[ntp:questions] Re: WWV audio driver, FreeBSD, Can't seem to get it going

wa6zvp at gmail.com wa6zvp at gmail.com
Tue Jun 7 04:19:03 UTC 2005


Hi all.

I haven't done an update in a week or two, so thought I would update
everyone on whats going on.

I bought an SB card, but the snd_driver load didn't even see it, so
I put the 'white box' special back in.  After restarting, I saw lots
more action.  Started getting wwv3 and 4 messages, but it still would
not quite get happy.  After an hour or so, it even lost minute sync
and did a full restart.  Never again did it get any better.

On a hunch, opening up the case and voila.  Hot.  Bad fan.
I replace (er, kludge) some fans.  Things get better, for a while,
and even set the clock once, before getting unhappy.  Even days of
running with s9+ WWV signals would not fully sync.

So, I start wrapping my head around the refclock_wwv driver.  (Actually
it
was more like it was wrapping itself around _my_ head, but I digress.
At least I started understanding the sequence of the debug messages,
and
what to watch for.  I even added one myself to watch the watchcat
variable.

The WWV docs say the 100Hz 1bps data is at 50% modulation.  This does
not correspond to the source code, so I changed the value of DGAIN from
10 to 2.  I varified the levels with a scope.  It is 50% of the tick
levels.

Seems better, but still not there yet.

Today, in frustration, I find another scrapbin audio card.  Another one
that
that the snd_driver load wouldn't find. :(

So, I put the semi-working on back in, rebooted, and I'll be damned.
It progressed non-stop from Minute sync (took 2 minutes) directly to
second sync.  3 minutes later it had all the digits.  After it had seen
all the digits with high certainty, it set the clock and stayed there.
Total elapsed time about 20 minutes.  It then proceeded to ramp up the
audio clock freq updates to 1024 and is happy as a lark!!

I'm writing this some 5 or 6 hours after the lock.  I'm still seeing
clockstat output like:

53528 14520.008 127.127.36.0  0 2005 158 04:02:00  D -6 0 127 WV15 21 5
88.0 1024
53528 14522.016 127.127.36.0 wwv5 001f 175 4924 3207/34.4 5678/18.2
WV15 fe91 37 3514/40.0 WH15 0002 19 1895/33.3

Which is very good.  It is starting to take some data hits though.

It is starting to fall off compared to a few hours ago.  This is
expected.
Propagation on 15 Mhz is starting to drop off to CO.  10 would be
better.
The Traconex receiver is not very agressive at checking better freqs.
It
has to really get weak.

Anyway, I'd like to tune the fudgetime value now to match the GPSs, but
it probably won't relock.  Wish I knew what made it do it today.

          Roger


wa6zvp at gmail.com wrote:
> Folks,
>  I suspect that interest in drivers other than GPS and PPS are waning,
> in fact I have 3 GPS based servers as well, but thought I'd try
> something else.
>
> I have a Traconex 1020 WWV receiver used with driver 3 which works
> rather well, so I thought I would add the audio driver (36) to the mix.
>
> System is an older Dell workstation with FreeBSD 5.3.  The NTP version
> is 4.2.0a-20050303, although I've tried others, and even BSD 5.4
> The sound 'card' is on the motherboard.
>
> I did:
> kldload snd_driver
> which resulted in:
> May 19 19:57:01 Fuzzball kernel: pcm0: <Intel ICH2 (82801BA)> port
> 0xdc40-0xdc7f,0xd800-0xd8ff irq 10 at device 31.5 on pci0
> May 19 19:57:01 Fuzzball kernel: pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1885 AC97
> Codec>
> May 19 19:57:01 Fuzzball kernel: pcm0: measured ac97 link rate at 55945
> Hz
> May 19 20:08:03 Fuzzball ntpd[970]: ntpd 4.2.0a at 1.1191-r Wed May 18
> 20:59:11 PM
>
> and it created /dev/audio0.0 to which I symlinked ntp.audio.0
>
> ntp.conf contains:
> server 127.127.36.0
> fudge 127.127.36.0 flag2 1 flag3 1 flag4 1
>
> Here is the last 3 samples from clockstats:
>
> 53510 59149.914 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2  91 WV15 0   226  10.1 62698  4880
> 62698
> 53510 59149.914 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2  91 WH15 0   248  12.5 443431  4880
> 443431
> 53510 59208.430 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2 111 WV15 0   361  13.2 24318  2480
> 24318
> 53510 59208.430 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2 111 WH15 0   264  15.7 35736  2480
> 35736
> 53510 59266.946 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2  91 WV15 0   298   9.5 28666    80
> 28666
> 53510 59266.946 127.127.36.0 wwv8 2  91 WH15 0   254  12.0 239884    80
> 239884
>
> The AGC does show action and responds to removing/inserting audio.
> However, the tone filters never seem to get a grasp on things, like
> perhaps the output of the A/D is garbage?
>
> I know that Dave Mills has said that this driver is no longer
> maintainable, at least by him, but I found references from last year
> that it did work under FreeBSD.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas on where I should go from here?
> 
>         Roger




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