[time-nuts] Chooses for a desktop/server NTP external 1PPS reference

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Tue Dec 8 00:02:30 UTC 2009


pisymbol at gmail.com said:
> What are my options in this realm?  Surprisingly enough, Googling for
> over an hour didn't yield much results.  There are tons of companies
> that offer various solutions but with little pricing information.  I'd
> be happy to hear some suggestions OTHER THAN the Garmin 18x LVC? 

You didn't specify much in the way of price or quality requirements, or how 
much assembly you are willing to do.

The Garmin GPS 18x LVC is low cost and works well enough for most people.  
Lots of people are using it.

The only other low-cost unit with PPS that I know of is the GlobalSat MR-350. 
 Its PPS is only 10 microseconds wide so it may not work with typical serial 
chips.

If you find any other low cost units with PPS, please let me know.

For GPS location, most of the low cost units have shifted to USB.  They don't 
have a PPS.  You might be able to take one apart and find the PPS signal and 
wire it up...


If you want something fancier, look into GPSDOs.  Most need antenna and power 
and sometimes RS-422 to RS-232 conversion.  Z3801A and Trimble Thunderbolt 
are good terms to search for.


-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.







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