[time-nuts] Subject: Re: Oscilloquartz 3210 Cesium Standard

[Magnus Danielson]

Hi Chris,

> Hi Magnus,
>
> Thanks for that and also the notes about initial startup. I guess there
> may have been other reasons, such as contractual requirements to buy
> product built in the eu, say for military or the ESA.

Sure. I have a bunch of OSA cesiums and did a trim-up of them all, so 
that's basically what I did.

> With regard to startup, more or less followed your route. In pump / osc
> mode until the meter indicated zero, then into open loop mode and
> calibrate oscillator against the lab Z3816. Leave for a couple more
> days, recheck oscillator and switch into closed loop mode. Yet another
> couple of days and still no 2nd harmonic on the meter and no lock :-).
> Meter indications are currently:
>
> 1-4  Psu voltages,      All ok
> 5    Cs Oven         +4 divs of 10 = 8v
> 6    Osc Ctrl            +5 divs of 10 = 10v
> 7    Integrator         Initially +offscale, loop open, then falls back
> to zero, loop closed
> 8    Preamp            -6.5 divs of 10 = 0.325v
> 9    2nd Harmonic       0, loop open or closed
>
> Modulation on, autolock on.

The fact that your integrator reading goes down to 0 (mid-point) 
indicates that the first harmonic does get you into locked state.
The second harmonic is just a quality measure and easy to detect lock 
on, so the lack of lock lamp correlates with lack of 2nd harmonic reading.

Try adjusting your oscillator slighly out of tune and see if the
integrator tracks it out, and then try adjusting it back to 0 again.
If so, you do have a lock.

> Put up some pics on Photobucket earlier today:
>
> http://s775.photobucket.com/user/NikonFtn/library/?sort=6&page=1#/user/NikonFtn/library/?sort=6&page=1&_suid=140932843589702368659727058955

Nice unit, got a bunch of nice stuff I don't have on mine.

> So what am I missing ?. Did fill in the enquiry form at the
> Oscilloquartz web site a few days ago, but no reply. Should I try again,
> or are are there some special runes you need to recite before they will
> talk to you ? :-). Would be quite happy to pay a reasonable fee for a
> copy of the manual, paper or pdf...

Them being swiss in the lovely town of Neuchatel, runes does not come 
into great use for them.

I think that you're cesium core is about the same as mine, so the manual 
I have will suffice, but you should try to get one from them. Looking at 
the pictures, what you got is the same as mine, except that I don't have 
the time section. Wish I had.

Exactly why I found that manual laying next to my bed I'm not quite sure...

Cheers,
Magnus