[time-nuts] Z3801 Update with VP-Oncore 8Ch receiver

Artek Manuals Manuals at ArtekManuals.com
Sun Feb 7 13:12:04 EST 2016


As noted in the earlier post my earlier I had a Z3801A in which the 
receiver would err out after as little as 20 min. this was 6CH Motorola 
Oncore which had I guess reached end of life after 20 years and 15,000 
hours. A friend offered me a used 8CH Motorola VP-Oncore on the 
condition I report out on what was involved in using the newer receiver 
in my older Z3801A.

Here is what I have observed so far. The 8CH VP Oncore version is pin 
and command compatible with the Z3801A ( and likely other 6CH Oncore 
based GPSDO's)  and the three (apparently) more popular  programs ( HP 
SatStat, Z38xx, and GPSCon).talk to the receiver so far without error I 
have not tested all the commands but all of the standard stuff seems to 
work. Basically this was a plug-n-play-n-survey upgrade.

The only question mark so far is the software does not report all 8CH 
being tracked? Not sure yet if that is just a software limitation or if 
there is a command I need to send the receiver to enable the other two 
channels.

More positives . the VP receiver was billed as having a better front end 
and seems to be living up to that ..SS reports are on average at least 
20 points higher First time I ever saw all 6 channels with SS above 150 
at the same time and occasional SS's above 200. The receiver PPS 
comparisons to GPS are much less variable and erratic than the old 6CH 
receiver was.

More of the used 8CH VP Oncore receivers may become available in the 
next year. Not sure what the etiquette is here about posting things but 
if there are no objections I will let everyone know. These are pulls 
from  older handheld units and apparently USA built complete with full 
up serial number tags and version 10 firmware.

Insight on enabling and showing all 8 channels in the receiver status 
window appreciated.

Dave
NR1DX

-- 
Dave
Manuals at ArtekManuals.com
www.ArtekManuals.com

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