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Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

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Question about Trimble NetR9 receiver options

S
Stan
Mon, Mar 27, 2023 1:26 AM

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high
precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's
happily ticking along right now.

Questions:

  1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS,
    GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently
    receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and
    BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if
    so, what is involved in getting that key?
  2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order
    to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing?

Thanks,
Stan

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's happily ticking along right now. Questions: 1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if so, what is involved in getting that key? 2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing? Thanks, Stan
BC
Bob Camp
Tue, Mar 28, 2023 12:35 PM

Hi

The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has
pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, it comes
with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the -10, -20
or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ).

Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” version be
upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. Maybe
so if you actually talk to a dealer.

Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I checked on
doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that might have
gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay
for about $2K delivered.

Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed
on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends”
sort of thing.

Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy / lazy
approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If you wait
a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of digits in
the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about 0.1 ns.
There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files.

Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without some
further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH.

If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the NetR9,
they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business
decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of hardware.
Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story.

The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset between
the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in hundreds
of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another
random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset.

The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout
commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if they
do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it).

The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz input.
Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell you
they are locked.

The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the
world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also
don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than
GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to
this part of it.

Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long that will
keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware
reload might fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A
full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is about
$1,250 or so per year.

With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8.
In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit
crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s,
welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2
still only has 4GB).

This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing
as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That
depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will
beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness )

If you need more info, feel free to ask ….

Bob

On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com wrote:

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high
precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's
happily ticking along right now.

Questions:

  1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS,
    GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently
    receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and
    BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if
    so, what is involved in getting that key?
  2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order
    to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing?

Thanks,
Stan


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com

Hi The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, it comes with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the -10, -20 or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ). Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” version be upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. Maybe so if you actually talk to a dealer. Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I checked on doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that might have gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay for about $2K delivered. Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends” sort of thing. Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy / lazy approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If you wait a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of digits in the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about 0.1 ns. There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files. Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without some further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH. If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the NetR9, they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of hardware. Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story. The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset between the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in hundreds of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset. The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if they do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it). The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz input. Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell you they are locked. The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to this part of it. Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long that will keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware reload *might* fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is about $1,250 or so per year. With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8. In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s, welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2 still only has 4GB). This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness ) If you need more info, feel free to ask …. Bob > On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: > > I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high > precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's > happily ticking along right now. > > > > Questions: > > > > 1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS, > GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently > receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and > BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if > so, what is involved in getting that key? > 2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order > to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing? > > > > Thanks, > Stan > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com
PS
paul swed
Tue, Mar 28, 2023 2:27 PM

Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other
frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out
the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet.
Spring is in the air.
Good luck
Paul
WB8TSL

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts <
time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

Hi

The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has
pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded,
it comes
with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the
-10, -20
or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ).

Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other”
version be
upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments.
Maybe
so if you actually talk to a dealer.

Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I
checked on
doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that
might have
gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay
for about $2K delivered.

Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed
on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends”
sort of thing.

Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy
/ lazy
approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If
you wait
a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of
digits in
the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about
0.1 ns.
There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files.

Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without
some
further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH.

If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the
NetR9,
they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business
decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of
hardware.
Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story.

The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset
between
the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in
hundreds
of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another
random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset.

The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout
commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if
they
do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it).

The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz
input.
Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell
you
they are locked.

The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the
world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also
don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than
GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to
this part of it.

Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long
that will
keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware
reload might fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A
full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is
about
$1,250 or so per year.

With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8.
In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit
crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s,
welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2
still only has 4GB).

This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing
as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That
depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will
beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness )

If you need more info, feel free to ask ….

Bob

On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts <

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some

high

precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and

it's

happily ticking along right now.

Questions:

  1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS,
    GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently
    receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo

and

BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key,

and if

so, what is involved in getting that key?
2.    If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order
to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing?

Thanks,
Stan


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com

Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet. Spring is in the air. Good luck Paul WB8TSL On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts < time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: > Hi > > The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has > pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, > it comes > with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the > -10, -20 > or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ). > > Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” > version be > upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. > Maybe > so if you actually talk to a dealer. > > Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I > checked on > doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that > might have > gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay > for about $2K delivered. > > Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed > on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends” > sort of thing. > > Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy > / lazy > approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If > you wait > a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of > digits in > the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about > 0.1 ns. > There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files. > > Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without > some > further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH. > > If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the > NetR9, > they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business > decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of > hardware. > Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story. > > The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset > between > the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in > hundreds > of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another > random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset. > > The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout > commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if > they > do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it). > > The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz > input. > Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell > you > they are locked. > > The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the > world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also > don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than > GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to > this part of it. > > Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long > that will > keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware > reload *might* fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A > full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is > about > $1,250 or so per year. > > With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8. > In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit > crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s, > welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2 > still only has 4GB). > > This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing > as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That > depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will > beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness ) > > If you need more info, feel free to ask …. > > Bob > > > > On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts < > time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: > > > > I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some > high > > precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and > it's > > happily ticking along right now. > > > > > > > > Questions: > > > > > > > > 1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS, > > GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently > > receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo > and > > BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, > and if > > so, what is involved in getting that key? > > 2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order > > to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing? > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > Stan > > > > _______________________________________________ > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > > To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com
BC
Bob Camp
Tue, Mar 28, 2023 7:31 PM

