Time server question

[muletopia]

Hello,
The Mesu mount 200 Mk 1 in my ob is controlled by Sitech with which I am quite happy.I recently acquired a new, to me, fixed mirror scope and last night I built a mount model.
Looking at the error display it is apparent that I need a time server.
Sitech sell one, it has an GPS receiver and thus does not need an internet connection.
But at about $350US it does seem expensive and there is a long delay for delivery.


My ob does not have mains power, it is all 12 volt battery powered, and has no internet connection.
Has anyone have suggestion for a different time server?
Chris

[AstroMuni]

8 hours ago, muletopia said:

Looking at the error display it is apparent that I need a time server.

Where was the previous version getting its time from?

[muletopia]

1 hour ago, AstroMuni said:

Where was the previous version getting its time from?

The previous telescope was a moving primary mirror Mewlon 210. The error plot from that scope was horrendous, it just showed that the mirror was moving all over the place. Off axis guiding produced acceptable images. The new scope is a corrected Mewlon 250 so the external 700mm fl guide scope should suffice.

In the circumstances the laptop clock was adequate.

 

[michael8554]

If you're happy to manually input the time, a bicycle GPS for 50 or less Aus dollars will tell you the correct time.

Or the GPS in your car ?

Michael

[AstroMuni]

2 hours ago, muletopia said:

In the circumstances the laptop clock was adequate.

If you sync the laptop clock with a time server then you should be good in that case. If you are using Windows I think it picks up time from time.windows.com. You can alter the frequency of when it checks with the server.

[muletopia]

Hello Astromuni.

You may have missed the line from my original post

"My ob does not have mains power, it is all 12 volt battery powered, and has no internet connection."

So I can't access time.windows.com

And hence my requirement for a time sever with GPS.

I would like to update the clock every 15 seconds to ensure accurate plate solving during as this is the recommended interval during the model build.

Chris

[doublevodka]

14 hours ago, muletopia said:

Hello,
The Mesu mount 200 Mk 1 in my ob is controlled by Sitech with which I am quite happy.I recently acquired a new, to me, fixed mirror scope and last night I built a mount model.
Looking at the error display it is apparent that I need a time server.
Sitech sell one, it has an GPS receiver and thus does not need an internet connection.
But at about $350US it does seem expensive and there is a long delay for delivery.


My ob does not have mains power, it is all 12 volt battery powered, and has no internet connection.
Has anyone have suggestion for a different time server?
Chris

May be worth having a poke around in this thread - 

 

[AstroMuni]

2 hours ago, muletopia said:

You may have missed the line from my original post

The point that you used a laptop in the past made me head in that direction. I was assuming that you connect the laptop to the mount to build the model. If that is indeed the case you could connect your laptop to a wifi hotspot from your mobile phone and achieve the 15 sec interval time stamp from the time server.

Other Mesu owners maybe able to help with more pertinent advice.

Edited July 28, 2022 by AstroMuni

[muletopia]

Hello AstroMuni,

Well I bought a powerful WIFI adapter, TP-Link T4U Plus, just takes time for deliverey to rural western Australia,  and now I have two bars of WIFI in the ob.

I the tried to set the synchonisation  period using the second method in this link

 

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-internet-time-update-interval-windows

The path to the bottom is not quite as given but once there I could not get 30 seconds to stick.

Any suggestions?

Chris

[AstroMuni]

2 hours ago, muletopia said:

The path to the bottom is not quite as given but once there I could not get 30 seconds to stick.

Get it to the lowest value that will stick and proceed. After all the laptop is not going to lose time at such a rapid rate that the figures will be meaningless. Once you get the adapter you can perhaps just do another round of calibration. Enjoy the hobby in the meantime !

[muletopia]

Thanks AstroMuni,

It turns out that  that you must run  as administrator to make your selected interval stick. Windows always baffles/annoys me.

Anyway  the line below shows where to go to do it

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\UpdateInterval

That may help someone.

Chris