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1 Introduction
10 Trimble ThunderBolt E GPS Disciplined Clock User Guide
Operation
The ThunderBolt E GPS disciplined clock provides time and frequency through a
12-channel GPS receiver and a high-quality ovenized quartz oscillator integrated onto
a single printed circuit board. Tightly integrating GPS into the clock design eliminates
the need for a separate GPS receiver. This results in better reliability, a smaller size, and
a cost advantage.
The board in the ThunderBolt E consists of one board with GPS and a 24 V power
supply regulator. This power supply regulator ensures clean, robust power to the GPS.
The board can support several different oscillators for applications having stringent
holdover requirements.
The ThunderBolt E is ready to use out of the box for most applications. When a
+24 VDC power source is applied, the ThunderBolt E will begin to track satellites—
four satellites are required to begin the self-survey process. At the same time the
oscillator will come up to operating temperature and stabilize, outputting the 1 PPS
and reference frequency.
To get the most from your time reference, you can customize the ThunderBolt E using
the Trimble binary interface, TSIP (Trimble Standard Interface Protocol). For more
information, see Appendix A, Trimble Standard Interface Protocol.
Features
Hardware features
• A single printed circuit board containing
– A quality ovenized oscillator
– A 12-channel GPS receiver
– Control circuitry
• Easy integration with the Trimble Bullet
™
antenna
• Easy calibration for different cable lengths
• Output
– 10 MHz reference signal output via BNC connector
– 1 PPS output with an Over-determined solution synchronized to GPS or
UTC time
Interface protocols
The ThunderBolt E uses the Trimble Standard Interface Protocol (TSIP). This is a
binary packet protocol that allows the system designer maximum configuration
control over the GPS receiver for optimum performance in timing applications. TSIP