[time-nuts] TSC Peculiarities (was Re: FE-5680A performance)

[John Ackermann N8UR]

Tom Van Baak said the following on 01/05/2012 02:27 PM:
>> John, could you expand on your comment about the ethernet connection?
>> I have seen random instances where the TSC seems to lose its TCP/IP
>> settings, but so far it's never happened during a measurement run, so
>> has been annoying but manageable.
>
> I totally agree. I had no LAN trouble for many years but when I upgraded
> (2005?) to a later TSC firmware my old PC would sometimes loose the
> net connection. The RS-232 output is always ok. I tried multiple PC's
> and multiple (Windows) OS's and megabytes of TCP traces but never
> solved the problem. It's rare but when you make unattended runs it's
> very sad to lose days of data due to a TCP connection closing. This is
> one reason why (for modest data rates) I still prefer vintage RS232 or
> GPIB connections compared to "modern" USB or LAN connections.

I've seen delays in the phase data output, but increasing the TCP 
session timeout to a ridiculous level seems to address those -- I think 
my collection program (using the Perl telnet module) sets the timeout to 
30 or 40 seconds.  I recall that when I was playing with it all the 
phase data eventually showed up, but it came in bursts that often had a 
long delay between them.

What's been more annoying is that sometimes the box seems to forget its 
IP parameters; I normally noticed this after a reboot, but it happened 
once when the unit had been continuously powered.  I haven't noticed it 
for a while, so am knocking on wood.

John