[ntp:questions] Inexpensive OEM GPS units?

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Sun Nov 11 12:44:10 UTC 2007


Wesley J. Landaker wrote:
> Can anyone give me some suggestions on inexpensive (< $100) OEM GPS
> units that support NMEA and 1PPS for use with NTP? Or any non-GPS
> hardware clock sources that anyone can suggest?
> 
> I am already aware of the Garmin GPS 18 LVC, which seems the most
> promising, but I'd like to know about other options if they exist.
> Doing random web searching online for a few hours has mostly found lots
> of more expensive alternatives--I'm just trying to find out what is out
> there in the same or better price range.
> 
> Also, is there any place online that keeps an up-to-date list of this
> kind of thing? The NTP wiki seemed like a likely spot, but there wasn't
> much info about actual hardware.
> 

There isn't much about actual hardware because there isn't much hardware 
available in that price range.  AFAIK, the Garmin unit is the ONLY one 
available new in that price range.

You can find used Motorola Oncore hardware on e-Bay.  Motorola no longer 
makes or supports them.  The one's I've seen have all been older 8 
channel units.  Motorola sold the business to an outfit called something 
like "SIRF" that haven't heard of since!

Other than GPS, you can buy or build HF receivers for the time signals 
broadcast by NIST (WWV at 2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, & 20 MHz) or the LF 
broadcast of WWVB at 60 KHz.  CHU in Canada broadcasts a similar HF signal.

If you are really desperate, you could try to duplicate Terry 
Pratchett's "Glass Clock of Bad Schushein" that synchronizes to the 
"tick of the universe". :-)  (See "The Thief of Time" by Terry 
Pratchett; it's a fun read!)







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