All,

To add to the excellent information Art has provided - I spoke with Candice Rincon at Phoenix Mecano and just received a quote from her for the end plates. There is a $100 minimum order policy at P-M, shipping and taxes additional. The end plates with gaskets and screws are $7.25 each so we'll need to order 14 end plates to meet the minimum; that's enough to do 7 enclosures. The plates are cast aluminum and are blank so you would need to drill your own holes per the diagrams Art provided.
I don't know how many GPS kits were sold but if there's enough interest maybe we can do a group order.

Steve
WB0DBS

Hi

Another possible answer for end plates is to 3D print them. Doing it cheaply is not going
to do you any good EMI wise (it’s plastic). It will keep dust and bugs out of the enclosure.
Doing it with a metal loaded material is probably less than $7 an endplate, but not as
good looking as the “real thing”. If anybody wants to go that way, I’ll probably have a set
of .stl’s done up soon. ( = I’ll give you the files, you do the printing). Contact off list.

Bob

I've got some of those  aluminum boxes.  It is not hard to make your own
end plates.  All out need is either some aluminum strips (they sell them
at Home Depot or a piece of copper clad PCB material and two screws.    If
you really want the interlocking groove then you make two plates for each
end, one smaller to fit inside and one larger to cover the end of the box
and laminate the two plates.  The soft aluminum is easy to cut and shape
with a sander or file.

If you want to have them made for you, order a PCB, two sided from one of
those PCB prototype places.  Then they will drill the holes where you need
them and you can have them print the labels using that while silkscreen
legend.

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 1:56 AM, Steve - Home steve-krull@cox.net wrote:

--

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California

Hi

If you go with the PCB approach, the nice thing is getting stuff like
the slot for the D connector done at the PCB fab. That way you
have something that drops right in and works. The downside is that
not every pcb house is happy doing that sort of “CNC work”.  I
have absolutely no idea why. They all have to run some sort of gear
to cut the boards apart. Cutting slots or weird holes with it is pretty
trivial.

Bob

On 4/28/17 10:09 AM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

what about Front Panel Express?  They're in the whole business of small
run panels.  Not the cheapest place around, and you use their design
tool, but I've been happy with the quality of their work.

Is there a way I can help with this project?  If I had the specs to look at, maybe I would be able to run off a bunch of plates.  If we could batch them up I would do them for the cost of shipping.

Does anyone have a dimensioned print, picture, cad drawing of the plates?

Hi

If you ever get a chance to visit a PCB fab it’s an interesting sort of process. No
two of them are quite the same. The gear they have does impact what they can
or can’t do. Every one I have ever visited has done routing on the boards. That
may be because it is a very common requirement on industrial boards. Essentially
they just swap out he drill bit for a routing bit and go with it. It’s not quite that simple,
but almost. The big reason you don’t see it done on the low end boards is that it takes
time. The machine isn’t a cheap item so in this case time is money. It’s the same
reason a “real” fab will hit you with a charge for the number of holes you want on the
board. Same basic issue - time on the machine.

Bob

Hi

The dimensions, including the holes that need to be CNC’d into the plates are
attached an earlier message in this thread. The main link is:

http://www.synergy-gps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=73 http://www.synergy-gps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=73

The dimensions are at the bottom of:

http://www.synergy-gps.com/images/stories/pdf/tapr%20gps%20kit.pdf http://www.synergy-gps.com/images/stories/pdf/tapr%20gps%20kit.pdf

The one that is the bigger issue is the “front” that has the D hole and a connector
for a normal 9 pin serial connector.

Bob

do they need to be inset as in the drawing or will a flat piece of aluminum work?

I have some .25 thick aluminum.  I could mill a pocket which would add to the design and then mill the holes for the components.  That would take more machine time is all.

Generally, the way I mill plates such as these is I surface a piece of scrap and then glue (using superglue) the stock down onto the scrap.  I can then machine around the edges without worrying about clamping.  With pockets though, the torque even when ramping down might break the part loose.

How many plates are needed?

One other point, if you have the plates and just need them milled, that is pretty easy work.  I could make the model from the drawings and then just run them off.  The only challenge is that something always goes wrong no matter how careful I am so ideally, it would be best to be able to purchase the end plates separately.

Hi

Well … keep in mind that my plan was to print the parts I need :)

It sounds like there are enough people interested to get an order going for a couple
dozen sets. I’d guess more interest in a fully hogged out set than in the “drill it yourself”
approach. That assumes the cost does not go through the roof. The previously
quoted cost puts the plates at roughly half the cost of the kit they mate up with.

Bob

I would mill them for the price of shipping just to help out.  It would take about 10 minutes of setup and machining for the front panel and maybe a little longer for the back.  I could do two dozen pretty quickly on a weekend afternoon.

I mill keyed BNC and DBx connectors all the time.

hi

i posted much earlier.  status: the M12 works wonderfully with lady heather
v5 from mark sims.  mine has completed its 48 hour precision survey and is
purring along.

so far, i have had trouble with the serial to usb converter i picked up.
the one on my other pi3/Tbolt rig runs fine.

can anyone speak to the issues involved in attaching an oscillator?

thanks

dave mallery, k5en

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 12:19 PM, Jerry Hancock jerry@hanler.com wrote:

--
Dave Mallery, K5EN                (ubuntu linux 16-10)
PO Box 15                              Ophir,  OR  97464

  linux counter #64628 (since 1997)

There is a brief description of the parts included in the kit here:
http://www.synergy-gps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=73
It includes end plate dimensions and hole locations, etc. We have added paragraph 5 to the document as follows. It will be on the web site tomorrow.

