[time-nuts] Trimble Thunderbolt Start Up RS-232 Communications Glitch

[Didier Juges]

Interestingly, Gregory just posted about his success with some FTDI
USB/RS-232 cables that are the real thing in a separate thread.

On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 7:03 PM Didier Juges <shalimr9 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure what you refer to. I have made a large number of
> microcontroller-based Thunderbolt monitor kits and they do not have that
> issue.
> In any event, a problem like this cannot be the fault of the Thunderbolt,
> all it does is send data. It's up to the receiver to process it, including
> properly picking up data mid-stream.
>
> As Dave pointed out, if you are using USB-serial adapters and a PC, all
> bets are off. There are many substandard devices in that category.
> My personal preference is for the Silabs CP210x series and the Chinese
> CH340/341. Stay away from the Prolific and FTDI parts unless you know
> exactly what you are getting. They have been extensively cloned with
> extremely poor quality parts and the legitimate vendors have mangled up
> their drivers in order to try and prevent the clones from working with
> those (and in some cases intentionally trying to damage the device), the
> net result being a total mess of unreliable parts and software.
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 2:56 PM skipp via time-nuts <
> time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>
>> Re: Trimble Thunderbolt Start Up RS-232 Communications Glitch
>>
>> Hello to the Group,
>>
>> Would anyone be able to help provide a bit of insight
>> or experience in dealing with what I call the an initial
>> Trimble Thunderbolt GPSDO RS-232 communications glitch
>> (during initial power on/up).
>>
>> I've noticed some of the programs (Lady Heather) and
>> external status monitor devices (my own), sometimes
>> seem to initially stutter, freeze or even lock up if
>> the RS-232 cable connection is made (as one would expect
>> to be normal).
>>
>> Establishing a working initial power on/up, serial
>> port monitor function can require a physical disconnect
>> from the GPSDO. Once everything is on, the physical RS-232
>> connection can be made and monitor functions operate
>> well going forward.
>>
>> Would there be a hardware or software "serial comm
>> preamble" or power-on sequence, best order of
>> operation?  The physical disconnect RS-232 comm
>> reset is more than casually inconvenient.
>>
>> Thank you in advance for your replies
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Skipp
>>
>> skipp025 at jah who dot calm.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
>> To unsubscribe, go to
>> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
>> and follow the instructions there.
>>
>