[time-nuts] NTS-100 IRIG to GPS Conversion - (Was Tymserve 2100-

Jason Rabel jason at extremeoverclocking.com
Wed Jan 10 22:55:20 EST 2007


Jim,

I'm assuming the ACE II & ACE III are the same (that's what Trimble says), I
have both PDF manuals and it's almost like they just did a find/replace to
update the model number and leave everything else the same. The pin-outs are
the same, just in the ACE II manual they point out Pin 1, in the ACE III
they don't.

Double check me, just to make sure - If you were looking at the board with
the pins facing up and towards the front (so the antenna connector would be
on the back), Pin 1 would be the left front pin. I don't know why they
didn't mark the PCB or mention it in the ACE III manual... Bad Trimble...
Bad...

The units I have someone removed from some equipment I think, so I don't
know how they were configured. Just from the initial power-on I wasn't
getting any 1-second data, but then again I also didn't leave it on long
enough before I left to update itself from a "cold start". What worried me
was there was a short data cable already attached, but Pin 1 on the cable
was the wrong side! Some of the cables were even hot-glued to the boards.
They must of just been surplus/pre-made cables though, a couple had an extra
row of sockets.

I haven't even read the full manual yet, so I don't know what features it
has and specifications. I don't expect it to be any better or worse than
other GPS modules from the late 90's / early 2K.

Will update more tomorrow once I make some headway (or blow something up).

Jason


> Well I'm playing with the ACE III at the moment too. I have 
> one driving my home built GPS based clock (I only use the 1 
> PPS in that) and I have another ACE III on the bench for 
> fiddling and so I've been recently talking to it via its serial ports.
> 
> The default mode is TAIP on port 1. The actual pinouts of the 
> ACE III are not clear in the ACE III technical manual - I had 
> to email Trimble to get them. Let me know if you want them. 
> (The pinout descriptions are in the manual just not which is 
> pin 1 etc).
> 
> Don't forget the ACE III serial ports talk TTL and so your 
> conversion cable will need to convert this to RS-232. I use 
> the max232 chip. All it needs is a few 0.1 uF capacitors and 
> a 5V supply. The default baud rate is 4800.
> 
> The 1PPS pin is a good indication if you've got a lock on a 
> satellite. If you lose lock, the 1PPS continues for about 10 
> seconds and then stops. It's a 10uS pulse.
> 
> A cold start of the ACE III can take a number of minutes to lock.
> 
> Hope some of this may be of some use and I'd be interested in 
> anyone's opinion or experiences of the ACE III.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jim
> 




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