Nixie Tube Clock ‘Spectrum 18’
Issue 2 (15 February 2015)
www.pvelectronics.co.uk
- 31 -
7. USING A RADIO FREQUENCY TIME RECEIVER OR GPS
RECEIVER
The clock can automatically synchronise time from DCF (Europe),
and MSF (UK) long wave time transmitters.
The clock can also receive time from a GPS receiver that transmits
information using NMEA-0183 protocol, using the $GPRMC
sentence.
7.1 Configuring for RFT or GPS Synchronisation.
•
Set parameter 12:
1: DCF
2: unused
3: MSF
4: GPS
•
If using GPS, set the baud rate in parameter (13)
•
Set parameters 14 and 15 for the hours and minutes your time
zone is offset from the synchronisation source. This is usually
only whole hours. Examples:
o
UK is 1 hour offset from the time transmitted by the DCF
transmitter
o
France has no offset from the time transmitted by the DCF
transmitter
•
Set parameter (16) to identify whether the offset is minus (0) or
positive (1) of the time source.
•
Set parameter (23) to select between hourly seek and daily
seek in DCF / MSF modes.
•
If you have selected daily seek, use parameter (24) to set the
time of the daily seek in DCF / MSF modes.
•
If you intend to place the RFT receiver module closer to the
clock PCB than 6 ft / 2 metres, the clock will need to disable HV
and switch off the tubes for time seek, otherwise the switch-
mode power supply will prevent reception. Select blanking
during time seek by setting parameter (25) to 1.