[time-nuts] Dang, I fixed ANOTHER one!

[Bruce Lane]

	I seem to be on a roll. Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket...

	As the list regulars know, I've been poring over a non-reception problem with my Odetics 325. Tonight, as I was messing with it, I remembered how a hot-air reflow of the chips in the GPS receiver module had cured my Trak Systems clock of an identical issue, so I decided (having nothing to lose) to try the same trick on the Magellan module in the Odetics unit.

	Eeegads... IT WORKED! The thing is acquiring satellites even as I type this, and is displaying normal time for the first time since I got it!

	The moral of the story: If you have an older GPS clock that, for no apparent reason, stops seeing the satellites, and you know that your antenna system is good, try reflowing the multi-legged fuses in the GPS receiver itself. You'll not have much to lose, and possibly a whole lot to gain.

	I'm particularly glad to have gotten this unit working, as it has an interesting history. It was a refugee from the south pole (yes, as in Antarctica), where it was being used as one of the time references for a radiotelescope array that, if I recall correctly, was connected with the SETI project. Kind of neat, owning a piece of (now working) history from such things.

	Outside of the time I've put into it in repairs, and the cost of a few DIP cable connectors to replace a couple that had broken pins, I got it pretty much for the cost of mailing (around $40). Not bad. Not bad at all...

	Keep the peace(es).



	

	
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"