Meinberg DCF77 PCI511 Bedienungsanleitung

Technical Information

Operating Instructions

DCF77 PCI511

Impressum

Meinberg Funkuhren GmbH & Co. KG

Lange Wand 9

D-31812 Bad Pyrmont

Phone: ++49 52 81 - 9309-0

Fax: ++49 52 81 - 9309-30

Internet: http://www.meinberg.de

Email: [email protected]

September 16, 2009

Table of Contents

Impressum............................................................................................ 2

Content of the USB stick ..................................................................... 4

General information about DCF77 ...................................................... 5

Overview .............................................................................................. 6

Pulse outputs .............................................................................. 6

Block diagram PCI511 ............................................................... 7

Connectors and LEDs in the rear panel ..................................... 8

Pin assignments of the 9 pin connector ..................................... 9

Installing the PCI511 in your computer .............................................. 9

Aligning the antenna .......................................................................... 10

Technical specifications .................................................................... 12

Format of the Meinberg Standard time string ......................... 14

Firmware updates ..................................................................... 15

Replacing the lithium battery .................................................. 15

CE label .................................................................................... 15

Declaration of Conformity ....................................................... 16

Content of the USB stick

The USB stick contains a driver program that keeps the computer´s system time

synchronous to the board time. If the present delivered stick doesn’t include a driver

program for the operating system used, it can be downloaded from:

http://www.meinberg.de/english/sw/

On the USB stick there is a file called „readme.txt“, which helps installing the driver

correctly.

General information about DCF77

The radio clocks made by Meinberg receive the signal from the long wave transmit-

ter DCF77. This long wave transmitter installed in Mainflingen near Frankfurt/

Germany transmits the reference time of the Federal Republic of Germany. This time

reference is either the Central European Time (Mitteleuropäische Zeit, MEZ) or the

Central European Summer Time (Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit, MESZ). The trans-

mitter is controlled by the atomic clock plant at the Federal Physical Technical

Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig/Germany and transmits the current time of day, date

of month and day of week in coded second pulses. Once every minute the complete

time information is available.

At the beginning of every second the amplitude of the high precision 77.5 kHz

carrier frequency is lowered by 75% for a period of 0.1 or 0.2 sec. The length of these

time marks represent a binary coding scheme using the short time mark for logical

zeroes and the long time mark for logical ones. The information on the current date

and time as well as some parity and status bits can be decoded from the time marks of

the 15th up to the 58th second every minute. The absence of any time mark at the 59th

second of a minute signals that a new minute will begin with the next time mark.

Our radio clocks decode the highly accurate information on date and time within a

wide range around Germany. So some of our clocks are installed in Bilbao/Spain as

well as in the city of Umeå in northern Sweden - fully satisfying the requirements of

the users. The radio clocks automatically switch to summertime and back. The

reception of the time information is free of charge and does not need to be registered.

Generally it is important to position the antenna in an optimal way. It should be

mounted at least 30 centimeters away from the clock unit and from solid steel. The

antenna should be aligned at a right angle to the direction of the transmitter (Frank-

furt).

Figure: decoding scheme

Overview

Because the radio clock PCI511 is designed as an universal board for computers with

PCI bus, operation within 3.3V and 5V systems is possible.

An external ferrit antenna makes the signal from DCF77 available to the on-board

long wave receiver. The demodulated time marks are decoded by the clock´s micro-

processor. If no errors are detected in the current time message an additional plausi-

bility check against the previous time message is performed. If that plausibility

check passes, too, the buffered real time clock on the board is synchronized corre-

sponding to the decoded time and date. Optionally, the decoded date and time

information can be converted to another time zone. The time zone setting can be

modified using the monitor program. The current setting is saved permanently on the

radio clock board.

Software running on the computer can read out the date/time/status and some more

information. Access to the board is made via writing to/reading from I/O ports. It is

possible but not necessary to let the board generate periodic hardware interrupts on

the computer bus.

The diskette contains a driver program that keeps the computer´s system time

synchronous to the board time. If the present delivered diskette doesn’t contain a

driver program for the operating system used, it can be downloaded from:

http://www.meinberg.de/english/sw/

Pulse outputs

The radio clock PCI511 generates pulses whenever a new second (P_SEC) or a new

minute (P_MIN) begins. The P_SEC pulse is available with TTL level (0/+5V) and

RS-232 level (-3..12V/+3..12V), the P_MIN signal with TTL level only. If required,

DIL switches can be set up to direct each of the pulses to a corresponding pin of the 9

pin connector in the rear panel.