Hi

With the Trimble gear, it’s not just about bandwidth. They have always run with high
gain antennas. Their antennas have > 50 db of gain. Your typical telecom gps
antenna might be down at 20 db. A lot of survey antennas are in the 30 to 40
db range.

The quoted “gain margin” on the NetR9 is 13 db. That would suggest that with no
cable loss, you would be ok at 37 db of gain. From what I’ve seen the R8 and R9
do better than the spec. The NetRS generation does indeed need the higher gain.

Another antenna fun rabbit hole is having one that is in the database. The correction
services have been getting a bit more picky about wanting a proper antenna description
( = an ID from the database) before they will process the files. Your typical sub
$100 Chinese survey antenna probably isn’t in that database.

The various generations of gear feed the antennas at a range of voltages. Best to
get one that is happy with > 5V, or use a DC block and feed it with your own supply.

Fun

Bob

On Mar 28, 2023, at 10:27 AM, paul swed paulswedb@gmail.com wrote:

Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet. Spring is in the air.
Good luck
Paul
WB8TSL

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

Hi

The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has
pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, it comes
with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the -10, -20
or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ).

Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” version be
upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. Maybe
so if you actually talk to a dealer.

Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I checked on
doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that might have
gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay
for about $2K delivered.

Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed
on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends”
sort of thing.

Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy / lazy
approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If you wait
a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of digits in
the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about 0.1 ns.
There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files.

Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without some
further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH.

If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the NetR9,
they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business
decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of hardware.
Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story.

The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset between
the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in hundreds
of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another
random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset.

The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout
commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if they
do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it).

The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz input.
Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell you
they are locked.

The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the
world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also
don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than
GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to
this part of it.

Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long that will
keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware
reload might fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A
full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is about
$1,250 or so per year.

With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8.
In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit
crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s,
welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2
still only has 4GB).

This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing
as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That
depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will
beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness )

If you need more info, feel free to ask ….

Bob

On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high
precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's
happily ticking along right now.

Questions:

  1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS,
    GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently
    receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and
    BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if
    so, what is involved in getting that key?
  2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order
    to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing?

Thanks,
Stan


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com mailto:time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com

Hi With the Trimble gear, it’s not just about bandwidth. They have always run with high gain antennas. Their antennas have > 50 db of gain. Your typical telecom gps antenna might be down at 20 db. A lot of survey antennas are in the 30 to 40 db range. The quoted “gain margin” on the NetR9 is 13 db. That would suggest that with no cable loss, you would be ok at 37 db of gain. From what I’ve seen the R8 and R9 do better than the spec. The NetRS generation does indeed need the higher gain. Another antenna fun rabbit hole is having one that is in the database. The correction services have been getting a bit more picky about wanting a proper antenna description ( = an ID from the database) before they will process the files. Your typical sub $100 Chinese survey antenna probably isn’t in that database. The various generations of gear feed the antennas at a range of voltages. Best to get one that is happy with > 5V, or use a DC block and feed it with your own supply. Fun Bob > On Mar 28, 2023, at 10:27 AM, paul swed <paulswedb@gmail.com> wrote: > > Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet. Spring is in the air. > Good luck > Paul > WB8TSL > > On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com>> wrote: >> Hi >> >> The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 has >> pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, it comes >> with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the -10, -20 >> or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ). >> >> Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” version be >> upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. Maybe >> so if you actually talk to a dealer. >> >> Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I checked on >> doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that might have >> gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay >> for about $2K delivered. >> >> Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed >> on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends” >> sort of thing. >> >> Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy / lazy >> approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If you wait >> a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of digits in >> the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about 0.1 ns. >> There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files. >> >> Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without some >> further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH. >> >> If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the NetR9, >> they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business >> decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of hardware. >> Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story. >> >> The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time offset between >> the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in hundreds >> of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another >> random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset. >> >> The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout >> commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if they >> do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it). >> >> The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz input. >> Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and tell you >> they are locked. >> >> The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the >> world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also >> don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than >> GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to >> this part of it. >> >> Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long that will >> keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware >> reload *might* fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A >> full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is about >> $1,250 or so per year. >> >> With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8. >> In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit >> crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s, >> welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2 >> still only has 4GB). >> >> This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing >> as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That >> depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will >> beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness ) >> >> If you need more info, feel free to ask …. >> >> Bob >> >> >> > On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com>> wrote: >> > >> > I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some high >> > precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and it's >> > happily ticking along right now. >> > >> > >> > >> > Questions: >> > >> > >> > >> > 1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS, >> > GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently >> > receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo and >> > BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, and if >> > so, what is involved in getting that key? >> > 2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order >> > to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing? >> > >> > >> > >> > Thanks, >> > Stan >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com> >> > To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts@lists.febo.com> >> To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com <mailto:time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com>
PS
paul swed
Wed, Mar 29, 2023 1:34 AM

