[time-nuts] Time Interval Counter(?) for high-precision watch measurement

[Hal Murray]

cuervamellori at gmail.com said:
> I've been using a basic digital oscilloscope to measure the interval between
> the PPS and the watch signal

> I've been looking at the SR620 as a candidate, which appears to be available
> used for around 2k USD

Does your scope have a USB or serial interface?  Do you like programming that 
sort of thing?

I have a Rigol DS1102E.  It has a USB goes-into port on the back.  You can set 
parameters, read the screen as a gif/jpeg, and read the individual data 
points.  My memory was that the description of the programming interface was 
poor and/or the firmware was buggy but I managed to blunder through to get it 
to do what I wanted.  (I like that kind of programming.)

The 1102 is 100 MHz 2 channel for $400 several years ago.  They have other 
models.  I think it's typical of the not-high-end digital scopes.

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If I were doing that sort of thing, I'd probably start with a TAPR TICC.  
(partly because I have one)

With a typical counter/timer instrument, you trigger on one channel and get 
the time to the next event on the other channel.  That gets complicated if the 
two events are very close together and/or may drift back and forth so that 
they swap which happens first.  The TICC gives you time stamps.  Your software 
has to cope with whichever comes first.


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