[time-nuts] Spectracom 9383 and Software Project

[Chris Quayle]

Quick question. Brought home a Spectracom NetClock irig 9383.
Neat, low power box with dual lcd displays. Could use this for
the public time server here, but no real use with  an irig input.
Opening the case, the irig input module has the same footprint
as, for example, the Trimble ACE. A gps module was an option
for this unit, so the question is, what gps module did they use
and if fitted, will the firmware autorecognise it on power up,
or will the box need a revised firmware upload ?. Will need to
find a compatable gps module as well.

Have been working on some code to use the Prologix adapter, to
get instruments onto the lab network. The basic idea was to get
some of the old HP basic functionality, abstracting the Prologix
command set into set of simple functions running at at shell
script level. Instrument control files are shell script based,
with just gcc and gmake to build it. A simple shell script
for each different instrument. I know this has all been done
before, but simplicity in use and portable to any unix like
system were the major goals, so no dependencies on external
packages at all. Developed on FreeBSD, but builds and runs on
Linux with no code change, Also on cygwin windows, timing a
bit out there, but works fine otherwise. Should build with no
errors or warnings.

Initial release uploaded to sourceforge at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/network-instrument-workbench

Docs are a bit light, but working on that...

Thanks,

Chris