[time-nuts] Epoch rollover ?
Bruce Lane
kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com
Fri Oct 21 20:43:05 UTC 2011
Good day,
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 21-Oct-11 at 13:18 Dennis Ferguson wrote:
>On 21 Oct, 2011, at 11:53 , k4cle at aol.com wrote:
>> Bruce, the most common cause of a GPS receiver getting the date
>incorrect is due to cross-correlation. And cross-correlation is usually
>the result of too much gain in the GPS antenna's LNA.
(snippage)
I would be more likely to believe this if the setup had not been working
just fine for the last four years. ;-)
No, based on what I've read, I'm definitely inclined to believe it's a
1024-week rollover thing.
(more snippage)
>Some of the heuristics I've heard of are these (or maybe combinations of
>these):
>
>- Assume the date must be more recent than when the firmware was
compiled.
> By itself this leaves the device with a 1024 week rollover problem,
but
> the 1024 weeks are counted from the date the firmware was compiled
rather
> than from the GPS epoch.
(still more...)
This idea fascinates me, as it is, potentially, the easiest to correct
AND the unit itself is vintage mid-90's. This would also explain why the
thing stayed working for a while after the last 1024-week roll.
I think I'll pull out the firmware, see if I can find the compile date
in a dump of the EPROM, change said date, and put the whole thing back
together. At worst, I'll end up with the same situation I have now. At
best, it'll fix it.
No matter what, I'll post the results. Dennis, thanks much! I hadn't
even considered that line of thinking.
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies (http://www.bluefeathertech.com)
Assoc. member, AZA & AAZK for many moons.
"Salvadore Dali's computer has surreal ports..."
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