[time-nuts] Re: CF cards and the Trimble NetRS

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

The simple answer is to not log the data to the card at all. Just 
grab it “real time” via the serial port or the ethernet port. Both 
ports can be set up to “send when ready” so there is no need 
to do a bunch of polling to grab the information. Since you 
have multiple serial connectors and the ethernet can do more 
that one thing, you can transmit the information in multiple 
formats. 

Bob

> On Mar 21, 2022, at 11:22 AM, Skip Withrow <skip.withrow at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Time-Nuts,
> 
> Seems like there has been a lot of interest in the NetRS lately
> because of their availability at reasonable prices (sometimes).
> 
> They use a Compact Flash card to store the operating system and logged
> data files.  I'm not very knowledgeable about Linux, but I would guess
> that there is no wear leveling implemented in this receiver.
> 
> So, when considering how best to use the data logging area it would
> seem that instead of collecting some data, downloading it, deleting
> file(s), and repeating the best strategy would be to collect data and
> let the data logging area fill up before deleting (the files could be
> read anytime).
> This would minimize the number of writes to any one area of the CF
> card I believe (except perhaps the directory structure).
> 
> However, even if you were deleting data often, you still may not be
> able to get to the life of the CF card.  The good news is that even if
> a card does go bad you can reconstruct a new one from the image of
> version 1.3-2 of the software that is floating around.  I have tried
> it and it works.
> 
> If there is better insight into the operation of this receiver, or
> best practices strategy I'm all ears.
> 
> Regards,
> Skip Withrow
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