Block diagram PCI511

antenna

free run

field strength

modulation

BSL key

RxD

TxD

GND

Connectors and LEDs in the rear panel

The rear panel includes the antenna connector,

three status LEDs, the BSL button, and a 9 pin sub

D connector (see figure below).

The LEDs let the user check for proper receiver

operation. The upper, red LED is on if the clock is

not synchronous to DCF77. This LED can only

change when the minute changes (seconds incre-

ment from 59 to 0). The brightness of the LED in

the middle depends on the strength of the RF si-

gnal. The lower, green LED should be blinking

exactly once per second corresponding to the time

marks from DCF77. If this LED flickers there is

some electrical noise around which prevents the

receiver from decoding the time marks and syn-

chronizing. All information given by these LEDs is

also available via the monitor program.

The BSL button behind the hole in the slot cover

activates the clock's boot strap loader. This mode

of operation is needed if the clock's firmware shall

be updated.

The 9 pin sub D connector is wired to the radio

clock's serial port. Pin assignment can be seen

from the figure beside. This port can not be used as

serial port for the computer. Instead, the clock uses

the port to send out Meinberg's standard time

string in order to control an external display or

some other external device. The string is sent out

once per second, once per minute or if requested by

an incoming ASCII „?“. It is also possible to chan-

ge the radio clock's board time by sending such a

string towards the clock.

Transmission speed, framing, and mode of operation can be modified using the

monitor program. The string format is described in the section „Technical Specifica-

tions“ at the end of this manual.

Pin assignments of the 9 pin connector

When the clock is being shipped, only the signals needed for the serial port are gated

to their pins at the 9 pin connector. If another signal shall be available outside the

computer, the corresponding lever of the DIL switch on the board must be set to the

ON position to connect that signal to its associated pin.

Whenever an additional signal is connected through to the rear panel, special

care must be taken to the configuration of the cable used with the connector. If

pins with TTL level and RS-232 levels are connected to each other, the circuits on

the board may be damaged.

The table below shows the assignments of the 9 pin connector and the correspon-

ding levers of the DIL switch:

Pin Signal SWITCH

1 +5V 1

2RxD in (RS-232) --

3TxD out (RS-232) --

4P_MIN out (TTL) 5

5 GND --

6 (reserved) --

7P_SEC out (RS-232) 3

8P_SEC out (TTL) 4

9 (reserved) --

The signals which have no lever of the DIL switch assigned are hard wired to the pins

of the connector. All levers of the DIL switch which are not listed in the table are

reserved and should remain in the OFF position.

Installing the PCI511 in your computer

Every PCI board is a plug&play board. After power-up, the computer's BIOS assigns

resources like I/O ports and interrupt lines to the board, the user does not need to take

care of the assignments. The programs shipped with the board retrieve the settings

from the BIOS.

The computer has to be turned off and its case must be opened. The radio clock can

be installed in any PCI slot not used yet. The rear plane must be removed before the

board can be plugged in carefully. The computer´s case should be closed again and

the antenna connected to the PCI511´s coaxial plug at its rear.

Aligning the antenna

Generally, the exact alignment of the antenna is important. It has to be placed in

longitudinal direction to the transmitter (Frankfurt), see arrow printed on the label of

the antenna.

A distance of several meters to TV- or computer monitors, to computers or

microprocessor boards should be kept. These devices can produce interference fields

that lead to a poor or no DCF77 receiption. If it is not possible to mount the antenna

with a sufficient distance to the computer monitor, it’s line frequency should not be

close to the RF-frequency of DCF77 (77.5 kHz).

The antenna should be installed with a minimum distance of 30cm to all metal

objects. Otherwise the ferrite antenna will be detuned and the received power decrea-

ses.

Alignment of the antenna can be done by watching the modulation and field

strength LEDs. Like described in chapter „General information about DCF77“, undis-

turbed pulses per second (except 59. second) without any interfering pulses are

required for corrcect decoding of the DCF77 time telegram. Therefore, a modulation

LED blinking exactly once per second is a criterion for good receiption of the DCF-

signal.

Because PCI511 uses a quadrature demodulator as receive circuit, it is possible to

evaluate the field strength of the DCF77 signal only. Interfering signals within the

bandwith of the receiver have no affect on the brightness of the field strength LED

therefore.

If the radio clock is installed in the computer, it may be difficult to use the status

LEDs for alignment of the antenna. Therefore modulation and field strength can be

observed by using the monitor program „MbgMon“ (part of the shipped driver) also.

Modulation is displayed as a LED, the DCF77 field strength as a bar graph. Optional-

ly, the modulation signal can be made audible via the speaker of the computer.

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