Stanford Research PRS-10
Fellow time-nuts,
On monday I picked up my PRS-10 and on friday I picked up the break-out
board, PSU and manual. So, today I got around to put the pieces
together, with no luck, as it did not lock.
After locating a serial cable and hooking up, I was able to start query
the PRS-10, and got some hints to the fact that the RF oscillator was
sitting in the extreme low of it's control voltage. Check around, I then
looked at the SP? command to get the non-standard 65535,2190,23 reading,
which when cross-checking with the Appendix A should read 3158,2190,23.
A little moment after entering it, the rubidium locked up, jumped in
frequency and felt happy. I then stored the new SP setting into the
EEPROM using SP! and where able to verify that with the SP!?.
I wonder if this was an EEPROM error or someone fooling around error.
It ended up not delaying me all that much, but it could have confused me
for much longer if I would have been less lucky.
Anyway, I wanted to share my experience.
Cheers,
Magnus
I'm glad you got it going, but wasn't the consensus of the list that SRS had terrible support on their old gear?
I like their arbitrary wabeform generators, but made a mental note to avoid SRS based on a post. I suppose I could have read it elsewhere.
-----Original Message-----
From: Magnus Danielson magnus@rubidium.dyndns.org
Sender: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:09:22
To: Time-Nutstime-nuts@febo.com
Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Stanford Research PRS-10
Fellow time-nuts,
On monday I picked up my PRS-10 and on friday I picked up the break-out
board, PSU and manual. So, today I got around to put the pieces
together, with no luck, as it did not lock.
After locating a serial cable and hooking up, I was able to start query
the PRS-10, and got some hints to the fact that the RF oscillator was
sitting in the extreme low of it's control voltage. Check around, I then
looked at the SP? command to get the non-standard 65535,2190,23 reading,
which when cross-checking with the Appendix A should read 3158,2190,23.
A little moment after entering it, the rubidium locked up, jumped in
frequency and felt happy. I then stored the new SP setting into the
EEPROM using SP! and where able to verify that with the SP!?.
I wonder if this was an EEPROM error or someone fooling around error.
It ended up not delaying me all that much, but it could have confused me
for much longer if I would have been less lucky.
Anyway, I wanted to share my experience.
Cheers,
Magnus
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On 04/22/2012 02:31 AM, lists@lazygranch.com wrote:
I'm glad you got it going, but wasn't the consensus of the list that SRS had terrible support on their old gear?
I ordered break-out board, PSU and manual online, they shipped it and
got it to me within days. It's not terrible. Pricey, yes, but not
terrible. I have not tried to use their service department. BTW the
PRS-10 is very much a "current" product, just as the SR620 (that was
introduced in 1987).
It was well packed. Manual was wrapped in plastic, put in a SRS binder
which was also packed in a plastic bag. Inside there the PSU and
break-out board was also in their own plast packages. Neat and well
noted what it contained.
I like their arbitrary wabeform generators, but made a mental note to avoid SRS based on a post. I suppose I could have read it elsewhere.
Maybe it was not the complete story.
Anyway, I have heard about a PRS-10 related issue, in which a PRS-10 had
been slaved to a PPS and then jumped about 800 ns and then again about
400 ns. It sounds like uncalibrated input and output interpolators.
Cheers,
Magnus