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

Arthur Dent golgarfrincham at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 10 22:41:37 UTC 2012


>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?"

The temperature you see is not from the OCXO but from the thermometer chip 
near the RS-232 connector. The DS1620 is probably at fault and the rest of the 
Thunderbolt is operating as it should. I've see a lot of Thunderbolts and the most 
common failure mode of the non E revision DS1620 thermometer is for them to 
display -55 degrees C although it could just have erratic output like yours. The 
erratic temperature that it is reporting could cause the processor to try to 
compensate for the erratic jumps and cause the Thunderbolt output to be less 
stable. The DS1620 should be replaced.

-Arthur


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