[time-nuts] Oncore batteries

randy warner randy at geodetics.com
Thu Apr 3 12:11:52 EDT 2008


Matthew,

Don't pull off the batteries! The boards are populated differently for
battery/non-battery uses. Your external battery will not be connected to the
onboard RAM.

That being said, not using batteries might be a good solution. First, the
old lithiums currently on the receivers are probably on their last legs
anyway. Secondly, as you mentioned, pulling power is a good easy way to
reset the GT+ receiver to binary with all messages disabled. This is the way
timing receivers are normally used because TTFF is not usually a concern,
and it eliminates the headache of replacing batteries out in the field. Can
you imagine every TDMA cell-site needing new batteries every 5-10 years?

One last item - Even without a battery a VP will save its setup information
through power cycles because the older Moto receivers such as the VP save
this information in EEPROM. To default these receivers you need to
explicitly send the binary default command.

Randy Warner

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of Matthew Smith
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 7:10 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Connecting my Oncores

Quoth randy warner at 2008-04-03 11:09...
<snip>
> The battery can indeed cause some problems if you don't have the software
> necessary to reset the receiver to a known state. The simplest thing to do
> is get a copy of Rick Hambly's TAC32 at cnssys.com. TAC32 will light up
just
> about any Moto receiver ever made no matter what state it is in. 
</snip>

Thanks Randy; I just downloaded TAC32 and it's got one of my catatonic 
GT+s talking to me now.  I'll leave it to its devices for a while longer 
and then try the other one.

I'm going to be mounting all the modules with interface and power supply 
boards and will be feeding backup power from an AA-size lithium battery. 
  So, those on-board batteries will be coming OFF!  If anything goes 
wrong then, I can just power down, pop out the backup battery (or unplug 
the module) and hopefully get back to a default state.

Now I discover that I don't have a good sky view so think that I'll have 
to wait until the builder finally turns up (already 6 months late) and 
can get my antennas up on the ridge cap.


Cheers

M

-- 
Matthew Smith
Smiffytech - Technology Consulting & Web Application Development
Business: http://www.smiffytech.com/
Personal: http://www.smiffysplace.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/smiffy

_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.




More information about the time-nuts mailing list