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

[paul swed]

Quick question.
I am looking at the netrs and do not believe it can act as a NTP server. I
do see the ntp client settings.
Am I missing something?
Thanks
Paul
WB8TSL

On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 3:09 PM paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Did get the "convert to rinex" working. I actually seemed to have a bad
> exe. I found a newer one on the actual trimble site not unavco and that
> installed and operated correctly. I can see why a rinex file is useful. Its
> readable.
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
>
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2022 at 6:25 PM paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Well Bob
>> There you go changing the game just a bit. I saw the NTP settings and was
>> thinking for some reason it might want to access a NTP server. I can see I
>> have it backwards. Just may add a IP. I would have gotten there given time.
>> But I will take a short cut any day.
>> The Net RS is reasonably low power at 12V @ .35A or 4.5W. Its not
>> apparent in the unit that the power coming in hits an inverter. I think
>> its a linear regulator. Nothing looked like a choke for conversion.
>> Did stick the antenna out of the window for a clearer view of the sky and
>> picked up 8-10 db. The house blocks to the north.
>> Regards
>> Paul
>> WB8TSL
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 21, 2022 at 5:50 PM Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> More NetRS trivia:
>>>
>>> One of the features of the NetRS is that it will act as an NTP server.
>>> It’s not the most modern device so I very much would not want to
>>> serve a ton of clients off of one. It also has been a *long* time since
>>> the OS was patched. If you are looking for “modern” features or
>>> security patches, maybe not the best thing to use. It certainly isn’t
>>> going to compete with the Leo Bodnar NTP in terms of size or
>>> power consumption. You won’t get a steady stream of updates and
>>> patches like you would on something cool from Meinberg.
>>>
>>> That said, for a “shop for a while” sub $150 sort of price, they would
>>> be a reasonable deal. Not many packaged NTP products on eBay
>>> that you “just plug in” and that run multi-band GPS. You would get
>>> the frequency monitoring and RTK base station stuff “for free”.
>>>
>>> Can you / could you / might you upgrade the OS? Since there really
>>> isn’t much info on what the hardware looks like, that could be
>>> exciting. The cards are “locked down” (though not encrypted) as
>>> received so even poking around to try this or that isn’t trivial. How
>>> much was done (if anything) to keep the OS “out of the way” of the
>>> GPS code …. who knows ….
>>>
>>> Fun !!
>>>
>>> Bob
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > On Mar 21, 2022, at 1:01 PM, John Ackermann N8UR <jra at febo.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > You can stream data out of the receiver via either TCP or serial port
>>> without storing to disk, so that's probably the best bet to save CF wear
>>> and tear.  I'm not sure if it's more difficult to turn the
>>> >
>>> > But for now I'm doing as you suggest -- I have one "T00" format
>>> session logging to disk in 24 hour files, with the "autodelete" function
>>> turned on to delete oldest files first when the disk gets nearly full.
>>> >
>>> > However, I've been collecting data now for almost 4 months, and have
>>> used 68.5 MB, with 770 MB still available, so I won't need to delete
>>> anything for quite a long while.
>>> >
>>> > John
>>> > ----
>>> >
>>> > On 3/21/22 11:22, Skip Withrow 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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>>
>>