[time-nuts] Z3805A firmware?

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Tue Sep 29 01:40:51 EDT 2015


David Gravereaux wrote:
> I've had my unit off and in the closet for quite some time, then played
> around with it yesterday.  :GPS:INIT:DATE wasn't taking 2015,09,28 and
> kept returning E-222 "data out of range" and was stuck in 1996.  A few
> power cycles and it got to 2007.  A few more power cycles and finally it
> got it right.
>
> Is this that 1025 week epoch thing?

Good detective work. Yes, it sounds like a GPS 2^10 = 1024 WNRO issue, but no one else has ever reported this AFAIK, so it's very curious. Thanks for posting. Did you check that the NVRAM battery is good? When you measure the voltage after power-off, see if it decays over a few seconds or minutes.

List -- if it turns out not to be a NVRAM issue, can anyone else with a Z3805 try to duplicate David's observation?

> Anyway, I was wondering about freshening the firmware if possible before
> I go delving into the embedded project of adding on an NTP and PTP
> grandmaster time server with this as the source.

1)  I've never seen firmware updates for the Z38-series. The problem some old GPSDO have (like the Datum TS2100 earlier this year) is usually not in instrument firmware anyway; it's in the OEM GPS timing receiver board.

2) A decades-old surplus eBay GPSDO like this is good to absolutely stunning for home and casual lab use. But I would avoid using them for embedded, serious, professional, or life-safety applications. Can you tell us more what your application is?

Thanks,
/tvb


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