[time-nuts] Thunderbolt oven / non-stable operating temperature

George Dubovsky n4ua.va at gmail.com
Mon Dec 10 22:26:15 UTC 2012


Sarah,

The reported temperature is not the oven temp, but rather the temp of the
circuit board just behind the DB-9 serial connector. As far as I know, the
actual oven temp is not available outside the OCXO.

Regards,

geo

On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 5:15 PM, Sarah White <kuzetsa at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ended up with a gently used trimble thunderbolt a few months ago, and
> been trying to figure out the best settings to use (time constant,
> damping, etc.) for best performance.
>
> I got distracted though. There is something which I find rather
> annoying, and I'm spending more time messing with this factor than
> actually observing the performance at different damping / time constant
> / etc...
>
> The temperature seems to be aprox 20C above ambient temperature rather
> than a steady 40C. I thought the purpose of the oven was to keep the
> temperature stable. When I adjust the thermostat because I'm chilly, the
> thunderbolt gets warmer too (but not by as much)
>
> I've tried (seemingly, to me) everything:
>
> light insulation
>
> putting the unit in a spot away from drafts
>
> putting the unit in a place away from drafts in a shoebox with light
> insulation with a fan blowing in it (currently in a cupboard in this
> state, and the temp seems to fluctuate the least, but still by more than
> 1-2 degrees centigrade)
>
> I feel like shouldn't need to fuss with ambient conditions this heavily
> for an OCXO, and find myself researching construction / design for a DIY
> outer-oven to wrap the thunderbolt in.
>
> Anyone have experience with non-stable temperature on a trimble
> thunderbolt?
>
> I've also noticed (monitoring with Lady Heather's Disciplined Oscillator
> Control Program v3.10 by John Miles aka KE5FX) the thunderbolt unit
> sometimes flags an alarm briefly (and I rarely ever manage to write it
> down before the screen updates or the alarm goes away) and the last one
> I was able to "catch" before it went away was related to temperature.
>
> Should I be getting a steady / non-flucturating 40C or something if the
> oven is working normally?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sarah
>
>
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