Goals and Symptoms

Summary

This article explains the GPS:Arbiter time synchronization format. Any GPS receiver may be used as a time synchronization source as long as the receiver outputs the ASCII time string every second and has On Time Mark (OTM).

Facts and Changes

Keywords

GPS

Arbiter

Time Synchronization

Quality Bit

Causes and Fixes

During normal operation of a GPS time synching system, time signals are sent out once per second as an ASCII string containing the time. The ASCII time string for GPS:ARBITER and GPS:TRUETIME/DATUM is as follows:

<SOH>DDD:HH:MM:SSQ<CR><LF>

Response: <SOH>ddd:hh:mm:ssQ<CR><LF>

Format: <SOH> Hex 01 The start bit of the <SOH> character is transmitted on time.

Q Time quality indicator. May be represented by:

space Locked, maximum accuracy

. (ASCII 46) Error < 1 microsecond

* (ASCII 42) Error < 10 microseconds

# (ASCII 35) Error < 100 microseconds

? (ASCII 63) Error > 100 microseconds

More Information

Refer to the 'Arbiter MODEL 1092A/B/C MODEL 1093A/B/C SATELLITE-CONTROLLED CLOCK OPERATION MANUAL' (http://www.arbiter.com/ftp/manuals/1092_93_manual.pdf)