Thunderbolt serial port problem
I have a problem with the data out of the thunderbolt serial port. I was
monitoring with
ko4bb monitor and the thunderbolt quit sending data.
I seem to remember some discussion of this on the list some time ago. I
did a
search but didn't find anything.
Any suggestion ? Otherwise I will reverse engineer the serial port and
trouble shoot.
Bill K7NOM
Search the archive for the subject: "Thunderbolt repair"
and "Thunderbolt quits".
Brian found a bad voltage on his power supply.
Perhaps your PC's power-saving feature?
Is your Microsoft Windows serial mouse feature disabled?
If it is not communicating at all, have you tried a different
baud rate?
I have a TAPR Thunderbolt that quits talking out the serial port
after a period of time. Only a power down reset gets it
responding again for a while. I haven't opened it up yet; I
bought one from fluke.L to get back on the air. The new one
works fine.
Mike - AA8K
On 04/13/2011 12:13 PM, bill wrote:
I have a problem with the data out of the thunderbolt serial
port. I was monitoring with
ko4bb monitor and the thunderbolt quit sending data.
I seem to remember some discussion of this on the list some time
ago. I did a
search but didn't find anything.
Any suggestion ? Otherwise I will reverse engineer the serial
port and trouble shoot.
Bill K7NOM
There are potential failure issues with the TBolt and the monitor. Have you
tried the TBolt with a computer?
I had a TBolt die but would still put out 10 MHz. No serial data and no PPS
though. Have you looked to see if there is 10 MHz and a PPS?
If the issue is the TBolt, make sure the voltages and ground applied to the
connector are actually getting to the board.
Good luck,
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com]On
Behalf Of bill
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:13 AM
To: time-nuts
Subject: [time-nuts] Thunderbolt serial port problem
I have a problem with the data out of the thunderbolt serial port. I was
monitoring with
ko4bb monitor and the thunderbolt quit sending data.
I seem to remember some discussion of this on the list some time ago. I
did a
search but didn't find anything.
Any suggestion ? Otherwise I will reverse engineer the serial port and
trouble shoot.
Bill K7NOM
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No virus found in this message.
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On 4/13/2011 9:13 AM, bill wrote:
I have a problem with the data out of the thunderbolt serial port. I
was monitoring with
ko4bb monitor and the thunderbolt quit sending data.
I seem to remember some discussion of this on the list some time ago.
I did a
search but didn't find anything.
Any suggestion ? Otherwise I will reverse engineer the serial port and
trouble shoot.
Bill K7NOM
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
I made a bad test. The serial cable was not connected to the computer.
Actually the problem
is the monitor. I bought from flukel (sp) in China. I opened up the
monitor and re-soldered
some questionable solder joints and it still doesn't work. The monitor
reports "Waiting for
GPS" and "No Message"
I think will easier to get a new one instead of fooling with this one :-)
Sorry about the bad test
Bill K7NOM
On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 5:11 PM, bill billj@ieee.org wrote:
... I bought from flukel (sp) in China. I opened up the monitor
and re-soldered
some questionable solder joints and it still doesn't work. The monitor
reports "Waiting for
GPS" and "No Message"
fluke.l's design is not reliable. I don't think he is getting the
voltages right in the serial interface. It works I guess but with
small margin for error
=====
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
Fluke.l is using my design except for a number of units which were shipped with 0 ohm resistors where the 3 diodes were supposed to go. This powers the CPU with 5 V instead of 3 and most don't last long at that voltage. However, the symptom is a blank display.
Also, I understand some units have an actual 5 V regulator and some expect a regulated 5 V.
I have tested a total of 9 units, 2 from fluke.l one from Dan Karg and the other are mine against 3 Thunderbolts (2 group buys and one of the original red boxes) and they all work. As long as the serial data is enough to bias on and off the 2N2222, it should work.
Check the wiring and check that the serial data goes to the CPU. There is not much that can go wrong if the CPU is working.
It is possible that the serial input to the CPU is fried while the rest of the chip works, but I have never seen that happen. Yet I have fried a number of these chips (I design HV supplies in my day job).
Didier KO4BB
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless thingy while I do other things...
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Albertson albertson.chris@gmail.com
Sender: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:19:25
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurementtime-nuts@febo.com
Reply-To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Thunderbolt serial port problem UPDATE
On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 5:11 PM, bill billj@ieee.org wrote:
... I bought from flukel (sp) in China. I opened up the monitor
and re-soldered
some questionable solder joints and it still doesn't work. The monitor
reports "Waiting for
GPS" and "No Message"
fluke.l's design is not reliable. I don't think he is getting the
voltages right in the serial interface. It works I guess but with
small margin for error
=====
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
On 4/13/2011 5:19 PM, Chris Albertson wrote:
fluke.l's design is not reliable. I don't think he is getting the
voltages right in the serial interface. It works I guess but with
small margin for error
That may be so Chris, but Didier's original design is fine. I have had
two of them running for at least a year now with no problems. They are
also happy with a computer serial port in parallel, it seems pretty
robust to me.
Dan.
Further to this discussion, my fluke.l monitor has never decoded the
Tbolt oscillator voltage, although all other data is displayed
successfully. I contacted fluke.l regarding the problem and he promised
to look into it - that was over a year ago and I have heard nothing
since. As a precaution I have retro-fitted the missing components, a la
Didier, it doesn't address the data display problem of course, but
otherwise the monitor works OK. Just don't think you'll get any
after-sales support!
David
On 14/04/2011 02:09, Dan Rae wrote:
On 4/13/2011 5:19 PM, Chris Albertson wrote:
fluke.l's design is not reliable. I don't think he is getting the
voltages right in the serial interface. It works I guess but with
small margin for error
That may be so Chris, but Didier's original design is fine. I have
had two of them running for at least a year now with no problems.
They are also happy with a computer serial port in parallel, it seems
pretty robust to me.
Dan.
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and follow the instructions there.
Further to this discussion, my fluke.l monitor has never decoded the
Tbolt oscillator voltage, although all other data is displayed
successfully.
I contacted fluke.l regarding the problem and he promised to look into
it - that was over a year ago and I have heard nothing since.
As a precaution I have retro-fitted the missing components, a la Didier,
it doesn't address the data display problem of course, but otherwise the
monitor works OK. Just don't assume you'll get any after-sales support!
David
On 4/13/2011 5:47 PM, shalimr9@gmail.com wrote:
Fluke.l is using my design except for a number of units which were shipped with 0 ohm resistors where the 3 diodes were supposed to go. This powers the CPU with 5 V instead of 3 and most don't last long at that voltage. However, the symptom is a blank display.
Also, I understand some units have an actual 5 V regulator and some expect a regulated 5 V.
I have tested a total of 9 units, 2 from fluke.l one from Dan Karg and the other are mine against 3 Thunderbolts (2 group buys and one of the original red boxes) and they all work. As long as the serial data is enough to bias on and off the 2N2222, it should work.
Check the wiring and check that the serial data goes to the CPU. There is not much that can go wrong if the CPU is working.
It is possible that the serial input to the CPU is fried while the rest of the chip works, but I have never seen that happen. Yet I have fried a number of these chips (I design HV supplies in my day job).
Didier KO4BB
OK I think I will check the signal going to the CPU. If it is there,
then I will throw the unit away.
If the signal is not at the CPU I will trouble shoot further.
Thanks for the suggestion everybody.
Bill K7NOM