OS  just to build the  Netclock.
> Not that I am lazy, it is a matter of available free time.  something that
> is in short supply these days.

You need an OS that takes advantage of the fancy timing registers on that 
particular CPU chip.  FreeBSD and friends are the only ones that I know of 
that do that.

You may be able to scrounge a compiled kernel from somebody else.



-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.






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