UP/DOWN TIMERS

[ChiefOperator]

Folks-

I need to install a couple down timers in a studio for local news. I'm currently researching prices and manufacturers. I'm familiar with ESE, Radio Systems, and Torpey. Are there any others?

Thanks

 

[markbohach]

Got a PC in the room?

The following is free and works great-

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

 

[TomZ]

That's kewl. Thanks....

Too bad they don't offer an onscreen mute option... or an option to substitute the audio file.

 

[chriscollins]

That was a neat link...

Chief... Not to hijack, but while we are on this, does anyone know of an easy way to keep an Audioarts D75 clock in sync? My Audiovault keeps everything in sync via NTP from NIST... I would love to send the board a relay or something at the top of the hour or each minute for that matter, so it wouldn't drift off so bad.

 

[grich]

That was a neat link...

Chief... Not to hijack, but while we are on this, does anyone know of an easy way to keep an Audioarts D75 clock in sync? My Audiovault keeps everything in sync via NTP from NIST... I would love to send the board a relay or something at the top of the hour or each minute for that matter, so it wouldn't drift off so bad.

From the last page of the D75 Tech Guide, you can feed the clock a 1 Hz or 60 Hz reference signal, or three flavors of ESE time code.

http://audioartsengineering.com/download-document/147-d-75-technical-guide.html

Easy is writing a check for a time code generator. ;D

I used to feed a SMC DP-1 automation back in the day. Clock would drift 20 seconds an hour from the power line reference when the city was making its own juice on hot days. Someone found a Harris automation clock with a oven-controlled reference oscillator and a 60 Hz output...it was wired into the SMC clock board to replace the power line reference.

UNHIJACK!

I would check ebay for ESE clocks...a lot of TV stations don't use them in the control rooms anymore because they build timer displays into their virtual monitor wall templates. Should be able to pick one up cheap, but I'd avoid the ones with incandescent tube displays, unless you want to modify them for LED displays (been there, done that!)

 

[chriscollins]

That was a neat link...

Chief... Not to hijack, but while we are on this, does anyone know of an easy way to keep an Audioarts D75 clock in sync? My Audiovault keeps everything in sync via NTP from NIST... I would love to send the board a relay or something at the top of the hour or each minute for that matter, so it wouldn't drift off so bad.

From the last page of the D75 Tech Guide, you can feed the clock a 1 Hz or 60 Hz reference signal, or three flavors of ESE time code.

http://audioartsengineering.com/download-document/147-d-75-technical-guide.html

Easy is writing a check for a time code generator. ;D

I used to feed a SMC DP-1 automation back in the day. Clock would drift 20 seconds an hour from the power line reference when the city was making its own juice on hot days. Someone found a Harris automation clock with a oven-controlled reference oscillator and a 60 Hz output...it was wired into the SMC clock board to replace the power line reference.

UNHIJACK!

I would check ebay for ESE clocks...a lot of TV stations don't use them in the control rooms anymore because they build timer displays into their virtual monitor wall templates. Should be able to pick one up cheap, but I'd avoid the ones with incandescent tube displays, unless you want to modify them for LED displays (been there, done that!)

That sucks. I was hoping to just hit it with a relay. I knew about the ESE option from the manual. I was *hoping* someone on here had done something more creative.

 

[frankberry]

Google "timer software"

 

[TomZ]

Let me Google that for you.
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=timer+software

 

[Studio1]

Has anyone done anything with GPS referenced time?

I built up a GPS receiver and interfaced it with a studio clock here. The receiver strips the time data from the NMEA 0183 stream and feeds it to the clock controller.
Keeps perfect time.

 

[ChiefOperator]

That sounds quite cool. Did you build your own GPS unit, perhaps using a Basic Stamp or similiar?

 

[Studio1]

That sounds quite cool. Did you build your own GPS unit, perhaps using a Basic Stamp or similiar?

I used a ready-made GPS receiver module (EM-408) which directly outputs NMEA data which goes to a PIC.
The PIC is programmed with code which strips the time information from the NMEA stream and feeds it to
the clock registers. I've used 2.3" LED displays for the hours, minutes and seconds.