[time-nuts] Why are PPS pulses so narrow? (was: 53132A triggering)

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Sat Sep 17 13:00:35 EDT 2016


On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 4:44 PM, Peter Vince <petervince1952 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Can I ask why PPS pulses are so narrow?  It makes them difficult to see on
> a 'scope, and difficult to detect on a PC.  And, as Bob said, far less
> obvious if you trigger off the wrong edge.
>

 None of us can guess the original designer's motivation but...

I think you answered your own question "far less obvious if you trigger off
the wrong edge.".    For most cases, except for time nuts, a few
microseconds does not matter.  So the GPS PPS works almost as good if you
invert the signal and trip off the wrong edge.   Yes it makes such a
mistake hard to find but, I think that was the point.



-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California


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