[time-nuts] Comparing PPS from 2 GPS units

David davidwhess at gmail.com
Mon Dec 17 19:55:17 UTC 2012


You would not want to do this for long delays obviously.  A digital
counter with the delay used as a vernier would be more appropriate
there.  That gets complicated fast if the input is asynchronous.

Analog first order compensation of the temperature coefficient is
straightforward using the same techniques that are used for voltage to
frequency converters.  Unfortunately, polystyrene capacitors are no
longer produced.  Digital calibration might be easier to design and
would be a good idea for verification of performance anyway.

I wonder what the temperature coefficient is of the Maxim's
programmable delay lines.  I do not see it in their datasheets.  The
On semiconductor one I checked is greater than 1000ppm/C but its
maximum delay is 12.5 nanoseconds.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:04:54 -0500, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:

>Hi
>
>With R-C delay generators, temperature coefficient is likely to be an issue. NPO will get you to 30 ppm/C. Most resistors will be up in the 50 or so ppm / C range. On top of that you have the contributions of what ever strays might be running around. 
>
>If you are trying to set up say a 1 us delay, you will get ~ 50 ps per degree C in your delay. That's a lot .....
>
>Bob
>
>On Dec 17, 2012, at 1:56 PM, David <davidwhess at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:19:43 -0800, Hal Murray
>> <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>>> A fifth solution is to use a pulse delay generator like a DG535. I use this
>>>> to create high-resolution early/late 1PPS sync pulses. They show up on eBay,
>>>> but aren't cheap. For bargains, watch for older model programmable pulse
>>>> delay generators by BNC (Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation).
>>> 
>>> Thanks.  Those are more $$$ than I'm interested in right now, but might be a 
>>> useful tool sometime in the future.
>>> 
>>> Another approach is to use a scope: trigger on one PPS and adjust the delay 
>>> (which might be negative) and sweep speed so you can see the other PPS 
>>> signal.  Maybe I'll play with this to see what sort of results I can get.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Lastly, there are cute little delay boxes (www.ebay.com/itm/150962422699)
>>>> that might work. Not sure how stable they are at the ns level. But it would
>>>> be fun to measure. If someone opens one of these please tell us if it's a
>>>> coil of wire, some kind of LRC filter delay, or if they use those Dallas
>>>> delay chips. Which is another solution for you -- google or eBay search for:
>>>> silicon delay line. 
>>> 
>>> You can make a reasonable delay line by using the lumped circuit 
>>> approximation for the L and C for the appropriate impedance transmission 
>>> line.  I assume that's what's in the delay boxes.  I should try that 
>>> sometime.  Thanks for the reminder.
>>> 
>>> The delay chips I've looked at before used gate delays.  I think they were 
>>> Motorola rather than Dallas.  I just poked at a few Maxim data sheets.  I 
>>> didn't find out how they implemented the delays.
>>> 
>>> I think some of the clock recovery chips tune delays by tweaking the 
>>> threshold voltage.
>> 
>> I have been testing just using adjustable RC delays into a logic gate
>> to generate pretrigger pulses for sampling oscilloscopes.  Accuracy
>> depends on a complete reset of the capacitor and tracking between the
>> RC charge voltage and gate threshold voltage.  Worst cast jitter for
>> TTL has been in the 100s of picoseconds range because of supply
>> voltage sensitivity.  Different families of TTL and CMOS logic all
>> performed about the same.
>> 
>> Here is the jitter measurement that came from the RC logic gate delay
>> test:
>> 
>> http://www.banishedsouls.org/c2df3757f1/PG506/PDJ%20lolcat.jpg
>> 
>> Much better is to use a differential comparator or differential input
>> ECL which solves the threshold variation errors and a fast (it really
>> isn't all that fast) ramp generator with a precision reset.  The
>> differential input allows the ramp rate and threshold voltage to be
>> linked allowing ratiometric operation to reject power supply or
>> reference voltage variation and noise.
>> 
>> My next pretrigger generator is going the differential comparator or
>> differential ECL route with a fast ramp and precision reset.  I expect
>> jitter to be significantly better than 10s of picoseconds for delays
>> up to about 100 nanoseconds.  If I get down to 10 picoseconds of
>> jitter, I will be happy since I have no real way to measure much below
>> that.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> and follow the instructions there.
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>and follow the instructions there.




More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list