[time-nuts] GPS Week 1536 causing problems?

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Sat Jul 4 23:06:01 UTC 2009


>>> Anyone else lose an 18x?

>> I lost one a while ago.  Similar.  It just stopped doing anything
>> useful.

> Battery failure?

I don't think it has a battery inside.  That seems like a poor design.  Too 
many reasonable use cases would include sitting in a drawer for extended 
periods of time.

Mine was less than a year old.  It had been plugged in and working fine for 
several months.  Then it just died.


> The things I have been pointing to is to specific firmware bugs or
> missfeatures. Doesn't rule out a whole line of other failure modes.
> Soft-lockup conditions triggered by external commands or electrical
> events included. 

A firmware bug would explain things.  So would a loose connection.  It was 
just sitting there working when it died, so I don't expect that anything 
strange electrical or mechanical happened.

As I was poking around, double checking things to make sure I didn't inject 
too much noise into this discussion, it started working again.

It could be the firmware recovered or maybe I jiggled a loose connection back 
together.


In case it dies again... Does anybody know how to take one of them apart?  
The case is hard plastic with no obvious screws.  The bottom has a layer of 
tough non-skid, non-scratch rubber/plastic.  I have peeled some of it back 
(hard work) but I haven't found any screws yet.  They may be under the 
magnets which are either glued in or snap into their holes.


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







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