A nice stable time source with some limitations.
For Laureline GPS NTP Server
I bought this little receiver with a view to comparing it with my other NTP servers. The Laureline server is a dedicated NTP server which differs from the rest in my park which are based on general purpose operating systems such as linux and FreeBSD. One of the features that attracted me was the inclusion of an keyed IDC connector, hosting the Ublox 1PPS output.
My Laureline is cased, as I paid for that option. It is a nice little silver affair with transparent end plates pierced for the interface connectors.
Unscrewing either plate allows the server PCB to slide out. The small size of the case, tailored for the micr-controller PCB means that there are cables connected to both ends. This is not ideal, and makes finding a place to put it a bit more difficult. I prefer all cable entries on one face.
There is no doc supplied, but that available on links from the tindie site is excellent.
Installation:
Nothing heart-stopping to report. I had one problem which I will mention later related to the ethernet jack but once I had mastered that everything worked fine. After testing, when I had the server USB connected to a Win7 PC, I moved the power cable a powered USB hub. No issues there, but as that is not connected to a computer I can't access the serial console. My choice.
Configuration:
The server configures itself if you have a DHCP server, such as your ISP's router, on the same net. If you don't, then you need to configure an IP address via the serial console. I have a router with DHCP server capability, but I needed to connect to the serial console to enable the 1PPS output (off by default) and to enable syslog messages, output on port 514.
There is one other thing I would mention about the use of DHCP. When I first connected it, and powered up a few times, I noticed that the assigned host name I was getting, as well as the IP addresses were changing. This is problematic for configuring the NTP configuration files. So in order to fix that I configured a static DHCP address for the server's MAC address. I could have also configured the IP address using the serial console. That address was added to the ntp.conf files and the necessary configuration changes my syslog server config and firewall, to allow the UDP packets through, and I was set.
ntp.conf
server 192.168.1.23 minpoll 4 maxpoll 4
syslog.conf
+laurelineA.stratum1.d2g.com
*.* /var/log/laurelineA.log
firewall ipfw (your wall may differ):
# Allow inbound syslog UDP from our local net only
add 503 set 5 allow log logamount 128 udp from 192.168.0.0/16 to 192.168.1.3 dst-port 514 keep-state
# ipfw show 503
00530 411840 54940405 set 0 allow log logamount 128 udp from 192.168.0.0/16 to 192.168.1.3 dst-port 514 keep-state
it generates a lot of data
Operation:
Once the NTP configuration files were set up and ntpd restarted all went well. The server is serving good time on a par with my other servers. For example ntpq -pn is showing
remote refid st when poll reach delay offset jitter
=======================================================
+192.168.1.4 .PPS1. 1 u 9 16 377 0.896 -0.005 0.013
+192.168.1.15 192.168.1.23 2 u 8 16 377 0.971 -0.003 0.029
*192.168.1.23 .GPS. 1 u 6 16 377 0.581 0.012 0.008 <===Laureline
-145.238.203.14 .TS-3. 1 u 3 16 377 3.239 -0.212 0.035
-217.147.208.1 194.242.34.149 2 u 5 16 377 23.592 0.132 0.020
-91.235.212.22 212.82.32.15 2 u 5 16 377 17.275 -0.684 0.031
$
You can see here that it is the selected server, the jitter is at the NTP floor most of the day with the offset in the low tens of microseconds. The fact that there is no OS in the server minimises the latency which keeps the jitter down, making it one of the most stable servers that i have.
If have collected and graphed the following information over a day, images attached, to give you and idea of the perf.
a) NTP peerstat data from the above client
b) Hardware 1PPS jitter data from the Ublox Neo-6M . The jitter is measured with a Agilent 53230A
c) The servers TCXO stability data from the syslog messages
d) The servers PPS offset from UTC as reported by the syslog messages.
If you can't see the image .I can't :-( here is a link.
<http://stratum1.d2g.com/images/LaurelineNTP/Laureline-GPS-NTP-Server-stats.png>
Note that for those wanting to collect the syslog messages, useful for monitoring, they are output every second and at power on, ethernet reconfig, loss of PPS etc. This amounts to a 20 plus megabyte daily transfer.
Update 08/07/2014:
For those interested in trying it, out I have put the code for a syslog message filter on my site.
It can be found in a tarball at <http://stratum1.d2g.com/public/LaurelineNTP > .
There are two README's, one for the filter and another for a test data generator I put together as waiting a number of years to test leaps and stuff seemed a bit long.
The filter reads of the syslog stream and creates loopstat data in the same format as NTP. The files are archived using that same shema as NTP as the days roll over. It's quite useful, as the statistics can be manipulated with the same tools I use to graph my other servers.
It's simple but lets me see what's going on day to day. Check out the LaurelineA link in the NTP Server statistics page.
Issues:
As indicated above, I have an issue with my ethernet jack. I cannot easily get a stable connection. I have contacted the seller/designer and he is sending me a replacement which I should receive shortly.
As mentioned above, I am collecting the syslog monitoring data. This has shown that I occasionally get loss of PPS and power-cycle/ethernet reconfig not sure which. The frequency is about once a day. The PPS loss may be due to my antenna placement which is not ideal at the moment (facing north in an urban canyon) but I have yet to see the same issue at the same time with other receivers I have. The power cycle/ethernet reconf causes the server to serve less than optimum time for a couple of minutes before the PLL locks and syncs up to UTC. This is probably related to my duff jack.
Limitations:
Or nice to have in future firmware releases ;-).
Leap second support. We will need it in '15 or '16.
Syslog configuration option to limit volume of data
A case option with all interfaces on one side.
Service:
Michael is very responsive.
Conclusion:
A very nice little box. Very stable accurate time, on a par with other OS based servers. Probably a little more expensive than rolling your own with a Raspberry PI, Beablebone Black or other full linux solution. For European clients this is an issue as we have to pay around $45 duty on the import.