Bob have to agree with you.
To get my unit to work I needed to add a 10+ db amplifier and it has worked
well.
The amplifier is homebrew nothing fancy. But the unit locks nicely now from
the traditional GPS antenna feed system.
Originally it was marginal and wondered if I had a bad unit. "Read the
specs...." Looking forward to putting the multi-band antenna up with a new
feed line just for this receiver.
Regards
Paul
WB8TSL

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 3:32 PM Bob Camp kb8tq@n1k.org wrote:

Hi

With the Trimble gear, it’s not just about bandwidth. They have always run
with high
gain antennas. Their antennas have > 50 db of gain. Your typical telecom
gps
antenna might be down at 20 db. A lot of survey antennas are in the 30 to
40
db range.

The quoted “gain margin” on the NetR9 is 13 db. That would suggest that
with no
cable loss, you would be ok at 37 db of gain. From what I’ve seen the R8
and R9
do better than the spec. The NetRS generation does indeed need the higher
gain.

Another antenna fun rabbit hole is having one that is in the database. The
correction
services have been getting a bit more picky about wanting a proper antenna
description
( = an ID from the database) before they will process the files. Your
typical sub
$100 Chinese survey antenna probably isn’t in that database.

The various generations of gear feed the antennas at a range of voltages.
Best to
get one that is happy with > 5V, or use a DC block and feed it with your
own supply.

Fun

Bob

On Mar 28, 2023, at 10:27 AM, paul swed paulswedb@gmail.com wrote:

Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other
frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out
the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet.
Spring is in the air.
Good luck
Paul
WB8TSL

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts <
time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

Hi

The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1
has
pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded,
it comes
with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the
-10, -20
or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ).

Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other”
version be
upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments.
Maybe
so if you actually talk to a dealer.

Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I
checked on
doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that
might have
gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay
for about $2K delivered.

Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed
on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends”
sort of thing.

Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy
/ lazy
approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If
you wait
a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of
digits in
the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about
0.1 ns.
There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files.

Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without
some
further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH.

If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the
NetR9,
they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business
decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of
hardware.
Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story.

The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time
offset between
the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in
hundreds
of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another
random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset.

The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout
commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if
they
do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it).

The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz
input.
Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and
tell you
they are locked.

The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the
world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also
don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than
GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to
this part of it.

Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long
that will
keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware
reload might fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A
full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is
about
$1,250 or so per year.

With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8.
In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit
crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s,
welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2
still only has 4GB).

This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing
as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That
depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will
beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness )

If you need more info, feel free to ask ….

Bob

On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts <

I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some

high

precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and

it's

happily ticking along right now.

Questions:

  1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS,
    GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently
    receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo

and

BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key,

and if

so, what is involved in getting that key?
2.    If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order
to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing?

