is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

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jarchie
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by jarchie »

srgny wrote:Rats on the resistor. Now I have to change the one that's soldered in place!
For best results, that's true. But you can probably get decent results by playing with the software controls.
srgny wrote:I don't see a GPC lock in my firmware. What does it do, anyway?
If the GPS has a lock, the GPS indicator is illuminated. If the GPS does not have a lock, the GPS indicator is off. This feature can be enabled or disabled under the "cfg regn"/"time fmt" menu. Read the "time fmt" section of the firmware/USAGE docs carefully, and I believe you should be able to turn this feature on, if desired.

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srgny
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by srgny »

Added 20K resistor in series with R4 (5.6K). Much better!
Still no luck connecting to GPS, even near window. Maybe I need the external antenna?

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srgny
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by srgny »

OK. Got everything working. The GPS seems to work near a window. However, when I bring the clock into an interior room it loses the GPS signal. I can live with that, but the display flashes "GPS LOST". Is there a way to turn that message off without disabling the whole GPS thing?

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jarchie
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by jarchie »

There is no way to disable the "gps lost" message presently, but that's a feature that would be really easy to add. I'm traveling right now, but could probably make that change in a few days or so when I get back home.

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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by srgny »

Thanks for the response. Changing the firmware would be awesome. Thanks again for all your help!!!

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jarchie
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by jarchie »

srgny wrote:
jarchie wrote: is no way to disable the "gps lost" message presently, but that's a feature that would be really easy to add. I'm traveling right now, but could probably make that change in a few days or so when I get back home.
Changing the firmware would be awesome.
Sorry for the delay, but better late than never. :-) This change has been made now.

The xmas menus are already a bit complicated, and I think the vast majority of people want to be alerted when their GPS loses a fix. So disabling the "gps lost" message is a compile-time option. The last bit of the "GPS Timekeeping" section in config.h now looks like

Code: Select all

// In most cases, the clock should report an error if the GPS loses
// its fix.  But users with no GPS reception might want to disable the
// "gps lost" error message.  Those users will instead move their
// clocks to an area of good reception whenever they wish to
// syncronize the clock time with the GPS time.  To disable the GPS
// lost error message, comment out the GPS_LOST_ERROR_MSG macro below.
//
//
#define GPS_TIMEKEEPING
#define GPS_LOST_ERROR_MSG
To disable the "gps lost" message for your clock, follow the Windows installation tutorial like before. Be sure to download the latest version of xmas from GitHub. And when you get to the part where you edit config.h, comment out the GPS_LOST_ERROR_MSG macro definition by adding "//" at the start of the line:

Code: Select all

// In most cases, the clock should report an error if the GPS loses
// its fix.  But users with no GPS reception might want to disable the
// "gps lost" error message.  Those users will instead move their
// clocks to an area of good reception whenever they wish to
// syncronize the clock time with the GPS time.  To disable the GPS
// lost error message, comment out the GPS_LOST_ERROR_MSG macro below.
//
//
#define GPS_TIMEKEEPING
//#define GPS_LOST_ERROR_MSG
After that change is made to config.h, follow the tutorial instructions for building and installing the new firmware. And voila! No more flashing "gps lost"!

srgny wrote:Thanks again for all your help!!!
You're very welcome!

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srgny
 
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Re: is there a tutorial for the ICE CLOCK and ULTIMATE GPS

Post by srgny »

Perfect!! Works like a charm!
Your help has been invaluable!

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