[time-nuts] Using speaker / earphone for PPS testing (not a question)

[Tony Flavin]

An aside,

How about sending two identical PPS pulse to the left and right channels of a pair of stereo headphones. I estimate that time interval errors of  under 100us should be detectable, and would appear as the pulse "moving" across the sound stage. Could be an interesting way of getting an indication of TIE. It could also allow you determine that two pulses are roughly aligned without reaching for the scope.
The PPS may appear a single point sound directly ahead of the listener, moving left or right according to the delay. Ultimately as delay increases two distinct pulse would be heard. I'm not sure where that point would be. Probably several milliseconds.
If anyone has the time to try it, I'm sure the group would be interested in the results.

Best Regards,

Tony Flavin

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts <time-nuts-bounces at lists.febo.com> On Behalf Of Arnold Tibus
Sent: 22 April 2020 22:56
To: time-nuts at lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Using speaker / earphone for PPS testing (not a question)

Timenuts, Gentlemen, hello!

I would like to make my little contribution to this discussion showing how I implemented my solution in my built PRS10 Box.
For PPS and 10 MHz reference I am running since years successfully a Trimble Thunderbold together with the antenna fixed on the rooftop of my house (see pic).

My PRS10 together with the stretcher of the 10µs long PPS pulse to about 250ms do work like a charm already more then 12 months driving LEDs.
This way I can easy visually check the PRS10.
By the way, the PPS output of Thunderbolt, also 10µs long, can as well be visualized with this LED driver. But I had no problem to see the pulse on my very old 100MHz Tektronix analog scope (but this is not very convenient for daily check :-(  ).

As pictures do say more then 1000 words, I want to share the pictures of my hardware for limited time for private timenut use, showing my way to solve the problems with available tools and parts (beside eg. the RbO, Thunderbold, Antenna and other used parts ;-) ).
Here you can open, view and/ or copy my pictures if you want:
https://my.hidrive.com/share/wyaryf.3uq

Comments?
Enjoy!

kind regards,
Arnold, DK2WT


Am 21.04.2020 um 04:25 schrieb Taka Kamiya via time-nuts:
> Maybe everyone but I knew, but I just did this and found it useful.
> 1 pps signal from some GPS are notoriously narrow and difficult to sync on and see on scopes.  LED will barely light if some kind of stretcher is not used.  If your purpose is ONLY to see if it's there or not, hook up a small speaker, earphone, amplified or not, and you can hear the tick-tick sound.
>
> I like DIYing and many times, I wonder if pps distribution circuit is working.  I can tell a very short pulse that will barely register on LED is clearly audible.
> I thought I'd share.
>
> ---------------------------------------
> (Mr.) Taka Kamiya
> KB4EMF / ex JF2DKG
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