
Laureline: discontinued open hardware/software GPS NTP server - ashitlerferad
https://www.tindie.com/products/gxti/laureline-gps-ntp-server/
======
privong
Interesting. I do like that it's open-source hardware.

Note that you can build your own, with a raspberry pi and a GPS add-on board
that sends a 1 pulse-per-second signal through the GPIO pins. Sample
instructions here:

[http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/Raspberry-Pi-
NTP.html](http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/Raspberry-Pi-NTP.html)

And the GPS board can be purchased here:

[https://store.uputronics.com/index.php?route=product/product...](https://store.uputronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_64&product_id=81)

~~~
ryan-c
I built one of these a while back, works very well.

Current status:

    
    
        associd=0 status=011b leap_none, sync_pps, 1 event, leap_event,
        version="ntpd 4.2.7p481@1.2483 Tue Nov 25 05:07:16 UTC 2014 (2)",
        processor="armv6l", system="Linux/4.1.13+", leap=00, stratum=1,
        precision=-18, rootdelay=0.000, rootdisp=1.180, refid=kPPS,
        reftime=db8dafdb.d2b0f5b9  Thu, Sep 22 2016  1:18:19.823,
        clock=db8dafe8.c014ef24  Thu, Sep 22 2016  1:18:32.750, peer=42535, tc=4,
        mintc=3, offset=-0.000614, frequency=-44.146, sys_jitter=0.003815,
        clk_jitter=0.004, clk_wander=0.000
    

I believe that the jitter values are in milliseconds.

~~~
voltagex_
Where does the GPS antenna have to sit? My ISP provides a stratum-3 (?)
timeserver, but it'd be nice to put a Pi or two to use.

~~~
ryan-c
It's just sitting on a windowsill.

------
contingencies
Why was it discontinued? Here's my guess.

Any GPS receiver module (cheap) + any embedded board (cheap) = same thing. If
you use a high powered commodity embedded board (eg. Raspberry Pi 3) then you
can get other stuff done with it, too. Therefore, why have a standalone
product? Low power consumption is about the only reason I can think of, but
people running networks of servers that require a highly accurate local timing
source are not generally people who care about minute variations in power
consumption.

~~~
cnvogel
A standalone product can have its advantages if it's designed with care to the
specific task of timekeeping (which most other PCs or embedded boards aren't).

This product (from looking at the schematics) has a true voltage controlled
oscillator which allows you to get your local clock to agree consistently
within few nanoseconds with the GPS timebase. (UPDATE: It has in Rev. 1.2, not
in the latest :-( ).

With a realtime OS (for reception of packets), or, much preferable, an
Ethernet PHY that allows for hardware timestamping of incoming packets
(something like
[http://www.ti.com/product/DP83640](http://www.ti.com/product/DP83640)), you
then could transfer this nanosecond precision to other machines on your
network. Compared with the ~few microseconds you typically get with
traditional NTP on a commodity PC or embedded board.

The product linked to on Tindie, as far as I can see, does _not_ have the
latter, though.

~~~
contingencies
If you care that much about accuracy you should take a look at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Time_Protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Time_Protocol)
... "IEEE 1588 is designed for local systems requiring accuracies beyond those
attainable using NTP".

------
xupybd
These are discontinued, is there an alternative that is still active?

~~~
toomuchtodo
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2rvcp4/anyone_usi...](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2rvcp4/anyone_using_a_hardware_ntp_server/)

EDIT:

Also, the Laureline's creator's page for it:
[https://partiallystapled.com/pages/laureline-gps-ntp-
server....](https://partiallystapled.com/pages/laureline-gps-ntp-server.html)

