Jim, I'm assuming the ACE II & ACE III are the same (that's what Trimble says), I have both PDF manuals and it's almost like they just did a find/replace to update the model number and leave everything else the same. The pin-outs are the same, just in the ACE II manual they point out Pin 1, in the ACE III they don't.
Double check me, just to make sure - If you were looking at the board with the pins facing up and towards the front (so the antenna connector would be on the back), Pin 1 would be the left front pin. I don't know why they didn't mark the PCB or mention it in the ACE III manual... Bad Trimble... Bad... The units I have someone removed from some equipment I think, so I don't know how they were configured. Just from the initial power-on I wasn't getting any 1-second data, but then again I also didn't leave it on long enough before I left to update itself from a "cold start". What worried me was there was a short data cable already attached, but Pin 1 on the cable was the wrong side! Some of the cables were even hot-glued to the boards. They must of just been surplus/pre-made cables though, a couple had an extra row of sockets. I haven't even read the full manual yet, so I don't know what features it has and specifications. I don't expect it to be any better or worse than other GPS modules from the late 90's / early 2K. Will update more tomorrow once I make some headway (or blow something up). Jason > Well I'm playing with the ACE III at the moment too. I have > one driving my home built GPS based clock (I only use the 1 > PPS in that) and I have another ACE III on the bench for > fiddling and so I've been recently talking to it via its serial ports. > > The default mode is TAIP on port 1. The actual pinouts of the > ACE III are not clear in the ACE III technical manual - I had > to email Trimble to get them. Let me know if you want them. > (The pinout descriptions are in the manual just not which is > pin 1 etc). > > Don't forget the ACE III serial ports talk TTL and so your > conversion cable will need to convert this to RS-232. I use > the max232 chip. All it needs is a few 0.1 uF capacitors and > a 5V supply. The default baud rate is 4800. > > The 1PPS pin is a good indication if you've got a lock on a > satellite. If you lose lock, the 1PPS continues for about 10 > seconds and then stops. It's a 10uS pulse. > > A cold start of the ACE III can take a number of minutes to lock. > > Hope some of this may be of some use and I'd be interested in > anyone's opinion or experiences of the ACE III. > > Regards, > > Jim > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts