n1kdo / thunderbolt

Pico-W IOT thing for Trimble Thunderbolt.

N1KDO's Thunderbolt Monitor

What it is

This is a simple IOT device to monitor the state of a Trimble Thunderbolt GPS Disciplined Oscillator.

People have made interesting UIs for the Thunderbolt. This project is not that. The goal here is to have a very simple UI using Go/No-Go LED, as well as a simple Web UI that shows the basic status of the device.

There is a Green LED that lights up when the 10 MHz oscillator is under discipline, and a Red LED that lights up when no TSIP traffic has been received from the Thunderbolt for more than a few seconds.

If the Green "disciplined" LED is lit, the 10 MHz time base is GPS disciplined.

Hardware

This is built on the same hardware as my Rotator-Controller-Controller, it has two added LEDs on GP15 (green, 10 MHz disciplined when lit) and GP16 (red LED indicates that the Thunderbolt cannot be heard sending data.)

The Trimble Thunderbolt was modified to provide +5 VDC on Pin 1 of its serial port. The Rotator-Controller-Controller hardware already has support for leeching power from another device on Pin 1.

How it works

The Thunderbolt emits several TSIP messages every second. The software running on the Pico-W reads and parses those messages. The most important values retrieved are the "minor alarms", "discipline mode", and various time and date data. The software enables the green "Disciplined" LED when the "Discipline Mode" is "Normal." The software enables the red "comms fail" LED if it has not received any TSIP packets from the Thunderbolt for a few seconds.