[time-nuts] new WWVB BPSK dev board

[UNIVERSAL-SOLDERR Canada]

I want to say some things about the ES100 development kits we offer in our
Universal-Solder online store.

 

First of all, please keep in mind that the entire development was done to
fix reception issues with the older AM standard. When the WWV stations were
installed, there wasn't a remarkable amount of "electro smog" those days,
and the reception was probably more related to the length of your loopstick.
Today we have a completely different situation, and standard "atomic clocks"
pick up noise from so many devices like your phone charger, your flat
screen, or even your 120V LED light bulbs, but are because of a lack on
digital processing and filtering hardly capable of finding the amplitude
shift in the noise floor. And this is, where BPSK comes to play, and what it
was developed for: For a new generation of "atomic clocks" with substantial
better reception in difficult or noisy environment, and within buildings. 

 

This said, WWVB BPSK is not meant to be more precisely than the AM standard,
and in my opinion it can't even be, since there is digital signal processing
and data transmission protocols involved. But who cares, when the second
hand on a wall clock is 50ms behind? I actually hope the time error, caused
by the function of the microcontroller and data communication, is better
predictable, and time-nuts will figure out how to predict it.

 

Some of you heard about the other chip, the ES200, since it was reviewed
somewhere a while ago. But there is actually no plan I would know about, to
have these chips manufactured.

 

Finally, I want you to understand, that WWVB BPSK and the ES100 chip is
still a low volume product, but with a multi-million development effort. And
what we sell is a development kit, not a Chinese mass product. The price
will most likely drop over the time, but a special deal with La Crosse, to
make an affordable wall clock happen, can't by no means be the reference
price for such a development kit. In the price of 68.50 CAD (roughly 52 USD)
is also shipping included, which is not less than a minimum of 10 CAD to
destinations in the US, where most of the kits go. But this is part of our
shipping policy, to offer free shipping when the order value is over 30
bucks, and is not limited to the ES100 kits.

 

The said above is my personal opinion, and neither influenced by, nor
concerted with EverSet Technologies. 

 

Volker Forster