Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
I knew Ulrich and talked to him a few times on 2 meters. Met him at a conference also. I was under the impression that his wife was the one running Synergy. 73 - Mike Mike B. Feher, EOZ Inc. 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell, NJ, 07731 732-886-5960 office 908-902-3831 cell -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Alexander Pummer Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 8:52 PM To: Bob Stewart; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham, 73 KJ6UHN ex DL... Alex On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote: And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Bob Stewart Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 11:27 AM To: Tom Van Baak; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Hi Tom, I think that an offline conversation with Dusty Morris may have pointed out the root cause. The SSR-6tru board uses 3V logic, but the Motorola Oncore boards use 5V. So the Synergy M12 adapter has to do the level shifting to protect the receiver. It does this for input signals by using a voltage divider composed of a 4.7K resistor on top (for the 5V input) and a 6.8K resistor on the bottom to ground. The center tap of these two resistors goes to the receiver. Normally we would expect an open TTL pin to be a logic high. But, in this case, an open pin to the 4.7K resistor on top leaves the 6.8K resistor to act as a pull-down on the receiver's input pin. At least that's my speculation. I'm no EE. Bob From: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 12:02 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Hi Bob, That's very good news. Thanks for following through on this issue. Newcomers to the list should know that unlike many of the large corporations in the TF business, Synergy has been hobbyist and time-nuts friendly since the beginning. I know a couple of us bought our first GPS receivers from Synergy in the mid-1990's. This was in the early days of GPS where we used Tom Clark's TAC h/w and SHOWTIME.EXE s/w, in the same way we use Trimble's Thunderbolt h/w and Mark/John's HEATHER.EXE s/w today. /tvb - Original Message - From: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:19 PM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved As a reminder, I received an SSR-6tru receiver from Synergy, along with their M12 adapter, which allows you to plug it into a slot for an Oncore GT+, UT+, or VP. I was unable to get the receiver to respond to any commands from the u-blox u-center software. After a lot of troubleshooting, I discovered that pin-5, the DGPS IN pin, must be brought to a logic level high in order for this assembly to work. If it's low, apparently anything going into the board on the Rx line is simply sent back out on the Tx line and not passed to the receiver. I've never owned a GT+ or a VP, so I wasn't aware that a logic high was needed on this pin. The UT+ works just
Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham, 73 KJ6UHN ex DL... Alex On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote: And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Wow there is a tidbit I did not know Ulrich owns Synergy. I knew he was part of Rohde Schwartz and I firmly believe that I actually spoke with him on 2 meters when I lived in CT on the way to work one day. A 2 meter opening. OK the total beg right now. Schematics for the FLL board (Not a typo) of the SMIQ rf generator. OK that was very on time-nuts. I apologize to the group. However it is impressive that they did give you the support. Much as others had in the past. Regards Paul WB8TSL/1 On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 8:51 PM, Alexander Pummer alex...@ieee.org wrote: Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham, 73 KJ6UHN ex DL... Alex On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote: And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Ulrich's Father, professor Lothar Rohde was my boss, Ulrich owns a part of the company , but never worked for it directly also He is President of Communications Consulting Corpor ation; Chairman of Synergy Microwave Corp., Paterson, New Jersey; and a partner of Rohde Schwarz, Munich, Germany. Previously, he was the President of Compact Software, Inc., On 7/25/2014 6:50 PM, paul swed wrote: Wow there is a tidbit I did not know Ulrich owns Synergy. I knew he was part of Rohde Schwartz and I firmly believe that I actually spoke with him on 2 meters when I lived in CT on the way to work one day. A 2 meter opening. OK the total beg right now. Schematics for the FLL board (Not a typo) of the SMIQ rf generator. OK that was very on time-nuts. I apologize to the group. However it is impressive that they did give you the support. Much as others had in the past. Regards Paul WB8TSL/1 On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 8:51 PM, Alexander Pummer alex...@ieee.org wrote: Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham, 73 KJ6UHN ex DL... Alex On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote: And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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. ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
I will say that I was very impressed by the email that Art sent; I do not see very many communications that are as honest as that any more. Most people who are not engineers do not understand the diligence that is required to ensure that one's daily mistakes in architecture, design and implementation of anything electronic gets thrown in the trash and not passed on to customers. I the cases where something DOES slip through, it is always incumbent on the vendor to rectify the problem. I have to do this in my work, and it is refreshing to see other examples of this attitude. I will *always* buy from vendors who exhibit this attitude, and never from vendosr who try and cover up an otherwise perfectly excusable engineering error. On 7/25/2014 6:51 PM, Alexander Pummer wrote: Synergy's owner Ulrich Rohde N1UL --DJ2LR/DL1R is a long time ham radio operator, and he will go pretty far to help for an other ham, 73 KJ6UHN ex DL... Alex On 7/25/2014 5:27 PM, Bob Stewart wrote: And while this subject is still up, I want to let the group know that Synergy *really* went out of their way to help me with this. I was a bit surprised at their level of commitment to some ham radio operator who had bought a single unit from them and probably didn't know what the heck he was talking about. A real class act all around! Bob - AE6RV From: Art Sepin a...@synergy-gps.com To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Cc: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com; Dusty Morris doxielove...