Re: ntpd and GPS



Ok, it was nothing like what I was thinking. Turns out my GPS didnt have a fix on anything. It was getting signals, but no fix. :-)

Now that I have it mounted on a pole outside, hey presto:

building# ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
= = = = = = ========================================================================
+resolv.internod 128.250.33.242 2 u 50 64 377 18.121 -1.127 14.549
*sparky.services 131.203.16.6 2 u 56 64 377 21.275 -9.704 15.235
GPS_NMEA(0) .GPS. 0 l 3 64 1 0.000 -442.78 0.002

Cheers for your help. I'll keep tweaking it now until I get it working just right (jitter is incrementing and Im sure thats not a good thing).

Tom


On 20/09/2008, at 8:09 AM, Bob Johnson wrote:

On 9/19/08, Tom Storey <tom@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,

Ive been toying with setting up my old Garmin GPS12 as a reference for a
server (FreeBSD 6.2) running ntpd, but Ive run into an issue.


Is it possible the issue isn't what you think it is?

Ive searched around a bit and cant find an answer, perhaps because there
isnt one.

I once (years ago) had a Garmin GPS working with ntpd, so it's
reasonable to believe it can be done again, unless support for that
capability was dropped (which I doubt). Unfortunately, it was long
enough ago that I don't remember what I did. It's possible I used the
1 PPS output without NMEA sentences, but that's not my recollection.


Is there any way I can set ntpd to expect a $GPRMC string every 2 seconds,
which is the frequency at which the GPS12 transmits them?


Alternatively, does anyone know how to make the GPS12 transmit a $GPRMC
string every second?

I'm almost certain you can't. The complete set of all NMEA sentences
takes more than one second at the default 4800 baud, so IIRC it
outputs sentences only on odd seconds, and perhaps the older units are
too slow to compute a fix once per second. Two things that may work
around this are to turn off everything except the GPRMC sentence:

$PGRMO,,2
$PGRMO,GPRMC,1

and perhaps free up some CPU time (for faster position calculation) by
(oddly enough) reducing the output data rate to 1200 bps:

$PGRMC,,,,,,,,,,1,

but I don't think that will actually work. To go back to 4800 bps, use
3 instead of 1. I think there are 11 commas after the "C" in that
command, but my eyes aren't so sharp any more.

There is a Linux driver for the Garmin proprietary protocol. Don't
know if it is distributed in a FreeBSD version. Try
http://jensar.us/~bob/garmin/


If there is a better place I can post this, please let me know.

This is probably a good place for this question, but if you don't get
a better answer, try the archives of the "time nuts" mailing list
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts which
unfortunately appears to be down right now. General info about that
group is at http://www.leapsecond.com/time-nuts.htm

If that yields nothing, you might post your question to the Time Nuts
list, time-nuts @ febo.com. It is probably a FAQ for them, but they
will be polite about it. And I had hoped to once again stick an old
Garmin on an NTP server, so I'll be curious to know if this turns out
to be insurmountable.

Good luck,

-- Bob Johnson
fbsdlists@xxxxxxxxx

_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Garmin 300XL GPS Approach didnt arm
    ... approach from initial fix to the final fix but the approach never armed and ... non-towered airport using the Garmin GNS 430 and a GPS approach. ... Cal Aggie Flying Farmers ...
    (rec.aviation.ifr)
  • Re: Garmin 530 Fatal Error
    ... I mean with all the Garmin resources how hard can it be to fix this? ... can't believe my Garmin 530 has no airways or altitude guidance on approach. ...
    (rec.aviation.ifr)
  • Re: wrong date on Garmin 12 GPS
    ... I cannot find a fix on the Garmin user support site. ... the accuracy of the GPS at all. ... You hold down the Mark key and turn on the unit and then: ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: wrong date on Garmin 12 GPS - copy of April 2005 post
    ... Do you know if the same sequence will work with the Garmin 12CX? ... I cannot find a fix on the Garmin user support site. ... Switch it to NO, ... The device then does a very slow recovery as it acquires data from the ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)