GPS Clock Adjust

[Karls48 (Karl)]

Anybody knows GPS software that adjusts computer clock time? I tried couple (GPS Clock and GPS Time) and it does not work

[programmer]

Originally Posted by Karls48

Anybody knows GPS software that adjusts computer clock time? I tried couple (GPS Clock and GPS Time) and it does not work

Hi, could you provide a bit more information on exactly what hardware/software you have, what you've tried to do, any web links, etc..

[Karls48 (Karl)]

I have what is called mouse GPS with USB to serial converter. It works OK for position fix and it also work with StarPatch and Meade Autostar. But I cannot find any freeware to set computer clock time. I tried GPS Time (http://www.coaa.co.uk/gpstime.htm) and it just hangs computer. GPS Clock an other freeware doesn’t work either, because it got only 2 com ports to select from. And I need to have GPS on com3.

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Are you using Windows XP or later? If so, whenever you're connected to the internet, you can "force" a time refresh from the windows time server. Double-click on the clock icon and have a look at the available tabs.

Note this won't work if your system is attached to a domain controller (ie. a work network - I assume not!!!) as it will time sync from the domain servers.

Unless you're never connected to the internet (pretty unlikely), you'll find that the GPS time sync is not as accurate as a an internet based tool like this one: http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/

I assume your PC clock is reasonably accurate and doesn't lose time quickly. Just sync before you go out of internet range and you should be good to go.

Sorry this is slightly off-topic to your actual request!

Turbo

[programmer]

Well I haven't tried this, sorry. I have a bluetooth GPS unit, so I might give it a try at some stage.

Do you have a specific purpose for doing this? (Sorry I'm not helping, just curious).

[Karls48 (Karl)]

The computer that needs accurate time runs XP and meteor capture software. My main computer is dual boot XP and Millennium. Sometimes I boot to XP other times to Millennium depending what programs I want to run. I use Atomic Time from Free Labs to adjust time on both computers. Many times I noticed after synch time on both machines that there was one to three sec difference between them. I think it is caused by delays between the timeserver and data reaching my computers. It does not really matter on main computer but I need as accurate time as possible for Meteor capture computer. I use same GPS unit to set time automatically on my two Meade Autostar controlled telescopes and when I check time that GPS inserts in Autostar it seems to be accurate to 1 second. Therefore I though that GPS would give me more accurate time then Timeserver.
Turbo
I did not know I can do time refresh on XP without additional software(one learns something new all the time). I will try it to see how accurate it is. Thanks

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Karl,

Most of the good software (like dimension4) will do repeated pings to get average response rates from the server you are syncing to, and factor that in to setting the time. I sync my servers at work once a day (automatically of course!), and most times, the change in time is well under 1 second adjustment.

GPS time is good too, but the software doesn't seem to be readily available. I looked at this once, and read all the NMEA specs on how to read the time string out of the data stream. It's pretty simple really. My brother is a seismologist, and they use GPS to time sync all their monitoring equipment, so there is something to be said for it, just that it seems like it would be easier to just use internet time sync!

Turbo

[vindictive666 (John)]

hi

ive just downloaded and installed dimension 4

however when it updates the time it defaults to pre daylight savings time

that is a 1 hour earlier does anyone know how to set this up in dimension 4
so it stays an hour in advance
or if it can ?

i am running windoze xp pro and there is no place to adjust for daylight savings in the windows time zone

thanks in advance

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Windows knows about your time zone and daylight savings.

Make sure your regional settings are correct as a starting point.

Double-click on the clock in the bottom right in the system tray and go to the "time-zone" tab and be sure the "automatically adjust clock for daylight savings changes" is ticked.

If that doesn't solve your problem, Go to the microsoft website and make sure you download the latest patches for daylight savings updates. There have been a whole bunch of changes internationally for daylight savings, which SHOULDN'T affect you, but might be worth being up-to-date anyway.

Turbo