[lug] NTP and sparkfun GPS module?

[George Sexton]

There are a lot of Atom based boards that could be used for such a project.
Here's an example:

 

http://www.mini-box.com/D510MO-mini-ITX-Intel

 

If you search around, there are also 1U mini-ITX form factor cases available
for around $140.

 

This would run a pretty standard Linux distribution and the MB has a
standard Ethernet connection. There's also two serial headers so you could
just hook a GPS unit to it. Either the sparkfun eval board, or a Garmin
would probably work.

 

If you were looking for a more off the shelf system, you could do something
like this:

 

http://www.serversdirect.com/config.asp?config_id=SDR-S1101-T00

 

This has an advantage of having two Ethernet ports.

 

With either one of those, you're starting to rack up some expense.

 

$100 - GPS Receiver & Antenna

$100 - Motherboard

$150 - Power Supply, RAM & HD of some sort.

$40-100 - Case of some sort.

 

So, you're at $400-$500. 

 

For me, I just connected a Garmin 16x to an existing Linux server. It
suffers a tiny bit in accuracy from having other processes introduce some
interrupt latency, but it's still something like 100 times more accurate
than I could get using sync to external servers.

 

Like I said, I think the cool thing would be if there was a kit for hooking
an existing server up to an existing Linux machine. Then you could have a
price in the $100-$150 price range.

 

George Sexton

MH Software, Inc.

303 438-9585

www.mhsoftware.com

 

From: lug-bounces at lug.boulder.co.us [mailto:lug-bounces at lug.boulder.co.us]
On Behalf Of Bear Giles
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 2:54 PM
To: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List
Subject: Re: [lug] NTP and sparkfun GPS module?

 

I don't know their full catalog - do they have a small system that's able to
run a micro Linux installation? You could make it a wifi device that runs a
NTP server and not much else. You would need to have a way to specify the
wifi key and network address, of course.

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 2:46 PM, George Sexton <georges at mhsoftware.com>
wrote:

I've been looking at doing it as a project using this eval board:

 

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9159

 

This is a pretty straight forward method using a Garmin Receiver:

 

http://time.qnan.org/

 

I've been using it for about a year without any problems. Pricing is pretty
much the same. OTOH, GPS Time receivers start at around $1,000 and go up
rapidly from there.

 

It would be really cool if Sparkfun made a kit that had all of the parts
including a case for a unit. Using the Eval board above, it would be nice to
have a case, DB-9 connector, and power supply. Alternatively, it would be
cool if they made a kit for the Garmin 16x using the schematic from here:

 

http://time.qnan.org/

 

The 16x has an RJ-45 connector so that would simplify life for people using
it.

 

 

 

George Sexton

MH Software, Inc.

303 438-9585

www.mhsoftware.com

 

From: lug-bounces at lug.boulder.co.us [mailto:lug-bounces at lug.boulder.co.us]
On Behalf Of Bear Giles
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 2:28 PM
To: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List
Subject: [lug] NTP and sparkfun GPS module?

 

Has anyone looked at creating a homebrew NTP server from a sparkfun GPS
module? It would be easier to just buy one but it might be an interesting
project for somebody. 


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