[time-nuts] Oscilloquartz BVA has been sold. Thank you all who expressed an interest.

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

Maximize life = put it on the shelf and *never* power it up. It (may) last for a century that way.
How you will *know* it’s still doing fine is very unclear. 

Maximize utility = power it up and keep it on power all the time. If you can plan well, power it 
up 9 months before you need to use it. 

There is a lot of data suggesting that > 90 days of stabilization is a good idea on OCXO’s. 
That’s based on fairly basic parts. On something fancy, it’s a good bet that even longer is better.

===

Does it need to be on power at 24V +/- 0.00000001 V for 9 months ahead of time? Is a 1 hour 
power outage 3 months back a really big deal? Both are in the “that depends” category. 
Good bet is “don’t worry about it.”

One practical approach is to mount a regulator external to (and thermally isolated from) the
OCXO. Then apply whatever supply you happen to have. Net result is that the device does
not see any crazy voltage spikes. A diode “voting” setup could also be integrated into the 
regulator board. 

Bob

> On Sep 24, 2020, at 4:47 PM, Mark Spencer <mark at alignedsolutions.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi All.  I have a related question.. 
> 
>  From a maximizing the life span of the BVA perspective if one only wants to use it once a year or so and can wait for a month or so for it to stabilize, does it make more sense to mostly leave it powered down or is leaving it running all the time a better plan ?   I realize this type of question may not have an definitive answer but I am curious about the views of others.
> 
> I have a couple of other OCXO's that I leave running all the time and have never quite gotten around to putting together a guaranteed to never go down DC supply for my BVA.   My read on the voltage specs for my BVA discouraged me from simply powering it from my 24 volt DC battery bank that is float charged at a somewhat higher voltage when AC power is available.  
> 
> Given the typical price of a BVA, I don't have a spare BVA in my time lab and would like to maximize its life.  Over the years several other pieces of gear have failed but I have spares for them (:
> 
> Thanks in advance for any comments.
> 
> Mark Spencer
> mark at alignedsolutions.com
> 604 762 4099
> 
>> On Sep 24, 2020, at 12:38 PM, Magnus Danielson <magnus at rubidium.se> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Tom,
>> 
>> I second this, these oscillators you want to power up and just leave for
>> them to settle and then keep powered.
>> 
>> Next time I power down mine is to integrate a new supply and back-up
>> batteries, which can be a recommended little exercise. Currently only
>> the H-maser is on battery backup.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Magnus
>> 
>>> On 2020-09-24 01:25, Tom Van Baak wrote:
>>> James Robbins wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Oscilloquartz BVA has been sold.
>>> 
>>> To the time nut who ended up with this BVA -- do not worry if it looks
>>> like it is broken when you power it up. These oscillators take their
>>> time to warm up. Here is a test I did last year on a similar BVA
>>> oscillator:
>>> 
>>> "Oscilloquartz 8600-series OCXO warm-up"
>>> http://leapsecond.com/pages/osa-warm/
>>> 
>>> /tvb
>>> 
>>> 
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