Re: [time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock
In a message dated 30/11/2012 18:25:52 GMT Standard Time, robert8...@yahoo.co.uk writes: Hi Nigel, Connect did have some recently by this came from another? seller who is from the same town. WoodsGroup are also selling them (item 390489973647 ) but at excessive prices and without the antenna. --- Hi Robert I obviously missed more than I realised, the only one I found at first was the one from Woods Group and must admit I was surprised at the price, but think I've just found yours which looks to be a much more reasonable investment:-) --- The GPS mod seems to replace the PLL board and loops the LF signal through. The GPS antenna unit also has an LF antenna input. - The EES100s are sitting in their wooden transit cases right now and, as is not unusual, I can see them but can't immediately get to them:-) It's been a couple of years or so since I last did anything with these so will have to try and dig one out during the week and refresh my memory. I have got one of the antenna modules in front of me, a diecast box with a Motorola ANT62301A2 GPS antenna mounted on top that looks much the same as yours and very much like something intended to be portable and sited alongside the EES100 at the operating position rather than up a pole somewhere. The Oncore on this is a UTplus from late 2000 but the chip date codes on the EES manufactured interface/CPU board range from 1993 to 96 so the Oncore may have been replaced at some time. Either way this module strikes me as being a bit more recent than I would expect the EES100s to be so, in this case anyway, I'm wondering if this was an upgrade to older MSF units already deployed, although they might have needed to be returned for modification too. - I traced the power (+5V &+12V) connections and hooked it up to a bench supply without the antenna unit. The supply only has 500mA capability on the 12V and went into current limit. Tried a bigger supply and got smoke :-( A pot core inductor on the PLL board was cooking. A bit of tracing and it's in series with thr 12V supply and antenna connector. The was a short on the MCx to BNC lead. It disappaered when I moved it so I'll leave it be for now. I get a red power LED, green loop lock and 1PPS LEDs but no display. I've got the GPS ant on a windowsill so I'll let it seet and see if anything comes up. - Sorry to hear about the smoke and hope there's no lasting damage. Despite being in a supposedly sealed enclosure there's deposits on the CPU PCB and Oncore in this module that look to be damp related corrosion, not too bad but looking like electrolytic action between some of the IC pins and/or the soldering, so I'll need to go over it very carefully before applying power. More later. Regards Nigel GM8PZR -- Robert G8RPI. From: "gandal...@aol.com" To: time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2012, 19:45 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock Hi Robert For some reason I missed these until you mentioned them but have just taken a look and am reminded very much of the similarly modified and boxed EES 100s that Connect Distribution were selling around 5 years ago. Whilst this looks to be a much later unit both EES and Radiocode clocks do seem to have survived for an awful long time without too many significant revisions to their hardware, internal hardware anyway:-) I've seen a similar connector on one version of the RC060s but even that mainly used conventional D connectors. >From what I remember of the antenna modules on the EES 100s I got the impression that the interface processor board extracted the timing information from the GPS signal and converted it into an MSF compatible signal to feed the EES 100. I'm sure they didn't frequency convert from L band to 60KHz but just took the GPS data and started from fresh to generate their own MSF compatible signal using that data. I never tried to use one of the modified units straight from MSF but will dig one out and try it, I don't think there was very much of a modification to the MSF receiver other than whatever was required to accept another 60KHz signal. I suspect all the hard work was done in the antenna module and the MSF unit was just used as decoder and display for the converted signal. I may have missed something, nothing unusual there then:-), but it always struck me as a rather odd way of accessing and displaying GPS timing data, unless initially there was some pressure to find a quick fix utilising existing approved equipment. Regards Nigel GM8PZR In a message dated 29/11/2012 18:58:47 GMT Standard Time, robert8...@yahoo.co.uk writes: Hi all, I recently gave in
Re: [time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock
Hi Nigel, Connect did have some recently by this came from another? seller who is from the same town. WoodsGroup are also selling them (item 390489973647 ) but at excessive prices and without the antenna. The GPS mod seems to replace the PLL board and loops the LF signal through. The GPS antenna unit also has an LF antenna input. I traced the power (+5V &+12V) connections and hooked it up to a bench supply without the antenna unit. The supply only has 500mA capability on the 12V and went into current limit. Tried a bigger supply and got smoke :-( A pot core inductor on the PLL board was cooking. A bit of tracing and it's in series with thr 12V supply and antenna connector. The was a short on the MCx to BNC lead. It disappaered when I moved it so I'll leave it be for now. I get a red power LED, green loop lock and 1PPS LEDs but no display. I've got the GPS ant on a windowsill so I'll let it seet and see if anything comes up. Robert G8RPI. From: "gandal...