[time-nuts] Thunderbolt Group Buy, part 3 - Thunderbolt quits

Wed Apr 14 18:49:48 UTC 2010

Do anyone have a troubleshooting suggestion?

I've been having a chronic problem with one of the TAPR
Thunderbolts that I bought; it just stops communicating.
I have to power it down and back on to talk to it.

I originally attributed it to my PC's RS-232 interface,
but since I have gotten the fluke.l monitors, it also
shows the Thunderbolt not responding.

The Thunderbolt behaves fine initially with TboltMon,
Lady Heather, and the fluke.l monitor.  After hours or
days, it stops responding.

Here is my latest test
----------------------

The fluke.l monitor started saying "No Message".

I removed the fluke.l monitor and plugged in my PC and
started TboltMon.  It was sending 27 and there was
no Rx.

I had TboltMon command a Warm Reset.  No response.

I had TboltMon command a Cold Reset.  No response.

I interrupted the +5 Volt power line for about five
seconds and reconnected.  It started talking and went
through a start up.

I had TboltMon command a Factory Reset.  April 3

It did a nice self survey and behaved normally.

I gave no commands to the Thunderbolt, just monitored.

After 2 days, TboltMon displayed this error message:

Application Fatal Exception:
FATAL EXCPT ID=0x00000000; CODE=0xE0000008
VO=0x0060; SR=0x0000; PC=0x0040109A; PC2=0x

The last few entries in the log file were:
158160 -1503.2 -3.29 0.3244019 29.85 0 64 7 0
158161 -1507.2 -3.47 0.3245354 29.84 0 64 7 0
158162 -1510.7 -3.60 0.3246593 29.83 0 64 7 0
158163 -1515.0 -4.92 0.3247929 29.92 0 64 7 0
158164 -1525.4 -19.57 0.3250599 29.91 0 64 7 0
158165 -1525.4 -19.57 0.3250599 29.89 0 88 7 8

The last few Rx Data from the Thunderbolt were:
Receive COM 1 Packet ID: 8F-AB  Data Length: 17
AB 00 02 69 D5 06 2A 00 0F 00 05 38 13 05 04 07 DA

Receive COM 1 Packet ID: 8F-AC  Data Length: 68
AC 07 00 64 00 00 00 5E 00 00 00 58 08 06 00 00 C4 BE AB C9 C1
9C 90 43 00 08 85 25 3E A6 6E 40 41 EF 1E CF 3F E8 03 76 74 95
45 68 BF F7 07 43 8A BF CD BC 40 63 38 AF 4C 37 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 01

Receive COM 1 Packet ID: 6D  Data Length: 17
0D 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Receive COM 1 Packet ID: 47  Data Length: 41
08 0E C0 8C CC CD 0C C0 00 00 00 1A BF CC CC CD 12 80 00 00 00
16 C0 93 33 33 1E BF 4C CC CD 0B 80 00 00 00 1F C0 00 00 00

Receive COM 1 Packet ID: 5F  Data Length: 98
FE 0D 0A 46 41 54 41 4C 20 45 58 43 50 54 20 49 44 3D 30 78 30
30 30 30 30 30 30 30 3B 20 43 4F 44 45 3D 30 78 45 30 30 30 30
30 30 38 0D 0A 56 4F 3D 30 78 30 30 36 30 3B 20 53 52 3D 30 78
30 30 30 30 3B 20 50 43 3D 30 78 30 30 34 30 31 30 39 41 3B 20
50 43 32 3D 30 78 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

I removed the +5 Volts and replaced it.
The Thunderbolt ran a couple of hours
and then gave this error message:

Application Fatal Exception:
FATAL EXCPT ID=0x00000000; CODE=0xE0000008
VO=0x0060; SR=0x0008; PC=0x00401E04; PC2=0x

I don't know what to do.  Please help.

Mike - AA8K

Here is my configuration
------------------------

Thunderbolt Product Info

Application version 3.00 6/27/2
GPS Core version  10.02 11/14/1
Machine Id  96(0x60)
Board Serial Number 81921922
Date of Manufacture 9/19/4

Serial Communication  9600 8 None 1  TSIP

Power for the Thunderbolt is from two six volt
golf cart batteries in series charged to 13.6
volts by an IOTA DLS-55 power supply.  The
13.6 volts goes to a TAPR HPSDR LPU linear
power supply and then to the Thunderbolt.  I
don't think it is a power supply issue because
my second Thunderbolt runs simultaneously from
the same LPU power supply and has never shown
this symptom.

Both Thunderbolts are bolted to a 6 mm thick,
3 kg copper plate that is connected by copper
strap to station ground.  It is mounted in my
basement which stays between 15 to 20 C
all year long.