[time-nuts] new clock

Richard Warner oldmath101 at gmail.com
Tue Jul 22 12:34:41 EDT 2014


Greetings,

Started following the discussions recently and am learning a lot. Found 
the temperature sensor thread interesting.  Measuring contact 
temperature (enclosure, heat sink) is a different problem than air 
temperature.  For closing temperature control loops the absolute 
accuracy is often less important than things like speed of response 
(phase lag), both short and long term stability, and sensitivity (noise 
margin).  Note that the NTC sensors, while having many positive 
attributes, are quite non-linear over an extended range. Calibration at 
the actual set point is necessary for absolute work.

I am building the typical beginner clock project.  A "surplus" Trimble 
VCO is used to clock a microprocessor.  the micro has an internal 8x PLL 
which adds resolution in timing and simplifies the code.  A GPS PPS is 
the reference and a DAC closes the loop.  (Info if anyone interested).  
Instrumentation is limited.

This all works ok and I am getting out old control texts to try to 
improve the performance but the voltage required by the VCO to maintain 
lock is dropping at an alarming rate - about 30 mV / week.     Is this 
normal or do I have a lemon?  What are good sources for non-lemon quartz 
oscillators?

Thanks much in advance for any suggestions.

Richard Warner







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