[time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock

GandalfG8 at aol.com GandalfG8 at aol.com
Sun Dec 2 13:48:53 UTC 2012


In a message dated 30/11/2012 18:25:52 GMT Standard Time,  
robert8rpi at yahoo.co.uk writes:

Hi  Nigel,
Connect did have some recently by this came from another? seller who  is 
from the same town. WoodsGroup are also selling them (item 390489973647 )  but 
at excessive prices and without the antenna.
---------------
Hi Robert
 
I obviously missed more than I realised, the only one I found at first was  
the one from Woods Group and must admit I was surprised at the price, but 
think  I've just found yours which looks to be a much more reasonable  
investment:-)
---------------

The GPS  mod seems to replace the PLL board and loops the LF signal 
through. The GPS  antenna unit also has an LF antenna input.
-----------------
The EES100s are sitting in their wooden transit cases right now and,  as is 
not unusual, I can see them but can't immediately get to them:-)
It's been a couple of years or so since I last did anything with these so  
will have to try and dig one out during the week and refresh my memory.
I have got one of the antenna modules in front of me, a diecast box with a  
Motorola ANT62301A2 GPS antenna mounted on top that looks much the same as 
yours  and very much like something intended to be portable and sited  
alongside the EES100 at the operating position rather than up a pole  somewhere.
The Oncore on this is a UTplus from late 2000 but the chip date  codes on 
the EES manufactured interface/CPU board range from 1993 to 96 so the  Oncore 
may have been replaced at some time. Either way this module strikes me as  
being a bit more recent than I would expect the EES100s to be so, in  this 
case anyway, I'm wondering if this was an upgrade to older MSF units  already 
deployed, although they might have needed to be returned for  modification 
too.
---------------------
 
 I traced the power (+5V &+12V) connections and hooked it up  to a bench 
supply without the antenna unit. The supply only has 500mA capability  on the 
12V and went into current limit. Tried a bigger supply and got smoke :-(  A 
pot core inductor on the PLL board was cooking. A bit of tracing and it's in 
 series with thr 12V supply and antenna connector. The was a short on the 
MCx to  BNC lead. It disappaered when I moved it so I'll leave it be for now.
I get a  red power LED, green loop lock and 1PPS LEDs but no display. I've 
got the GPS  ant on a windowsill so I'll let it seet and see if anything 
comes  up.
 
-------------
Sorry to hear about the smoke and hope there's no lasting  damage.
Despite being in a supposedly sealed enclosure there's deposits on the  CPU 
PCB and Oncore in this module that look to be damp related corrosion, not  
too bad but looking like electrolytic action between some of the IC pins  
and/or the soldering, so I'll need to go over it very carefully before 
applying  power.
More later.
 
Regards
 
Nigel
GM8PZR
--------------



Robert  G8RPI.


________________________________
From:  "GandalfG8 at aol.com" <GandalfG8 at aol.com>
To: time-nuts at febo.com  
Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2012, 19:45
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] EES RC  1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock

Hi Robert

For some reason I  missed these until you mentioned them but have just 
taken 
a look and am  reminded very much of the similarly modified and boxed EES 
100s  that  Connect Distribution were selling around 5 years ago.
Whilst this looks to  be a much later unit both EES and Radiocode  clocks 
do 
seem to have  survived for an awful long time without too many  significant 
 
revisions to their hardware, internal hardware anyway:-)

I've seen  a similar connector on one version of the RC060s  but even that  
mainly used conventional D connectors.

>From what I remember of the  antenna modules on the EES 100s I got the  
impression that the  interface processor board extracted the timing 
information  
from the  GPS signal and converted it into an MSF compatible signal to feed 
 
the  EES 100. I'm sure they didn't frequency convert from L band to  60KHz 
but 
just  took the GPS data and started from fresh to generate  their own MSF  
compatible signal using that data.

I never  tried to use one of the modified units straight from MSF but will  
 
dig one out and try it, I don't think there was very much of a  
modification 
to  the MSF receiver other than whatever was required to  accept another 
60KHz  signal.
I suspect all the hard work was done  in the antenna module and the MSF  
unit was just used as decoder and  display for the converted  signal.

I may have missed something,  nothing unusual there then:-), but it always  
struck me as a rather  odd way of accessing and displaying GPS timing data, 
 
unless  initially there was some pressure to find a quick fix utilising  
existing  approved  equipment.

Regards

Nigel
GM8PZR










In  a message dated 29/11/2012 18:58:47 GMT Standard Time,   
robert8rpi at yahoo.co.uk writes:

Hi  all,
I recently gave in  and bought one of the EES (european electronic  
systems) 
RC1454 Radio  Clock units that have been on ebay.co.uk for a while.  The 
one 
I  snagged came with a GPS antenna unit. The main unit has a label  saying  
"GPS Modified" The main box appears to be a MSF receiver but has  no  
obvious 
power connector, just two rectangular multiway sockets, a 15W  D  plug and 
two BNC's. It is a 2U high card frame with 15 PCBS and a  LED  display on 
th 
front. Vintage is late 1990's and both units look  like new. The  GPS unit 
has 
an early Oncore (R1211A) receiver and a  PCB with a CPU etc.  Two BNC' 
marked 
"MSF ANT" and RX looks like a  mod for either MSF or GPS  time. Does anyone 
have any information on  these beore I get into major  reverse engineering?

Robert   G8RPI.
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