[time-nuts] Re: Datum PRS-50 monitoring software

[Tom Van Baak]

Stu,

My cache of Monitor (1997), Monitor2 (2008), and Monitor3 (2010) 
programs from Datum / Symmetricom is here:

http://leapsecond.com/museum/prs-50/

I agree about the RS232 format. When the first few guesses don't work I 
write a script to try standard baud rates from 1200 to 115200, each of 
the 4 parity choices, and both 7 and 8 bit. That's 64 tests but let the 
computer do it for you and come back in a few minutes to see the result. 
That assumes you have the right Rx/Tx pins, which should be checked 
independently. I have several instruments that choose 7E rather than 8N.

/tvb


On 12/30/2022 10:43 AM, Stewart Cobb via time-nuts wrote:
> In theory the Monitor3 program can automatically figure out the correct
> serial port settings to talk to the clock. I've used Monitor3 to talk to a
> sick Datum 4040A cesium, and in my experience the auto serial settings
> feature rarely worked. The 4040A defaults to very strange serial settings.
> IIRC it's 2400 baud 7-E-1. I believe the PRS-50 is based on the same cesium
> module as the 4040A and 4065A. You might try entering those serial settings
> manually into Monitor3 and see if it connects. If that doesn't work, I
> think I have a copy of Monitor2 somewhere, which is supposedly the proper
> control program for the 4040A. I never found a copy of the original
> monitor.exe. But I don't think any of them do anything fancier than just
> implementing the comms protocol in the manual. Someone could probably do
> that in Python or similar pretty quickly, and then we wouldn't need to
> worry about obsolete DOS programs.
>
> Cheers!
> --Stu
>