[time-nuts] Datum PRS-45A

W2HX w2hx at w2hx.com
Wed Feb 4 04:18:20 UTC 2015


Hello all,

I recently acquired a very nice PRS-45A for a very good price (<$500).  I wired up a -48V supply and within 30 minutes it was locked! I am very happy about that. Now I am trying to communicate with it so I can read parameters such as the hours on the tube, etc.

I do have the monitor.exe program, but unfortunately, I do not have easy access to a PC serial port. I do have access to my 24-port console server that I use for my GPSDOs and other serial devices. This gives me telnet access to those devices.

In the time-nuts archives, I read that there may be some similarities to the FTS-4065C in terms of controlling it. I have that manual, and it describes some commands that can be issued directly to the device without using the monitor.exe program. At the moment, I cannot get any communication going with the PRS. I tested my cable and it is fine. But I don't know a lot of things

a)      Default baud rate (It may be 2400 baud as the FTS manual seems to indicate)

b)      Number of bits

c)       Parity setting

d)      DTE/DCE

Etc.  I was hoping, can anyone tell me if the PRS should echo back characters to me even if I haven't sent a well-formed command? According to the FTS manual, these commands involve control characters as well as a 5 digit serial number. Being unsure if I am a) sending the right control characters, b) if it is correct to use the last 5 digits of my 10 digit serial number c) if the PRS commands are even the same as the FTS commands - I sure would love see an echo of a <RETURN> character or something to indicate that the communication parameters are correct and all I have to worry about is forming the correct command.

Any ideas greatly appreciated. If I can establish any basic communication with it, then I can investigate a serial port to telnet stub driver that could present a COM port to the monitor program and maybe I could get it working this way.  I should mention, that even if I had access to a real serial port, it is my long term intention to use the console server ultimately.
Thanks for the time and bandwidth

73 Eugene W2HX




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