[time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved

[Dave Daniel]

I will say that I was very impressed by the email that Art sent; I do 
not see very many communications that are as honest as that any more. 
Most people who are not engineers do not understand the diligence that 
is required to ensure that one's daily mistakes in architecture, design 
and implementation of anything electronic gets thrown in the trash and 
not passed on to customers. I the cases where something DOES slip 
through, it is always incumbent on the vendor to rectify the problem. I 
have to do this in my work, and it is refreshing to see other examples 
of this attitude. I will *always* buy from vendors who exhibit this 
attitude, and never from vendosr who try and cover up an otherwise 
perfectly excusable engineering error.

On 7/25/2014 6:51 PM, Alexander Pummer wrote:
>
>
> Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham 
> radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham,
> 73
> KJ6UHN ex DL...
> Alex
>
> On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote:
>> And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that 
>> Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this.  I was a 
>> bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator 
>> who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what 
>> the heck he was talking about.  A real class act all around!
>>
>> Bob - AE6RV
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>   From: Art Sepin <art at synergy-gps.com>
>> To: Bob Stewart <bob at evoria.net>; Discussion of precise time and 
>> frequency measurement <time-nuts at febo.com>
>> Cc: Tom Van Baak <tvb at leapsecond.com>; Dusty Morris 
>> <doxielover57 at cox.net>
>> Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM
>> Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
>>
>> Bob,
>>
>> Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so 
>> everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products.
>>
>> The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's 
>> newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel 
>> UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years 
>> until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the 
>> recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision 
>> timing boards.
>>
>> To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed 
>> properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this 
>> product that was introduced fourteen years ago.
>>
>> The reviewing engineer's first comments were "Ouch! This will not 
>> work."  And, "no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 
>> boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board". "The M12+ and M12M receivers 
>> have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command 
>> RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the 
>> RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M 
>> connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver."
>>
>> "The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams 
>> expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox 
>> receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver 
>> commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a 
>> simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or 
>> M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both 
>> serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) 
>> are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must 
>> not be grounded."
>>
>> "The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number 
>> available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing 
>> receivers."
>>
>> That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have 
>> available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the 
>> adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the 
>> interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) 
>> as you did.
>>
>> We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you 
>> for the valuable feedback!
>>
>> Art Sepin
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