Recently some Datum Startloc II GPSDO's appeared on Ebay (originally around $50, now $100). The main seller appears to be in Canada. These are a telco type GPSDO that appears to be an attempt at a replacement for Trimble Thunderbolts. I recently got one in and did some playing with it (Lady Heather can now tolerate the beastie). They run on 24V, speak TSIP, use a Motorola 8 channel UT receiver, the RS-232 connector is a male and needs a null modem cable to connect to a computer. Serial protocol is 9600:8N1 Ok, it's wart time: They do an unstoppable survey when powered on. They say it will be a 14400 sample / 4 hour survey, but (thankfully) it is closer to 30 minutes. It does not appear to save the surveyed position in EEPROM... probably doesn't even have an EEPROM. It won't let you enter a surveyed position or work in a position hold mode or let you change the receiver mode (2D/3D/position hold, etc). When it enters overdetermined clock mode, the lat and lon data appear fixed but the altitude changes. The satellite info message reports the signal level, BUT THE AZIMUTH AND ELEVATION FIELDS ARE 0... BASTARDS! No antenna signal level map for you! It always reports a temperature of 30C. It does not report actual antenna open/short/OK status. It says everything is always OK... nothing to worry about... move along. The manufacturing date message reports the month as 0. The hardware and firmware version months are OK. You can't change the antenna elevation mask angle or signal level mask value or motion filter settings or oscillator disciplining settings or pretty much any fun / useful stuff. The values it sends back for the elevation and signal level masks are random garbage. You can set the cable delay (but loses it when powered off, seems to default to around 150 feet of coax). It seems to send back requested data whenever it wants (if ever). There are probably other warts, these are just the few that raised their ugly little heads first.

Hi I wonder if these were production line discards rather than pulled from equipment parts? That would explain the missing manufacturing date. They may still have production test code in them rather than final ship code. Bob > On Jun 27, 2016, at 9:32 PM, Mark Sims <holrum@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Recently some Datum Startloc II GPSDO's appeared on Ebay (originally around $50, now $100). The main seller appears to be in Canada. These are a telco type GPSDO that appears to be an attempt at a replacement for Trimble Thunderbolts. I recently got one in and did some playing with it (Lady Heather can now tolerate the beastie). They run on 24V, speak TSIP, use a Motorola 8 channel UT receiver, the RS-232 connector is a male and needs a null modem cable to connect to a computer. Serial protocol is 9600:8N1 > > Ok, it's wart time: > > They do an unstoppable survey when powered on. They say it will be a 14400 sample / 4 hour survey, but (thankfully) it is closer to 30 minutes. It does not appear to save the surveyed position in EEPROM... probably doesn't even have an EEPROM. > > It won't let you enter a surveyed position or work in a position hold mode or let you change the receiver mode (2D/3D/position hold, etc). When it enters overdetermined clock mode, the lat and lon data appear fixed but the altitude changes. > > The satellite info message reports the signal level, BUT THE AZIMUTH AND ELEVATION FIELDS ARE 0... BASTARDS! No antenna signal level map for you! > > It always reports a temperature of 30C. > > It does not report actual antenna open/short/OK status. It says everything is always OK... nothing to worry about... move along. > > The manufacturing date message reports the month as 0. The hardware and firmware version months are OK. > > You can't change the antenna elevation mask angle or signal level mask value or motion filter settings or oscillator disciplining settings or pretty much any fun / useful stuff. The values it sends back for the elevation and signal level masks are random garbage. You can set the cable delay (but loses it when powered off, seems to default to around 150 feet of coax). > > It seems to send back requested data whenever it wants (if ever). > > There are probably other warts, these are just the few that raised their ugly little heads first. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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.

Looks like I have similar StarLoc II. But I bough the item from U.S. Yes, it takes forever to set its location, for some uncertain reason. I did try to change UT module on it. Even using v4 instead of original v2. No luck with this. Its behave the same way. Without that position, the 10Mhz output is stable but not correct. As a workaround, every time at startup, I'll need to put exact precise position of that unit. I am using TB monitor for this. As its done - its works like I am expecting. Here is few screenshots from my unit (how its looks like in LH and TBM): http://www.patoka.ca/OCXO/StarLocII.png http://www.patoka.ca/OCXO/LH-StarLocII.png And here is compare it with TB http://www.patoka.ca/OCXO/TB-SL.png On 2016-06-28 06:51, Bob Camp wrote: > Hi > > I wonder if these were production line discards rather than pulled > from equipment parts? That would explain > the missing manufacturing date. They may still have production test > code in them rather than final ship code. > > Bob > >> On Jun 27, 2016, at 9:32 PM, Mark Sims <holrum@hotmail.com> wrote: >> >> Recently some Datum Startloc II GPSDO's appeared on Ebay (originally >> around $50, now $100). The main seller appears to be in Canada. >> These are a telco type GPSDO that appears to be an attempt at a >> replacement for Trimble Thunderbolts. I recently got one in and did >> some playing with it (Lady Heather can now tolerate the beastie). >> They run on 24V, speak TSIP, use a Motorola 8 channel UT receiver, >> the RS-232 connector is a male and needs a null modem cable to connect >> to a computer. Serial protocol is 9600:8N1 >> >> Ok, it's wart time: >> >> They do an unstoppable survey when powered on. They say it will be a >> 14400 sample / 4 hour survey, but (thankfully) it is closer to 30 >> minutes. It does not appear to save the surveyed position in EEPROM... >> probably doesn't even have an EEPROM. >> >> It won't let you enter a surveyed position or work in a position hold >> mode or let you change the receiver mode (2D/3D/position hold, etc). >> When it enters overdetermined clock mode, the lat and lon data appear >> fixed but the altitude changes. >> >> The satellite info message reports the signal level, BUT THE AZIMUTH >> AND ELEVATION FIELDS ARE 0... BASTARDS! No antenna signal level map >> for you! >> >> It always reports a temperature of 30C. >> >> It does not report actual antenna open/short/OK status. It says >> everything is always OK... nothing to worry about... move along. >> >> The manufacturing date message reports the month as 0. The hardware >> and firmware version months are OK. >> >> You can't change the antenna elevation mask angle or signal level mask >> value or motion filter settings or oscillator disciplining settings or >> pretty much any fun / useful stuff. The values it sends back for the >> elevation and signal level masks are random garbage. You can set the >> cable delay (but loses it when powered off, seems to default to around >> 150 feet of coax). >> >> It seems to send back requested data whenever it wants (if ever). >> >> There are probably other warts, these are just the few that raised >> their ugly little heads first. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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. > > _______________________________________________ > 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. -- WBW, V.P.