[time-nuts] Comparing PPS from 2 GPS units

Bob Camp lists at rtty.us
Mon Dec 17 20:04:30 UTC 2012


Hi

I believe you will find that NPO's are your best bet by far for short delays.

The R's and C's on a simple semi are going to have some pretty major tempco's. If they go with a fancy process they can change that. Normally to keep things cheap they use the simple process.

Bob

On Dec 17, 2012, at 2:55 PM, David <davidwhess at gmail.com> wrote:

> You would not want to do this for long delays obviously.  A digital
> counter with the delay used as a vernier would be more appropriate
> there.  That gets complicated fast if the input is asynchronous.
> 
> Analog first order compensation of the temperature coefficient is
> straightforward using the same techniques that are used for voltage to
> frequency converters.  Unfortunately, polystyrene capacitors are no
> longer produced.  Digital calibration might be easier to design and
> would be a good idea for verification of performance anyway.
> 
> I wonder what the temperature coefficient is of the Maxim's
> programmable delay lines.  I do not see it in their datasheets.  The
> On semiconductor one I checked is greater than 1000ppm/C but its
> maximum delay is 12.5 nanoseconds.
> 
> On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:04:54 -0500, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
> 
>> 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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>> 
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