[time-nuts] TTimelab question

John Ackermann N8UR jra at febo.com
Wed Feb 22 14:13:34 UTC 2017


I really like the setup that Mark is describing.  As to TAPR's plans, 
we've found that enclosures are a challenge -- metalwork is pretty 
expensive unless you get significant volume, and in our niche market, 
that's hard to do.

But I am hoping to find an inexpensive clamshell-type enclosure with 
flat front and rear panels, and then do up designs (perhaps with Front 
Panel Express) for those panels.  That can be done at a reasonable cost, 
and at a minimum we can make design files available so people can order 
their own panels.

For my own use, I'm also going to do a couple of 2U rack enclosures -- 
one to hold two TICCs operating independently, and another for the 
"megaTICC" -- four units slaved together to make an 8 channel counter, 
with a Raspberry Pi controller along the line of what Mark described. 
(In multi-board mode, each TICC outputs on its own USB line, so the 
RPi's main purpose is to deal with the 8 channels of data from 4 USB 
connections.)

I'll make the design files for those enclosures available as well, but 
it may be a while as my entire lab is now packed up as we are in the 
final stages of moving from Atlanta back to Dayton.

Also, in a day or three I'll be announcing a simple project that sprung 
out of the TICC assembly and testing process that some of you might find 
useful.  We're still finalizing details on that.

John
----
On 02/21/2017 11:45 PM, Mark Sims wrote:
> I doubt that it is something TAPR would do.   Building complete systems gets into all sorts of issues (mainly regulatory).   But it is easy enough to build.   They sell a nice case that the RPI3 and touchscreen mounts in.  The PI+touchscreen+case sells for around $110.   The TICC(s) connect to it via USB.
>
> There are also some Win10 tablets with 1024x600 touch screens that sell for around $60 (apparently Microsoft doesn't charge manufacturers for Win10 on tablets with small/low res screens).
>
> I  am thinking about laying out a front-end board for the TICC.  It would have some switchable (relay?) 50 ohm input terminators,  switchable PICDIV dividers for PPS/1MHz/5MHz/10MHz/15MHz (or 2.5 MHz)  inputs,  footprints for a decent reference oscillator (MV89/8663/DIP/etc), and a 12V to 5V (3A?) power converter for the  TICC and PI... most of the better surplus oscillators run off of 12V.  Also maybe add a data multiplexer for combining the outputs of two TICC boards into one data stream (but Heather could do that in software).  John has some ideas for a similar board.
>
> -----------------
>
>>   Wow!  If you can persuade John and TAPR to produce that, I would be there
> with my chequebook before the ink had dried on the web-page! :-)
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