Re: Datum PRS-50 monitoring software
In theory the Monitor3 program can automatically figure out the correct
serial port settings to talk to the clock. I've used Monitor3 to talk to a
sick Datum 4040A cesium, and in my experience the auto serial settings
feature rarely worked. The 4040A defaults to very strange serial settings.
IIRC it's 2400 baud 7-E-1. I believe the PRS-50 is based on the same cesium
module as the 4040A and 4065A. You might try entering those serial settings
manually into Monitor3 and see if it connects. If that doesn't work, I
think I have a copy of Monitor2 somewhere, which is supposedly the proper
control program for the 4040A. I never found a copy of the original
monitor.exe. But I don't think any of them do anything fancier than just
implementing the comms protocol in the manual. Someone could probably do
that in Python or similar pretty quickly, and then we wouldn't need to
worry about obsolete DOS programs.
Cheers!
--Stu
Stu,
My cache of Monitor (1997), Monitor2 (2008), and Monitor3 (2010)
programs from Datum / Symmetricom is here:
http://leapsecond.com/museum/prs-50/
I agree about the RS232 format. When the first few guesses don't work I
write a script to try standard baud rates from 1200 to 115200, each of
the 4 parity choices, and both 7 and 8 bit. That's 64 tests but let the
computer do it for you and come back in a few minutes to see the result.
That assumes you have the right Rx/Tx pins, which should be checked
independently. I have several instruments that choose 7E rather than 8N.
/tvb
On 12/30/2022 10:43 AM, Stewart Cobb via time-nuts wrote:
In theory the Monitor3 program can automatically figure out the correct
serial port settings to talk to the clock. I've used Monitor3 to talk to a
sick Datum 4040A cesium, and in my experience the auto serial settings
feature rarely worked. The 4040A defaults to very strange serial settings.
IIRC it's 2400 baud 7-E-1. I believe the PRS-50 is based on the same cesium
module as the 4040A and 4065A. You might try entering those serial settings
manually into Monitor3 and see if it connects. If that doesn't work, I
think I have a copy of Monitor2 somewhere, which is supposedly the proper
control program for the 4040A. I never found a copy of the original
monitor.exe. But I don't think any of them do anything fancier than just
implementing the comms protocol in the manual. Someone could probably do
that in Python or similar pretty quickly, and then we wouldn't need to
worry about obsolete DOS programs.
Cheers!
--Stu
Hello to all members.
Getting ready for New Year celebrations slowed my work on my PRS-50.
First I want to thank Tom Van Baak and Jim Harman for their help.
I progressed, I'm now able to communicate with the beast; but so far all
my attempts at using Win 10 and USB to RS-232 dongles failed.
I brought back to life an old Win 98 desktop that was gathering dust and
in a matter of minutes I was able to communicate, both with the DOS and
Windows version of the software.
I'm no cesium ref specialist but I get three errors and also two values
raise my eyebrows :
-
the 24 V supply is at 22
-
the power on hour counter is at 0 and it stay there, it does not
increase.
I tried to share the screen captures and data log that is on my old
desktop so I can upload them to my Win 10 laptop, but no luck Windows
safety measure will not allow it.
I the tried to use a USB key on the Win 98 computer but I no longer have
small size keys, so I suspect that the partition on the USB key is not
compatible with Win 98
Tomorrow I will try to send the files to an old win 2K computer and then
to a USB key OR I will write a CD with the Win 98 computer.
Again thank you to all members !
73 from Claude VA2 HDD
Hi,
The protocol is described in the 4040A/4065A manuals [1]. Does not look
too hard to implement, as it's an fixed format ASCII.
As you look into the manual [1], it has an interesting feature in that
you can hook up multiple clocks on the same RS-232 chain. It's
illustrated in the manual. That way one can monitor multiple clocks
using one serial port. Data is separated, as each "line" of data from a
clock has the serial number in it.
My python-script [2] is for the EFOS-A/B to those clocks, but I've not
come around to adapt it to the FTS 4065 style cesium protocol, but it's
certainly on my list of things to do.
My python script pulls data out of the serial port and dumps it into in
influxdb database. On the other end of that Influx database I use
Grafana. I strongly recommend using that basic approach. A learning
experience is to convert data into SI base units as it goes into the
InfluxDB, since Grafana becomes messier to fix that after the fact. My
script still has that problem, but as I restart it I aim to fix that.
Cheers,
Magnus
[1] http://www.rabel.org/archives/Symmetricom/4065c-manual.pdf
[2] https://github.com/tfritzon/masermon
On 2022-12-30 19:43, Stewart Cobb via time-nuts wrote:
In theory the Monitor3 program can automatically figure out the correct
serial port settings to talk to the clock. I've used Monitor3 to talk to a
sick Datum 4040A cesium, and in my experience the auto serial settings
feature rarely worked. The 4040A defaults to very strange serial settings.
IIRC it's 2400 baud 7-E-1. I believe the PRS-50 is based on the same cesium
module as the 4040A and 4065A. You might try entering those serial settings
manually into Monitor3 and see if it connects. If that doesn't work, I
think I have a copy of Monitor2 somewhere, which is supposedly the proper
control program for the 4040A. I never found a copy of the original
monitor.exe. But I don't think any of them do anything fancier than just
implementing the comms protocol in the manual. Someone could probably do
that in Python or similar pretty quickly, and then we wouldn't need to
worry about obsolete DOS programs.
Cheers!
--Stu
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Hello to all members.
After much fooling around I was able to export the screen captures from
DOS and Windows version.
I include screen captures of the three condition I've been able to
identify, DAC error, Rabi-Ramsey error and locked condition for DOS
software and Windows version.
The values I find strange are 24V supply low, Ion Pump Current always at
zero, spectrometer stuck at 15 V (most likely the upper limit,
indicating low cesium level in tube ?) and also in windows version the
operation hour counter that does not increment while the software
version is at zero; for these last two I suspect that this is not
implemented in my PRS-50.
If you have any insight on what is the problem, your help will be
welcomed.
Regards,
Claude VA2 HDD