Thanks,
Stan


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com

Bob have to agree with you. To get my unit to work I needed to add a 10+ db amplifier and it has worked well. The amplifier is homebrew nothing fancy. But the unit locks nicely now from the traditional GPS antenna feed system. Originally it was marginal and wondered if I had a bad unit. "Read the specs...." Looking forward to putting the multi-band antenna up with a new feed line just for this receiver. Regards Paul WB8TSL On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 3:32 PM Bob Camp <kb8tq@n1k.org> wrote: > Hi > > With the Trimble gear, it’s not just about bandwidth. They have always run > with high > gain antennas. Their antennas have > 50 db of gain. Your typical telecom > gps > antenna might be down at 20 db. A lot of survey antennas are in the 30 to > 40 > db range. > > The quoted “gain margin” on the NetR9 is 13 db. That would suggest that > with no > cable loss, you would be ok at 37 db of gain. From what I’ve seen the R8 > and R9 > do better than the spec. The NetRS generation does indeed need the higher > gain. > > Another antenna fun rabbit hole is having one that is in the database. The > correction > services have been getting a bit more picky about wanting a proper antenna > description > ( = an ID from the database) before they will process the files. Your > typical sub > $100 Chinese survey antenna probably isn’t in that database. > > The various generations of gear feed the antennas at a range of voltages. > Best to > get one that is happy with > 5V, or use a DC block and feed it with your > own supply. > > Fun > > Bob > > On Mar 28, 2023, at 10:27 AM, paul swed <paulswedb@gmail.com> wrote: > > Also a note you should check that your antenna is useful for the other > frequencies. I needed to buy a newer multi-band antenna. Works great out > the window but somehow has not made it to the 90' level on the tower yet. > Spring is in the air. > Good luck > Paul > WB8TSL > > On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 9:40 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts < > time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: > >> Hi >> >> The NetR9 comes in a somewhat bewildering range of sub models. The Ti-1 >> has >> pretty much everything turned on from scratch. The Ti-2 can be upgraded, >> it comes >> with just Glonass and GPS. These and the TI-3 are all identifiable by the >> -10, -20 >> or -30 at the end of the model number. (Ti-1 = -10 and so on ). >> >> Can the -30 be upgraded? I’ve never played with one. Can the “other” >> version be >> upgraded ( not listed above)? Apparently not based on internet comments. >> Maybe >> so if you actually talk to a dealer. >> >> Cost wise, the upgrades are in the “forget about it” range. Last time I >> checked on >> doing a Galilleo upgrade, it was in the $10,000 range. What else that >> might have >> gotten you … who knows. I can buy one with all the systems enabled on eBay >> for about $2K delivered. >> >> Adding more systems means more sats go into the mix. Errors go down baed >> on the number of sats. How much they go down is very much a “that depends” >> sort of thing. >> >> Most precision timing relies on some sort of correction process. The easy >> / lazy >> approach is to send things off to NRCan or Opus or something similar. If >> you wait >> a few weeks ( 3 to 4) NRCan will give you a nice “.clk” file with lots of >> digits in >> the estimate. Most of the time, a week long file seems to be ok to about >> 0.1 ns. >> There can be 1 to 2 ns bumps in some files. >> >> Keep in mind that all this is simply going back to GPS time and without >> some >> further work, you don’t have a full link to BIH. >> >> If you sit down over a beer and taco’s with the folks who designed the >> NetR9, >> they are very much focused on survey applications. They made a business >> decision to leave the timing market to somebody else on this sort of >> hardware. >> Just why is a somewhat long and convoluted story. >> >> The net result is that even with “everything right” there is a time >> offset between >> the NetR9 (or NetR8 or NetRS or …) clock and GPS. It is measured in >> hundreds >> of microseconds. Power cycle the device and it will come up with another >> random clock offset. There are commands to read out this offset. >> >> The PPS in and PPS out are a bit coarse on these boxes. The magic readout >> commands do not tell you the offset of the PPS out of the device. (or if >> they >> do, they aren’t doing a very good job of it). >> >> The R8 / R9 / NetRS devices all lock up nicely to an external 10 MHz >> input. >> Turn off clock steering and enable the input. They should lock up and >> tell you >> they are locked. >> >> The R8/R9 generation will do L1/L2/L5 measurements. As far as I know, the >> world of free correction services has not caught on to L5 yet. There also >> don’t seem to be any obvious candidates for correcting anything other than >> GPS / Glonass. I keep hoping somebody will chime in with a correction to >> this part of it. >> >> Like all devices that write to flash memory, there’s only just so long >> that will >> keep working. Eventually they will die. When they go bonkers, a firmware >> reload *might* fix the problem. How long it stays fixed … who knows. A >> full up firmware upgrade and repair contract from your local dealer is >> about >> $1,250 or so per year. >> >> With the NetR8 selling for the same price as the NetR9, I’d ignore the R8. >> In some cases NetRS boxes are listed for more, those people are a bit >> crazy. There also are sellers with upgraded Ti-2’s calling them Ti-1’s, >> welcome to eBay. ( The Ti-1 has 8 GB internal storage, an upgraded Ti-2 >> still only has 4GB). >> >> This sort of makes it sound like the NetRS is pretty much the same thing >> as the NetR9. The R9 does do a better job. Is it enough better? That >> depends a lot on how much you paid for each of them. A Mosaic-T will >> beat either one ….. ( just not in the area of packaging / ruggedness ) >> >> If you need more info, feel free to ask …. >> >> Bob >> >> >> > On Mar 26, 2023, at 9:26 PM, Stan via time-nuts < >> time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: >> > >> > I just got a Trimble NetR9, which I hope to ultimately use to make some >> high >> > precision timing measurements. I've updated to the latest firmware and >> it's >> > happily ticking along right now. >> > >> > >> > >> > Questions: >> > >> > >> > >> > 1. The NetR9 spec sheet says it's capable of receiving the GPS, >> > GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations. My receiver is currently >> > receiving just the GPS and GLONASS birds, with the options for Galileo >> and >> > BeiDou not enabled. Is it possible to enable them with a license key, >> and if >> > so, what is involved in getting that key? >> > 2. If it is possible to enable them, is it worth it to do so in order >> > to (significantly) enhance the precision of positioning and timing? >> > >> > >> > >> > Thanks, >> > Stan >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> > To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com > > >