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Date:      Wed, 24 Dec 1997 11:55:49 -0600 (CST)
From:      Jim Bryant <jbryant@unix.tfs.net>
To:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: procedure to adjust clock drift?
Message-ID:  <199712241755.LAA09424@unix.tfs.net>

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if you are adventurous, you can tweak the loading capacitor for the
clock crystal..  to zero the clock to the design frequency.  best way
to do this is to get a frequency counter and monitor the output of the
oscillator while tweaking the capacitor [the variable near the
crystal].  if you don't have a counter, the next best way to do this
is to try trial and error by ear using some known reference such as
WWV.  to get a properly adjusted oscillator, you can spend upwards of
a month using the trial and error method, as only cumulative error
will be noticable.  use a counter if you can find one!B

this can be alleviated by running xntpd or timed, which by getting the
time from a stratum 1 timeserver at regular intervals can skew the
clock via software to correct for the frequency error of the
oscillator.

In reply:
> It was Warner Losh who wrote:
> > In message <199712231738.JAA01502@rah.star-gate.com> Amancio Hasty writes:
> > : Does anyone have a procedure to adjust the clock drift in a PC?
> 
> If you think of hardware tuning the frequency:  No, I don't know.
> (It will depend e.g. on whether you have the machine running all
>  the time or just during the day (temperature).)
> 
> 
> If you are happy with periodically synchronizing the clock to
> some time standard:
> 
> I wrote some time ago a driver which connects a cheap DCF clock
> (german radio standard time signal (others should be easy to implement)
> controlled, price at about 10-20 $) via a simple interface to my
> (otherwise unused :-) game port (iX 11/1994p6).
> 
> The kernel polls every 1/100 s the state and buffers it for a
> user program to evaluate (which I run via cron twice a day).
> In a network I use xntpd with the machine with the clock configured
> as a stratum 1.
> 
> The driver (including a plan for the interface) can be found at:
>    ftp://hadron.tp2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/DCF/DCF77-1.3-beta.tar.gz
> 
> (the `beta' reflects the fact that the Readme is in German and it
>  needs some hand work to apply the patches to the kernel (no port))
> 
> A slightly different solution exists for the serial port with direct
> interface to ntp (in iX 10/1994p154).
> In this article the authors point to parse/util/dcfd.c in the
> NTP-distribution.
> 
> 
> Robert
> 
> > 
> > ntp?
> > 
> > It is already in the tree as xntpd and friends...
> > 
> > Warner

jim
-- 
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radioactive waters and yell WAHOO !!!      |  numbered!" - #1, "The Prisoner"
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