[time-nuts] Efratom/Datum Starloc II

Paul Davis ziggy9+time-nuts at pumpkinbrook.com
Fri Nov 14 08:58:42 EST 2014


Nigel, thanks for the manual. It helped immensely. This unit does run TSIP of course, but with a smaller set of commands/reports than the Thunderbolt. As for the internals, I only got as far as seeing that the GPS module is in fact a UT+ with a Synergy sticker on it and the OCXO has an Efratom label. I will take a more complete inventory and some decent pictures soon.

I let it run overnight and played a bit, but then did a hard reset and let it start running again this afternoon. After about 5 1/2 hours I took a screen cap from Lady Heather which (I hope) is attached. It finished it's default 4 hour self survey, and went into 'normal' mode. Even though it's not really run long enough to draw any real conclusions, I do notice a few things. The DAC (and PPS) oscillations are quite interesting as is the default TC value at 21 seconds. The minimum DAC step size appears to be 76 uV (although I have not confirmed that 76uV is the LSB).  I found that even though it says 'saved position' if I power cycle, it starts the self survey over. For now I'm just going to let it cook for a while.  To quote the nice manual that Nigel sent: "In a nominal operating environment a display of +/- 50 nsec offset for the PPS and +/- 10 ppb for the 10 MHz indicate that the system has successfully aligned itself to GPS time and is disciplining normally". We'll see how that holds up. Thanks again for the manual!



Paul - K9MR


On Nov 13, 2014, at 5:05 AM, GandalfG8--- via time-nuts <time-nuts at febo.com> wrote:


Hi Paul,

I haven't used the Starloc II, so can't offer any direct help/advice,  but 
I did find manuals for the Starloc II and Starloc II plus when  searching 
for Starloc-Lite data a few years ago.

As always I hoarded what I found, which makes this your lucky day  rather 
than mine as I never did find a Starloc-Lite manual:-)

Aside from proving the Motorola GPS modules were ok stand alone I never got 
any response out of the Lites whatsoever, these are PCB based units  
presumably for OEM use, and put them aside for the later that never comes.

I'm intrigued though that TBoltMon will talk to the Starloc II as  I'm 
pretty sure this also uses a Motorola GPS module, perhaps a UTplus, so  I 
wouldn't have expected it to be all that close to a Tbolt.

However, from just looking at the manuals the Datum Timekeeper  firmware 
interface seems to be based on the Trimble TSIP protocol, or vice  versa:-), 
so this might explain it.

Manuals attached, good luck, any problems with the files let me know  and 
I'll try again.

NB, manual sent direct but at 1.3MB zipped file is too big for the  list, 
can upload to Didier's site if anyone else would like a  copy.

Regards

Nigel
GM8PZR



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