[time-nuts] A few questions about Tboltmon

Bob Camp kb8tq at n1k.org
Sat Aug 8 17:05:09 UTC 2015


Hi

A factory reset will not brick the unit. 

Either:

1) Your TBolt is blown
2) The cable has an issue 
3) The antenna has an issue.

For troubleshooting this sort of thing, multiples of each are a 
handy thing to have. Baring that:

0) Put a DVM on the coax and see if you have bias to the antenna
1)  Hook up a TDR to the cable and ring it out both with a load and a short on the end.
2) Put the antenna on a *very good* spectrum analyzer and look at what is coming out.
3) Grab a signal generator that will simulate a GPS constellation and drive the TBolt with that. 

Since nobody (other than Magnus) ever has the sort of gear for 1-3, and it’s all pricey stuff the simple answer
is:

1) The antenna is probably the cheapest part of the setup. I’d swap it out first.
2) The cable is cheap but a pain to run, is it #2 or #3.
3) Hook up another timing receiver to the cable. There are lots of them out there in the $100 to $150 range.

TBolts do die. My experience is that roughly 1 or 2 in 50 show up with a fatal issue. Another 1 or 2 show up
with a (correctable) minor problem. I have had one drop dead after running for a while. 

Bob

> On Aug 7, 2015, at 4:32 PM, Chris Waldrup <kd4pbj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Is it possible I bricked the unit by doing the factory reset?
> 
> If so can I update the firmware somehow to get back to where I was? 
> 
> Thank you. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris
> 
> KD4PBJ
> 
> 
> 
>> Sent from Mailbox
> 
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 4:14 PM, Chris Waldrup <kd4pbj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Everyone,
>> When I got home last night from work, my thunderbolt was plugging along, tracking about 5 satellites. The ppb error was a few hundred though. 
>> So in Tboltmon I did a factory reset and everything changed to question marks. All the critical alarms came up green and self survey went to 1% but after a few hours the unit wasn't receiving any satellites and still at 1%. 
>> So I loaded Lady Heather onto the old 1997 vintage laptop that controls the Thunderbolt.  I figured out how to get to the command menu in LH using the space at, then typed ! Then H for a hard reset. I left the unit running Lady Heather all night and at 4:45 AM it still hadn't acquired any satellites. 
>> I'm busy until Sunday afternoon but when I get back to it I will see if there is a menu setting in LH where after doing a hard reset I need to re-enable the receiver. I'm getting serial comms just fine. 
>> I'll let you guys know what I find. Thanks again. 
>> Chris
>> KD4PBJ
>>>> Sent from Mailbox
>> On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 11:14 PM, Bryan _ <bpl521 at outlook.com> wrote:
>>> Chris:
>>> If you did a cold reset I *think* it should have already done that, you would have known because it would have said conducting survey or something like that as opposed to "Overdetermined clock". To be safe and force it,use the following keystrokes in LH 
>>> S   and then P
>>> -=Bryan=-
>>>> Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2015 04:58:39 -0700
>>>> From: kd4pbj at gmail.com
>>>> To: time-nuts at febo.com
>>>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] A few questions about Tboltmon
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Bryan,
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I didn't do that. Is this something accessible under one of the tabs?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Chris
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Sent from Mailbox
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 5:21 AM, Bryan _ <bpl521 at outlook.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Did you do 48 hour precision first survey first to get an accurate Lat/Long/ altitude?. You will probably need to start with a cold reset to erase any previously stored data and then perform the survey.
>>>>> -=Bryan=-
>>>>>> Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2015 19:16:23 -0700
>>>>>> From: kd4pbj at gmail.com
>>>>>> To: time-nuts at febo.com
>>>>>> Subject: [time-nuts] A few questions about Tboltmon
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I got my new Thunderbolt up and running this past weekend but I have a few questions. I understand Lady Heather is a better program, and I have downloaded it. However right now I am trying to get things right with Tboltmon first. I had used it with my previous GPSDO, a Starloc II. I hate to say but the Starlic just worked, so I didn't pay much attention to Tboltmon other than to see that I was seeing satellites. Please forgive me if some of the questions may sound simplistic, but I'm sort of new to being a time nut. 
>>>>>> The Thunderbolt is brand new in package. I purchased a Power One open frame supply from EBay that was also new old stock. Before connecting it to the Thunderbolt, I went ahead and ordered new electrolytic caps from Mouser and spent last Friday night recapping the Power One box. I measured the outputs with a DMM to make sure I had 5 V, -12 V and 12 V. 
>>>>>> Noticing that in my old antenna location I could now only see 1-2 satellites (trees have grown a bit) I moved the antenna to the roof of my house, attached to a plumbing vent pipe, with a completely open view of the sky here on top of a mountain in Tennessee. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Here's what I am noticing:
>>>>>> To start with I simply turned on the Thunderbolt on Saturday morning without doing a warm or cold reset. Within a few minutes, I was seeing six or seven satellites, with the SV boxes lit up green with various numbers which I assume are satellite ID numbers. When I woke up Sunday I was down to seeing only two satellites. The numbers listed were different than the ones I saw before I went to bed Saturday.  But when I unplugged the AC power from the Thunderbolt and plugged it back in, I was back to six satellites. 
>>>>>> I had thought that the GPS satellites I am able to see from my location are fixed 24/7. Do they move and different satellites come into view with rotation of the earth?
>>>>>> I did a warm reset when I got up at 4:45 this morning and when I got home, four satellites were still green on Tboltmon. About an hour ago I went ahead and did a cold reset. 
>>>>>> I now have 6 satellites where the SV is green, and one with a yellow SV with a value of 7.0. 
>>>>>> All critical alarms are green, and all minor alarms are green except position questionable which is yellow. That has been yellow since Saturday. 
>>>>>> Under the Disciplining status, Mode is (0) Normal and Activity is (0) Phase Locking. 
>>>>>> The Timing Outputs are all over the place and have been since Saturday. Twenty minutes ago I got:
>>>>>> PPS  -106588.28 ns GPS
>>>>>> 10 MHz  166.08 ppb
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> So far today I have gotten the following ppb readings:
>>>>>> -41.48
>>>>>> 374.30
>>>>>> 0.48
>>>>>> 0.70
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Should the Timing output variance concern me? 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thanks in advance for any help or advice. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Chris
>>>>>> KD4PBJ
>>>>>> Monteagle, TN
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Sent from Mailbox
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