[time-nuts] Designing an embedded precision GPS time

[Attila Kinali]

On Wed, 1 Nov 2017 04:06:06 +0000
Leo Bodnar <leo at leobodnar.com> wrote:

> > From: Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch>
> > Basically, all you have to do is use an SBC that runs linux and has
> > a GPIO with an interrupt to act as a PPS input. Attach a GPS receiver
> > and you are almost done. The cheapest option are probably the i.MX233
> > based ones (go as low as €20). 
> 
> Thank you, Attila, this sounds like the way to go - perhaps I can
> repackage this solution in a smart attractive enclosure and market 
> it as a high performance product.  
> I was a bit behind the curve on recent developments - do you have a
> suggestion for the best linux running SBC and cheap GPS suitable for this?

Depending on your expertise and the volume you expect, I would probably
build my own board. Select a SoC that has fast 32bit timers so you
can accurately measure the PPS. The OSD3358 I mentioned is a good
compromise IMHO, as it allows you to build upon the Beaglebone community,
without having to deal with a complex board design. And the PRU allows
you to sample with 5ns precision. A simple interpolation like what
Nick Sayer did would also be a good idea, IMHO.


> > You should have a control loop somewhere, which explicitly or implicitly estimates the frequency of the TCXO. 
> > The time-nuts archives are full with discussions how to do such
> > control loops and improve hold over performance. Though there
> > weren't many in the last 2-3 years. John Vigs tutorial is also
> > a good start.
> 
> OK, so I need to introduce additional TCXO and a control loop to improve the 
> holdover performance?

Not an additional TCXO, but model its behaviour. What you should do
is basically system identification and adaptive control. The most
common way to do that is a Kalman filter. Though Marek Peka wrote 
a paper on the problems of Kalman filters for clock modeling
(mostly stability issues of the predicition) and presented it at
IFCS/EFTF in Prague in 2013.

> It is really puzzling why holdover has suddenly come into focus.  Due to
> NTP redundancy feature it is trivial to put several inexpensive time servers
> around the local or campus network and let clients do the standard NTP sanity
> checking and server selection.  And those building an NTP system able to cope
> with 24h+ global GPS outage know what they are doing anyway.

Well, that was me guessing what your goal was. Seems like I was off.


				Attila Kinali


-- 
It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All 
the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no 
use without that foundation.
                 -- Miss Matheson, The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson