[time-nuts] Spectracom 9189 password reset? Instructions in manual don't work :-(

[David Howells]

Thank you for everyone's suggestions.  I'm definitely connected to the 
correct serial port for configuration and communication using com port 
settings 9600,n,8,1.  When power is applied I get various boot messages 
before being presented with a ">" prompt whereupon I can enter "help" 
and get some help text.  During the boot process there is prompt 
indicating there is a 2 second delay where sending any character will 
interrupt the boot process - but when I do that the system goes quiet 
and doesn't appear to do anything else.

BTW, for anyone interested, inside the unit, it is a custom PCB (fairly 
large) with a GPS module (Motorola Oncore maybe?) and can be built with 
either a small 10MHz oscillator or a much larger TCXO.   There's a 
lithium battery holder - but suspect that is just for the local RTC 
rather than backing up SRAM which might hold the passwords. I tried 
removing and replacing the battery anyway to no avail. Lots of the other 
options available (such as clock out) have most of the components 
missing from the board - it would not be a trivial task to go through 
and add them.  All other connections to the outside world appear 
protected against ESD which is nice to see.

I will investigate whether the bootloader can offer anything - but the 
main prompt seems to be generated by the application rather than a 
regular "Linux" type login.

The reason I have this unit is I wanted to confirm (and compare against 
a commercial unit) operation of a cape and SD card image I am putting 
together (first PCBs arriving next week) for the Beaglebone - the plan 
being to have a low cost design available for anyone wanting their own 
NTP server (or just wants a GPS cape for their BB).

David.