[time-nuts] BeagleBone Black NTP server

[nuts]

On Fri, 9 May 2014 21:59:22 -0500
Bill Dailey <docdailey at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have the adafruit and a ublox-6T each mated to raspberry pi's.
> With NTP they are essentially indistinguishable.  I have something
> other than NTP in mind for the 6Tpi.
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> > On May 9, 2014, at 9:32 PM, Brian Lloyd <brian at lloyd.com> wrote:
> > 
> > On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 8:49 PM, Chris Albertson
> > <albertson.chris at gmail.com>wrote:
> > 
> >>> On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 1:55 PM, Brian Lloyd <brian at lloyd.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>> Has anyone here made NTP run on BBB? My plan is to run NTP
> >>> disciplined by my Trimble Thunderbolt on BBB.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> NTP is likely already installed on the BBB.  It ships with the BBB.
> > 
> > 
> > That may be the case for the Angstrom distro but it is not the case
> > for the Debian distro, which seems to be the future direction of
> > BBB.
> > 
> > 
> >> Some
> >> configuration is needed to enable the service.  Do this first and
> >> verify you can run using Internet pool servers.   Then after this
> >> is running you physically connect your GPS then add lines in NTP's
> >> config file telling NTP you have added another ref. clock.
> > 
> > This link:
> > 
> > http://the8thlayerof.net/2013/12/08/adafruit-ultimate-gps-cape-creating-custom-beaglebone-black-device-tree-overlay-file/
> > 
> > Seems to have the bulk of the requisite information including
> > building a GPS cape using the Adafruit GPS module. See:
> > 
> > https://www.adafruit.com/product/746
> > 
> > This isn't a timing receiver but would probably be adequate for
> > NTP. But since I already have a T-bolt I figured I would use that
> > as my timing source.
> > 
> > -- 


I can tell you that the BBB is really reliable. You don't hear that
about the R. Pi, plus it is about 4x the CPU power of the R PI,
granted at $20 more cost. The R Pi has a better GPU if you need
resolution. 

I'm running dump1090 on the BBB, for those familiar with the project.
[Probably just "satellite Dave."]

The only issue I found with the BBB is when I booted my router and the
connection to the BBB didn't fire up. I probed the BBB with the serial
port connector and it was running just fine, so I don't know why the
router didn't connect to it. I booted the BBB and it did connect to the
router.

Reliability is of course key to any timing reference. Angstrom uses
systemd. The R Pi is still on initd IIRC.

Note a bug on the BBB is if you use a cape, it blocks the connector to
the serial port.