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TAPR Time-Nuts Thunderbolt Group Buy
03-May-2008, revised
14-Jul-2009
TAPR Time-Nuts Thunderbolt Group Buy
A large number of Trimble Thunderbolt GPS Disciplined Oscillators (GPSDO)
appeared on the surplus market in 2007 and 2008.
A select quantity of these are now available at low cost at
TAPR Trimble Thunderbolt Kit.
Power supply photos will be posted shortly.
Here's what a Thunderbolt order looks like:
The kit includes the following:
- Trimble Thunderbolt GPS receiver (high-performance, low-noise, OCXO version)
- Special Molex power connector (6 pins provided, only 4 needed)
- BNC-F antenna adapter
- Power supply with +5/+12/-12 VDC output (100 - 240 VAC universal input)
All you need is a:
- 5V GPS antenna, or feed from your existing GPS splitter
Special note:
- Some kits may include a professionally crimped pre-wired connector
instead of just a bag of connector parts, as shown below.
- All TAPR Thunderbolts have been tested by
tvb for oscillator stability.
Units with poor performance
(excessive phase noise or substandard Allan deviation or mechanical problems)
were set aside.
- A DB9 RS232 cable is optional.
These GPSDO work whether you use a PC to control or monitor them or not.
DC Power Connector
The pieces to build the special DC power connector are included
as shown above, and below.
Connect your own wires to the included crimp pins.
In this example (following PC power color conventions)
yellow is +12V, black is common, red is +5V, and blue is -12V.
Power Supply Requirements
These Thunderbolts require a triple DC power supply: +12 V, +5 V, and -12 V.
So this includes everything from a cheap PC power supply
to three separate wall-wart power supplies
to a highly regulated DC laboratory supply.
Details and many examples here:
The triple-output (+12/+5/-12 VDC) universal input (100-240 VAC) power supply
that TAPR ships with each Thunderbolt have been well tested.
Software and Documentation
No host software is actually required for setup or operation,
but if you're curious
and want to control or monitor the Trimble receiver from your PC
then connect the Thunderbolt to a serial port with a DB9 cable.
The excellent software is freely available from the Trimble web site:
See Also:
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