Jeff Thomas GPSII

[Nicholas Stock]

Hi folks....has anyone used a different GPS received with Jeff's GPSII clock other than the HaiCom 204-III that it came with? Looks like my receiver may have given up the ghost as it doesn't appear to lock anymore.....

Thanks,

(Pharma) Nick

[Nick]

Why not just get another 204III?

Nick

[Terry S]

I switched to the GSTAR IV for my Nixichron. It's been way more reliable than the HaiCom ever was.

[Nicholas Stock]

I can’t locate a reasonably priced HaiCom replacement....I’ll check out the Gstar. I have some GlobalSat BR355’s with the PS/2  plug but there was no pin out info in the GPSII manual that I’m aware of....are they compatible?

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 20, 2018, at 21:07, Robert L <boble...@gmail.com> wrote:

This:  https://www.tubeclockdb.com/user-submitted/354-jeff-thomas-gpsii.html

 

I've two modified here at home and a few out in the wild.

 

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[Terry Kennedy]

On Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 12:25:12 AM UTC-4, Pramanicin wrote:

I can’t locate a reasonably priced HaiCom replacement....I’ll check out the Gstar. I have some GlobalSat BR355’s with the PS/2  plug but there was no pin out info in the GPSII manual that I’m aware of....are they compatible?

The pinout is compatible. However, note that most of the earlier Jeff Thomas clocks / firmware require the 1PPS signal on the PS/2 connector, which more modern receivers don't provide. The clock probably displays its firmware date on power-up, in MMDDYY format. On the NixiChron, the first firmware to support receivers without 1PPS was 110105 and the last firmware that required 1PPS was 040604. I have heard (anecdotally) that there may be a slight modification needed on the PCB for older (not NixiChron) clocks. Someone will likely be along with additional details shortly.

[Nick]

On Wednesday, 21 March 2018 06:54:02 UTC+4, Terry S wrote:

I switched to the GSTAR IV for my Nixichron. It's been way more reliable than the HaiCom ever was.

Interesting - I've never had a HaiCom 204III fail on me,  They're still available - why not just get a new one?

Nick

[Terry S]

I did have to update the Nixichron firmware for the BR355. A side benefit was corrected handling of the DST changeover.

[Terry S]

My 204III worked flawlessly for years and then seemed to degrade slowly. I can't explain it. Maybe the RF environment got noisier and the receiver was not handling it well.

I'm glad I updated to the BR355, it's much smaller and rock solid reliable. There is a tiny flashing red LED on the edge.

There is one minor gotchya with the GlobalSat units. They have a "feature" that they do not update the output GPS coordinates unless the unit is moving a few MPH. The intent is that when used in a vehicle, the user doesn't see the vehicle position dither when sitting at a stop light or in your own driveway. This might be configurable via software, but with the PS2 interface, I wasn't able to configure the unit. I know this is possible as another user here posted cable building instructions to convert it to a standard serial port. Alas, my laptop has no serial port. It was just more trouble than it was worth, and my unit functioned plug-n-play.

So if you liked seeing the coordinates change slightly as the scroll across the Nixichron tubes, you'll miss that with the BR355. I don't know when it does update the GPS coordinates, but they are correct on my clock. Maybe just on power-up.

Terry

[MichaelB]

Nick, i have 5 or 6 of them. Email me