Nixichrom woes

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Terry S

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Jul 11, 2022, 7:50:53 PM7/11/22
to neonixie-l
My Jeff Thomas Nixichron has been misbehaving.

It's worked flawlessly for years. Lately (4 mo?) it's had a hard time keeping a GPS lock, so much so that the GPS coordinates would be wrong when displayed. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. Then it would get a lock and seem to work fine for a while. It got progressively worse.

More recently even the time has been wrong, and the colon neon would never show a GPS lock.

All this led me to believe that the GPS puck was failing (I was on my 2nd puck, a GlobalSat BR355S4). So I ordered another and installed it today. Still no joy. It's just counting the minutes and not getting a lock.

Coincidentally, my Jeff Thomas WWVB nixie clock is also unable to get a WWVB time sync as of late.

I need to fix both of these wonderful devices. Any input?

I'd like to get the Nixichron converted to NWTS -- understanding that I'd lose the GPS coordinate display. I know some members here can help me with that and I imagine it's time to make that change. I'm basically clueless as to what's involved.

Terry

Greg P

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Jul 12, 2022, 5:52:33 AM7/12/22
to neonixie-l
Reach out to Michael at www.badnixie.com.  He should be able to help you and I recommend his wonderful new firmware for the NixiChron.  He may even be able to help with your WWVB too.

Good luck!

Terry S

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Jul 12, 2022, 7:58:00 PM7/12/22
to neonixie-l
The new GPS puck started working -- keeping both time and coordinates fine now. Has a lock at least 1/2 the time -- which is fine in my installation.

The WWVB clock is still not working. I may need a new receiver -- which is super hard to find now. It uses a circuit board out of an old "atomic" clock movement, modified.

I could re-use the huge tubes in a new clock, but I like my enclosure and would not want to rebuild that.

Nicholas Stock

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Jul 12, 2022, 8:30:21 PM7/12/22
to 'Greg P' via neonixie-l
Terry, I have a receiver that I know works with my (mothballed) WWVB clock. I could send it to you for testing (to isolate whether it's the receiver or something else) if you want to go that route. Just promise me that you'll send it back... :)

Send me a private message if you want help.

Cheers,

Nick

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Mitch

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Jul 13, 2022, 5:38:59 AM7/13/22
to neonixie-l
Good chance that the MAXxxx chip is bad. I had the same issue with one of my NixiChrons. 

On Monday, July 11, 2022 at 7:50:53 PM UTC-4 Terry S wrote:
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