Art

5. The original SynPaQ/E motherboards supplied with the Motorola M12+ based TAPR GPS Kit were designed to accept the larger form factor Motorola VP, GT+ and UT+ Oncore Series GPS receivers. The mounting holes for the VP, GT+ and UT+ receivers, and the required 5 VDC supply, are already part of the motherboard. Simply add the larger 10 pin header and supply the slightly longer 440 x 0.250 receiver mounting standoffs. According to Motorola GT+\UT+ TRM0003 User’s Guide, the mating Power/Data Connector is a 10 pin (2x5) on 2.54 Centers - AMP #104326-06 (Samtec has equivalent).

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On Behalf Of Jerry Hancock
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 12:20 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] TAPR Oncore M12+ kit

Is there a way I can help with this project?  If I had the specs to look at, maybe I would be able to run off a bunch of plates.  If we could batch them up I would do them for the cost of shipping.

Does anyone have a dimensioned print, picture, cad drawing of the plates?

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.febo.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Ftime-nuts&data=01%7C01%7Cart%40synergy-gps.com%7C1352cbbf7ce248b5418c08d48e71bd12%7Cc81f9fdec0e04d8c95779afaa0cad9ed%7C1&sdata=iAUOGbeme9rvmW7cZ1y6EtasPzyFE9dftulSNu3Z7x8%3D&reserved=0
and follow the instructions there.

Hi

If by “attaching an oscillator” you mean building a GPSDO, the simple approach still is
to get a Lucent KS box on eBay and run it.  There is massive information in the archives
about them. For a bit more money, there are a number of alternatives.

To do a GPSDO well ( = at least as well as a KS box) there’s more than a little
fiddling and hardware involved. It certainly can be done and people have done it.
Even finding a decent oscillator is a challenge, getting it all together takes some time.

If by “attaching an oscillator” you simply want to calibrate an oscillator you already
have … that’s different. The easy approach is to trigger one channel of your oscilloscope
on the pps out of the GPS. Run the oscillator output into the other input. If you have reason
to believe it’s > 1 Hz off, you will need to set it with a counter first.

Once it is set up, the drift of the oscillator output left or right on the screen shows you
the degree to which the oscillator is high or low in frequency. With a reasonable
scope and a few hours to watch things, you can get very close on your adjustment.

Lots of fun !!

Bob

I earlier sent Jerry a copy of the pdf that contains the drawings of the
two end plates and we have corresponded briefly about his process.

I have told Steve WB0DBS I will buy two sets of the two end plates. Yes,
I could fabricate these but the real ones are die cast and have a
sealing gasket and presumable match the housing that came with the kit.

And, I could machine the holes in my own metal shop but if Jerry will
agree to provide a CNS setup that does all the holes then that makes
sense to me. We should make one purchase of the end plates and provide
the lot to Jerry so he can do them all without needing to set up the CNC
multiple times.

For myself, I don't think the "D" detail on the BNC hole is really
necessary and it will require a small diameter end mill to profile on a
CNC. The bulkhead connector provided has a soft gasket that itself
inhibits rotation and if you are just careful when first installing the
connector that should be sufficient with the "D" hole detail, making the
fab easier and faster. The RS-232 9-pin hole detail can be profiled with
a larger end mill safely and faster.

I am a retired ME and familiar with this CNC process. Believe me, it
will be easier on Jerry and lots faster if we all buy the blank end
plates and ask Jerry to put in the hole details. His is a generous offer!

Sure, there may (or, may not) be less expensive ways to get the end
plates but this way gets it done for all of us at once and they match
the original design.

Larry W6FUB

On 4/28/2017 1:50 PM, Jerry Hancock wrote:

...

--
Best wishes,

Larry McDavid W6FUB
Anaheim, California  (SE of Los Angeles, near Disneyland)

On this product people are going to want holes drilled and I think a "D"
shape hole for the DB type connector.  The holes would allow easy clamping
but in a two step operation.    If I were making these I'd first clamp the
stock over a pair of 123 blocks, mill the holes, then after I hade a batch
of these made,  hole the holes to hold the part a fixture and then mill the
edges.

But that said, I could make a pair of these by hand with hack saw, file and
drill press in about 15 minutes.

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 1:41 PM, Jerry Hancock jerry@hanler.com wrote:

--

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California

Has anyone else received a unit they can't get to work?
I got my unit finally boxed up a few weeks back. The PPS LED flashes and power LED and RXD LED's light but the TxD doesn't.
I've ordered replacement MAX chips and 74ACT04 chips from Digi-Key but this didn't solve the problem.
As a next step I've found a Oncore M12 board on eBay coming from China and this should come in a few weeks.
No serial communications unfortunately.
I've also tried swapping pins 2 and 3 on the DB9 just in case RX and TX were swapped (although I had originally built the cable as per the schematic with the kit) but still no luck.
Thanks for any comments.

Chris
KD4PBJ