@aol.com" To: time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2012, 19:45 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock Hi Robert For some reason I missed these until you mentioned them but have just taken a look and am reminded very much of the similarly modified and boxed EES 100s that Connect Distribution were selling around 5 years ago. Whilst this looks to be a much later unit both EES and Radiocode clocks do seem to have survived for an awful long time without too many significant revisions to their hardware, internal hardware anyway:-) I've seen a similar connector on one version of the RC060s but even that mainly used conventional D connectors. >From what I remember of the antenna modules on the EES 100s I got the impression that the interface processor board extracted the timing information from the GPS signal and converted it into an MSF compatible signal to feed the EES 100. I'm sure they didn't frequency convert from L band to 60KHz but just took the GPS data and started from fresh to generate their own MSF compatible signal using that data. I never tried to use one of the modified units straight from MSF but will dig one out and try it, I don't think there was very much of a modification to the MSF receiver other than whatever was required to accept another 60KHz signal. I suspect all the hard work was done in the antenna module and the MSF unit was just used as decoder and display for the converted signal. I may have missed something, nothing unusual there then:-), but it always struck me as a rather odd way of accessing and displaying GPS timing data, unless initially there was some pressure to find a quick fix utilising existing approved equipment. Regards Nigel GM8PZR In a message dated 29/11/2012 18:58:47 GMT Standard Time, robert8...@yahoo.co.uk writes: Hi all, I recently gave in and bought one of the EES (european electronic systems) RC1454 Radio Clock units that have been on ebay.co.uk for a while. The one I snagged came with a GPS antenna unit. The main unit has a label saying "GPS Modified" The main box appears to be a MSF receiver but has no obvious power connector, just two rectangular multiway sockets, a 15W D plug and two BNC's. It is a 2U high card frame with 15 PCBS and a LED display on th front. Vintage is late 1990's and both units look like new. The GPS unit has an early Oncore (R1211A) receiver and a PCB with a CPU etc. Two BNC' marked "MSF ANT" and RX looks like a mod for either MSF or GPS time. Does anyone have any information on these beore I get into major reverse engineering? Robert G8RPI. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock
Hi Robert For some reason I missed these until you mentioned them but have just taken a look and am reminded very much of the similarly modified and boxed EES 100s that Connect Distribution were selling around 5 years ago. Whilst this looks to be a much later unit both EES and Radiocode clocks do seem to have survived for an awful long time without too many significant revisions to their hardware, internal hardware anyway:-) I've seen a similar connector on one version of the RC060s but even that mainly used conventional D connectors. >From what I remember of the antenna modules on the EES 100s I got the impression that the interface processor board extracted the timing information from the GPS signal and converted it into an MSF compatible signal to feed the EES 100. I'm sure they didn't frequency convert from L band to 60KHz but just took the GPS data and started from fresh to generate their own MSF compatible signal using that data. I never tried to use one of the modified units straight from MSF but will dig one out and try it, I don't think there was very much of a modification to the MSF receiver other than whatever was required to accept another 60KHz signal. I suspect all the hard work was done in the antenna module and the MSF unit was just used as decoder and display for the converted signal. I may have missed something, nothing unusual there then:-), but it always struck me as a rather odd way of accessing and displaying GPS timing data, unless initially there was some pressure to find a quick fix utilising existing approved equipment. Regards Nigel GM8PZR In a message dated 29/11/2012 18:58:47 GMT Standard Time, robert8...@yahoo.co.uk writes: Hi all, I recently gave in and bought one of the EES (european electronic systems) RC1454 Radio Clock units that have been on ebay.co.uk for a while. The one I snagged came with a GPS antenna unit. The main unit has a label saying "GPS Modified" The main box appears to be a MSF receiver but has no obvious power connector, just two rectangular multiway sockets, a 15W D plug and two BNC's. It is a 2U high card frame with 15 PCBS and a LED display on th front. Vintage is late 1990's and both units look like new. The GPS unit has an early Oncore (R1211A) receiver and a PCB with a CPU etc. Two BNC' marked "MSF ANT" and RX looks like a mod for either MSF or GPS time. Does anyone have any information on these beore I get into major reverse engineering? Robert G8RPI. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] EES RC 1454 & 100DB MSF/GPS clock
Hi all, I recently gave in and bought one of the EES (european electronic systems) RC1454 Radio Clock units that have been on ebay.co.uk for a while. The one I snagged came with a GPS antenna unit. The main unit has a label saying "GPS Modified" The main box appears to be a MSF receiver but has no obvious power connector, just two rectangular multiway sockets, a 15W D plug and two BNC's. It is a 2U high card frame with 15 PCBS and a LED display on th front. Vintage is late 1990's and both units look like new. The GPS unit has an early Oncore (R1211A) receiver and a PCB with a CPU etc. Two BNC' marked "MSF ANT" and RX looks like a mod for either MSF or GPS time. Does anyone have any information on these beore I get into major reverse engineering? Robert G8RPI. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.