[time-nuts] ACE-III GPS receivers

[Jason Rabel]

Glad to hear you did not fry the module! I never really looked at the pinout
to see where the power goes if you reverse it.

I'm glad Chris chimed in about the Port1 / Port2 thing, I forgot to mention
that as another method that would probably be easier.

Mouser has all the 2mm pins and everything that you could need, all
reasonably priced.

If you are looking for some cheap GPS receivers, the eBay person
"isellreturns" has been listing "OEM GPS MODULE WITH MCX ANTENNA CABLE"
individually, and also in lots of 5 and even 10. You can look at their past
auctions to see the prices they have been going for. They are actually older
Novatel SuperStar II receivers (not firmware upgradeable, but I have a
couple and they work fine). Also that person has been listing some
Magellan/Ashtech receivers but I am not familiar with that particular unit.

What did you do for a connection to the SMB antenna port?

I have all my parts for one of those simple gpsdo designs, I just haven't
had a chance to put it together, I'm still fidgeting with my shera board
finalizing everything in its new little box.

As for an antenna, I don't know if you were looking for any cheap little
thing or wanted the nicer models. The eBay person "mysty4ever" listed some
that looked like the Symmetricom 58532A, but had the auction labeled as a
Garmin Magellen 469357A. It ended at $10.50 + $10 for shipping (I only bid
$10 since I didn't really need another one and got sniped at the last few
seconds)... $20 would have been a heck of a deal, realistically I've seen
them going for more like $30-$40 (that's with shipping).



> Hi Jason,
> 
> Thanks for a lot of good info. I had already downloaded the manual, but 
> I had not found the ftp site, thanks. I will download and try the
programs.
> 
> The info about pin 1 came a little late, but I can confirm that swapping 
> pins 1 and 8, and everything in between does not result in module 
> blow-up :-)
> 
> I had already pulled the glued connector and that was not a problem.
> 
> The first application will be a simple and cheap GPSDO with one of the 
> VCXO I have available at the moment, using the N1JEZ design (I bought a 
> couple of PWBs some time ago..). I have one in process with the Jupiter 
> and an HP 10811 already.
> 
> I am pretty happy to have gotten 3 GPS receivers for less than $30. Now 
> if I could find antennas for the same price...
> 
> Thanks again
> 
> Didier