[time-nuts] Comparing PPS from 2 GPS units

Bob Camp lists at rtty.us
Mon Dec 17 19:04:54 UTC 2012


Hi

With R-C delay generators, temperature coefficient is likely to be an issue. NPO will get you to 30 ppm/C. Most resistors will be up in the 50 or so ppm / C range. On top of that you have the contributions of what ever strays might be running around. 

If you are trying to set up say a 1 us delay, you will get ~ 50 ps per degree C in your delay. That's a lot .....

Bob

On Dec 17, 2012, at 1:56 PM, David <davidwhess at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:19:43 -0800, Hal Murray
> <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> A fifth solution is to use a pulse delay generator like a DG535. I use this
>>> to create high-resolution early/late 1PPS sync pulses. They show up on eBay,
>>> but aren't cheap. For bargains, watch for older model programmable pulse
>>> delay generators by BNC (Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation).
>> 
>> Thanks.  Those are more $$$ than I'm interested in right now, but might be a 
>> useful tool sometime in the future.
>> 
>> Another approach is to use a scope: trigger on one PPS and adjust the delay 
>> (which might be negative) and sweep speed so you can see the other PPS 
>> signal.  Maybe I'll play with this to see what sort of results I can get.
>> 
>> 
>>> Lastly, there are cute little delay boxes (www.ebay.com/itm/150962422699)
>>> that might work. Not sure how stable they are at the ns level. But it would
>>> be fun to measure. If someone opens one of these please tell us if it's a
>>> coil of wire, some kind of LRC filter delay, or if they use those Dallas
>>> delay chips. Which is another solution for you -- google or eBay search for:
>>> silicon delay line. 
>> 
>> You can make a reasonable delay line by using the lumped circuit 
>> approximation for the L and C for the appropriate impedance transmission 
>> line.  I assume that's what's in the delay boxes.  I should try that 
>> sometime.  Thanks for the reminder.
>> 
>> The delay chips I've looked at before used gate delays.  I think they were 
>> Motorola rather than Dallas.  I just poked at a few Maxim data sheets.  I 
>> didn't find out how they implemented the delays.
>> 
>> I think some of the clock recovery chips tune delays by tweaking the 
>> threshold voltage.
> 
> I have been testing just using adjustable RC delays into a logic gate
> to generate pretrigger pulses for sampling oscilloscopes.  Accuracy
> depends on a complete reset of the capacitor and tracking between the
> RC charge voltage and gate threshold voltage.  Worst cast jitter for
> TTL has been in the 100s of picoseconds range because of supply
> voltage sensitivity.  Different families of TTL and CMOS logic all
> performed about the same.
> 
> Here is the jitter measurement that came from the RC logic gate delay
> test:
> 
> http://www.banishedsouls.org/c2df3757f1/PG506/PDJ%20lolcat.jpg
> 
> Much better is to use a differential comparator or differential input
> ECL which solves the threshold variation errors and a fast (it really
> isn't all that fast) ramp generator with a precision reset.  The
> differential input allows the ramp rate and threshold voltage to be
> linked allowing ratiometric operation to reject power supply or
> reference voltage variation and noise.
> 
> My next pretrigger generator is going the differential comparator or
> differential ECL route with a fast ramp and precision reset.  I expect
> jitter to be significantly better than 10s of picoseconds for delays
> up to about 100 nanoseconds.  If I get down to 10 picoseconds of
> jitter, I will be happy since I have no real way to measure much below
> that.
> 
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