[time-nuts] Truetime XL-DC help

Bruce Lane kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com
Sun Jan 13 03:10:29 UTC 2008


Hi, Don,

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12-Jan-08 at 19:09 Don Wisdom wrote:

>Bruce,
>The Andrew antenna uses a +5v DC Bias The trutime is kicking out +5vDC
>between the center conductor & the cable shield.  It has the best horizon
>to
>horizon view its going to get where I live (mobile home park)   It is
>mounted outside on its bracket with the dome above the metal roof.   Any
>other suggstions?   I checked the internal battery voltage as well its
>normal.   

	It is possible that the GPS receiver module itself may have problems. I found that, in the case of a (very!) old receiver module in one of my own clocks (a Magellan OEM5000), cold solder joints can be a problem on some receivers of the late-90's era.

	I started with much the same symptoms. What I tried was using an Ungar 6966C heat gun as a makeshift "reflow" tool to carefully reheat and reflow the solder on the surface-mount components (notably the IC's and chip caps/resistors near the antenna port).

	The result was amazing. The receiver went from completely deaf to completely normal, and it's been fine ever since. I was particularly pleased about this one because the clock it's in (an Odetics 425) had the Amundsen Antarctic Research Station as its former home, more specifically as part of the AST/RO (Astronomical Sub-Millimeter Telescope/Remote Observatory) project.

	Anyway -- If you have a similar heat gun (and if you don't, you should get one -- they're really handy!) just stick the narrow-tube nozzle on it and try going over the GPS receiver board. You have very little to lose.

	Happy tweaking.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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?"





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