[time-nuts] Re: Oncore Still alive

[Clint Jay]

1.5V is probably enough to have kept data alive but how much use the data
would have been after 2 years I don't know.

Having said that, I recently powered up a couple of U-Blox modules that had
been packed away for a similar length of time, the Neo 7 locked in under a
minute using a cheap ceramic patch antenna (the inch square type rather
than the pathetic, tiny rectangular thing) but the Neo 6 took an awful lot
longer and was flaky even when locked (though I have my doubts about that
unit, it's got signs of heat damage and has 2 labels, both U-Blox but one
covering another which suggests to me it's a reclaimed part rather than
new).



On Tue, 11 Oct 2022 at 20:37, Andy Talbot via time-nuts <
time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:

> I have just recovered the old hardware that had been used for the GB3WES
> 5.29MHz beacon.   I built this beacon in 2004, or thereabouts, using a
> Motorola Oncore to determine the timing for the transmission.   The beacon
> ran flawlessly and was taken out of service a couple of years ago where the
> hardware then sat in the beacon keeper's loft.
> Firing it up, I fully expected the ancient GPS module (ICs on it are dated
> 1997 and 1998) to throw a wobbler and fail to lock up.  To my surprise it
> was up and running with a valid fix showing on the NMEA output after about
> 30 seconds.
> Which is appreciably better than all the Ublox modules I use when turned on
> from cold.
> The Oncore did hae a battery back up which had dropped to 1.5V - so perhaps
> this was sufficient to keep the essential stuff alive.  But after being
> turned off for two years ...?
>
> Anyway, I was going to chuck it out, being so ancient, but may hang onto it
> in case an old Oncore is of use to anyone for legacy maintenance perhaps.
>
> What I haven't checked and must do so, is to see if the date/time are
> valid, or 1024 weeks old.   The controller for the beacon only uses time
> and GPS status on the NMEA stream, not the date.
>
>
> Andy
> www.g4jnt.com
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-- 
Clint. M0UAW IO83

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