@cox.net Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:17 PM Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Bob, Once in a while a mea culpa is required and we're posting it here so everyone understands our commitment to the users of Synergy's products. The Original Synergy Adaptor Board was designed to allow Motorola's newer 3 volt 12 channel M12+ to plug into an older 5 volt 8 channel UT+ slot. That product worked for hundreds of users over the years until (we found out through your personal aggravation and agony) the recent introduction of Synergy's SSR series of u-Blox based precision timing boards. To make sure that the Synergy UT+ Adaptor Board issue is put to bed properly we asked for an external, formal technical review of this product that was introduced fourteen years ago. The reviewing engineer's first comments were Ouch! This will not work. And, no, the SSR boards do not work the same as the M12 boards on the Synergy Adaptor Board. The M12+ and M12M receivers have separate serial ports for the two functions (Receiver command RxD and DGPS RxD input) so it does not matter what you do with the RTCM port, pin 5 on UT+ connector and pin 8 on the M12+/M12M connector, if not in use with an M12x receiver. The SSR boards, however, had to combine the two serial data streams expected by the M12x navigation receivers into one because the u-Blox receiver modules only use one serial input port for both receiver commands and DGPS correction data. The Synergy Adaptor Boards use a simple gate combiner circuit that worked well when using the M12+ or M12M but left Synergy open to this problem when using an SSR. Both serial lines on the SSR board, pins 2 (Receiver RxD) and 8 (DGPS RxD) are pulled high on the SSR board so open pins are OK but they must not be grounded. The solution is for Synergy to make a UT+ Adaptor Board part number available to users who only want to test the features of SSR timing receivers. That new SSR only Adaptor Board part number, which we'll have available in a few days, will remove R3 (4.7K) and R4 (6.8K) from the adapter board and the compatibility issue will be resolved. In the interim, other users can pull pin 5 of the UT+ connector high (+5V) as you did. We apologize for the confusion and frustration, Bob, and thank you for the valuable feedback! Art Sepin ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Hi Tom, I think that an offline conversation with Dusty Morris may have pointed out the root cause. The SSR-6tru board uses 3V logic, but the Motorola Oncore boards use 5V. So the Synergy M12 adapter has to do the level shifting to protect the receiver. It does this for input signals by using a voltage divider composed of a 4.7K resistor on top (for the 5V input) and a 6.8K resistor on the bottom to ground. The center tap of these two resistors goes to the receiver. Normally we would expect an open TTL pin to be a logic high. But, in this case, an open pin to the 4.7K resistor on top leaves the 6.8K resistor to act as a pull-down on the receiver's input pin. At least that's my speculation. I'm no EE. Bob From: Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 12:02 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved Hi Bob, That's very good news. Thanks for following through on this issue. Newcomers to the list should know that unlike many of the large corporations in the TF business, Synergy has been hobbyist and time-nuts friendly since the beginning. I know a couple of us bought our first GPS receivers from Synergy in the mid-1990's. This was in the early days of GPS where we used Tom Clark's TAC h/w and SHOWTIME.EXE s/w, in the same way we use Trimble's Thunderbolt h/w and Mark/John's HEATHER.EXE s/w today. /tvb - Original Message - From: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:19 PM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved As a reminder, I received an SSR-6tru receiver from Synergy, along with their M12 adapter, which allows you to plug it into a slot for an Oncore GT+, UT+, or VP. I was unable to get the receiver to respond to any commands from the u-blox u-center software. After a lot of troubleshooting, I discovered that pin-5, the DGPS IN pin, must be brought to a logic level high in order for this assembly to work. If it's low, apparently anything going into the board on the Rx line is simply sent back out on the Tx line and not passed to the receiver. I've never owned a GT+ or a VP, so I wasn't aware that a logic high was needed on this pin. The UT+ works just fine with this pin not connected. Bob ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
As a reminder, I received an SSR-6tru receiver from Synergy, along with their M12 adapter, which allows you to plug it into a slot for an Oncore GT+, UT+, or VP. I was unable to get the receiver to respond to any commands from the u-blox u-center software. After a lot of troubleshooting, I discovered that pin-5, the DGPS IN pin, must be brought to a logic level high in order for this assembly to work. If it's low, apparently anything going into the board on the Rx line is simply sent back out on the Tx line and not passed to the receiver. I've never owned a GT+ or a VP, so I wasn't aware that a logic high was needed on this pin. The UT+ works just fine with this pin not connected. Bob ___ 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] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved
Hi Bob, That's very good news. Thanks for following through on this issue. Newcomers to the list should know that unlike many of the large corporations in the TF business, Synergy has been hobbyist and time-nuts friendly since the beginning. I know a couple of us bought our first GPS receivers from Synergy in the mid-1990's. This was in the early days of GPS where we used Tom Clark's TAC h/w and SHOWTIME.EXE s/w, in the same way we use Trimble's Thunderbolt h/w and Mark/John's HEATHER.EXE s/w today. /tvb - Original Message - From: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:19 PM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Synergy-GPS SSR-6tru Problem Resolved As a reminder, I received an SSR-6tru receiver from Synergy, along with their M12 adapter, which allows you to plug it into a slot for an Oncore GT+, UT+, or VP. I was unable to get the receiver to respond to any commands from the u-blox u-center software. After a lot of troubleshooting, I discovered that pin-5, the DGPS IN pin, must be brought to a logic level high in order for this assembly to work. If it's low, apparently anything going into the board on the Rx line is simply sent back out on the Tx line and not passed to the receiver. I've never owned a GT+ or a VP, so I wasn't aware that a logic high was needed on this pin. The UT+ works just fine with this pin not connected. Bob ___ 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.
