[time-nuts] Z3801A recovering

[Joseph Gray]

Now that I finally have some replacement Oncore VP modules, I've been
able to do some tests and comparisons. Using WinOncore 12, I tested
the VP's that I got from Pete. Then I compared the old module from the
Z3801A. The old module seems to be deaf. It reports that it sees
plenty of satellites, but didn't lock onto any when left running
overnight.

Either tonight or tomorrow night, I'm going to put one of the tested
VP modules into the Z3801A and see how things go. I will also be
replacing a few caps that tested good, but looked suspicious. There
were signs of outgassing on the power supply board.

While waiting for Pete to make the VP modules available, I bought two
UT+ modules from ebay. After reading various documentation, I found
out that you can't use a UT+ in a Z3801A. It's a shame, because the
UT+ seems much more sensitive and locks much quicker than the VP
modules. I may be able to use the UT+ modules elsewhere.


Joe Gray
W5JG


On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:21 AM, John Green <wpxs472 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Joe, I'd be interested in knowing what you find out. My Z3801 is acting a
> lot like yours. It is currently locked, but.
>
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 8:15 AM, Joseph Gray <jgray at zianet.com> wrote:
>
>> Dave,
>>
>> I power cycled it about 20 days ago, which did no good. That is the
>> 496 hours holdover time. This time, I did just the survey once
>> command. I'll try your suggestion before attacking the hardware. I'm
>> currently using Z38xx.exe.
>>
>> Joe Gray
>> W5JG
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 4:30 AM, Artek Manuals <Manuals at artekmanuals.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Joe
>> >
>> > I am confused by the fact that it shows the unit has been in HOLDOVER for
>> > 496 hours if you did a fresh survey
>> >
>> > Did you do a SYSTEM:PRESET: and GPS:POS:SURVEY:ONCE commands to initiate
>> the
>> > new survey or just the survey command or ???? What software are you
>> running?
>> >
>> > I would power the unit down and let it sit for 24 hours and then do the
>> two
>> > commands above.
>> >
>> > What software are you running?
>> >
>> > Dave
>> > NR1DX
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 3/16/2016 7:38 PM, Joseph Gray wrote:
>> >>
>> >> As I mentioned a while back, my trusty Z3801A, which has worked well
>> >> for several years, went into holdover some time ago and stayed there.
>> >> Until recently, I haven't had time to look into this. About 20 days
>> >> ago, I did power cycle it to see if that made a difference. It did
>> >> not.
>> >>
>> >> In the middle of the night, last night (couldn't sleep), I decided to
>> >> see what initiating a new survey would do. Since the unit doesn't lock
>> >> to as many satellites as my Lucent with the newer Oncore, it took
>> >> quite a while for the survey to finish.
>> >>
>> >> I just got home from work and this is what I am seeing:
>> >>
>> >> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19599147/Z3801A.png
>> >>
>> >> The good news is that the unit no longer telling me the PPS is
>> >> invalid. It looks like it will be another long while before it comes
>> >> out of Recovery (assuming the PPS stays locked).
>> >>
>> >> I'm not the best at interpreting these graphs. At this point, should I
>> >> be concerned abouth the spikey nature of the EFC graph, or will things
>> >> calm down eventually? I assume that the PPS graph won't show until
>> >> Recovery is done?
>> >>
>> >> If this unit loses PPS lock again, or otherwise acts up, then I would
>> >> assume it is a hardware problem, and I'll have to put it on the bench.
>> >>
>> >> Joe Gray
>> >> W5JG
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>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Dave
>> > Manuals at ArtekManuals.com
>> > www.ArtekManuals.com
>> >
>> > ---
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>> >
>> >
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