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    Building a Stratum 1 NTP Server Using Raspberry Pi

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    • kiokomanK
      kiokoman LAYER 8 @johnpoz
      last edited by

      @johnpoz
      yes, i'm running min install without any gui / stripped services

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @kiokoman
        last edited by johnpoz

        Lets see what your graphs look like after some time.. Its going to take a bit to stabilize.. How often are you polling your shm entries?

        If you were using ntpsec vs ntp you could just use the refclock entry in the ntp.conf to set an offset for your gps after you have determined what that is via say syncing with some very stable stratum 1 servers..

        With ntp you have to use the fudge servers to do a specific offset.. But that is not what effects jitter..

        I understand there is something to do with the different hats and if they are using edge or falling of the pps signal which could introduce offset, etc. And yeah I think jitter because of some bug... There was something I was reading about that - I believe it was in the link I provided about ntpsec setup.

        edit: Yup here it was
        https://www.ntpsec.org/white-papers/stratum-1-microserver-howto/#_edge_detection_issues_and_new_hats

        edit2: I just finished up playing with mine.. Have to check it in a few days.. But yeah mine is going to take a bit to fall back into rhythm.. I updated the distro, I updated ntpsec and couple of reboots in there, etc..

        So you can see mine is a bit crazy right now as well

        jitter.png

        edit3: If your going to run ntp server - you might want to add it to the pool.. For one you get an email if it gets too wacky or is not working.. So its a way to monitor how your ntp is performing.. As you can see mine is going to take a bit to get back into good running.. Check out the last entries compared to how well grouped the previous checks were..

        pool.png

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        • kiokomanK
          kiokoman LAYER 8 @johnpoz
          last edited by kiokoman

          @johnpoz
          i don't use shm anyway this is the difference i see between the 2 gps
          i restarted the ublox service around 13:00, where you see the spike
          Immagine2.jpg

          adafruit
          green is pps+gps
          ublox
          yellow is pps green is gps

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @kiokoman
            last edited by johnpoz

            That is same same pi make and model. Same setup just the difference in the hats?

            Wow - something seems off there.. I can see why your interested now..

            What specific pi? And what specific hat? Maybe I will order one ;)

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            • kiokomanK
              kiokoman LAYER 8 @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz
              yes both are raspberry pi 4 with 4gb same debian but different hat

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @kiokoman
                last edited by johnpoz

                What are you using to graph that like that? I would be up for getting a pi4 and the same hat to test.. Always up for fun projects ;)

                Trying to find an excuse to get a 4 ;) hehehe

                You seem to be pretty for out on the same hat I have, your ublox

                     remote                                   refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset   jitter
                =======================================================================================================
                *SHM(1)                                  .PPS.            0 l    2   16  377   0.0000  -0.3426   0.0026
                

                Is the hat you got.. You had to solder?
                https://www.adafruit.com/product/2324

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                • kiokomanK
                  kiokoman LAYER 8 @johnpoz
                  last edited by kiokoman

                  @johnpoz
                  that is telegraf sending to grafana
                  grafana sitting on another raspberry ..
                  https://www.adafruit.com/product/2324
                  https://www.waveshare.com/max-m8q-gnss-hat.htm

                  adafruit need soldering this but it's easy
                  6567a574-19cb-40db-ac99-187a918ee3d8-immagine.png

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                  stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @kiokoman
                    last edited by

                    Are those values actually in milliseconds or is it microseconds and just mislabeled?

                    Steve

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                    • kiokomanK
                      kiokoman LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10
                      the values from ntpq afaik is milliseconds ?

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @kiokoman
                        last edited by

                        Yes, it reads in milliseconds but that can get confusing when is shows a value like 0.001 (1μs).

                        Values in microseconds are what you should expect if PPS is working.

                        Less than 1μs is impressive. I generally see between 1-2μs here.

                        Steve

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                        • Q
                          q54e3w @kiokoman
                          last edited by

                          @kiokoman said in Building a Stratum 1 NTP Server Using Raspberry Pi:

                          and it drift up and down very mutch during the day compare to the adafruit

                          Is your device thermally stable, without some kind of TCXO its likely drift. I see fluctuations around 11am to 4pm as the sun hits the room where my timing hardware is located. Temperature corrected devices are unaffected.

                          Also, different drivers are very likely to introduce different levels of performance so try and ensure you are using same drivers (type 22 PPS vs SHM type 28 etc).

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                          • kiokomanK
                            kiokoman LAYER 8 @q54e3w
                            last edited by kiokoman

                            yeah, i'm using only type 20 and type 22
                            but i think i was finally able to find a configuration that suits it

                            http://www.philrandal.co.uk/blog/archives/04-01-2019_04-30-2019.html
                            with some minor adjustment

                            Immagine.jpg
                            Immagine2.jpg

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                            • kiokomanK
                              kiokoman LAYER 8 @tman222
                              last edited by kiokoman

                              @tman222

                              I'll answer your question about nohz
                              it does not work on raspberry pi 4 + raspbian
                              the kernel isn't configured to allows the nohz parameter to work
                              also, I found that you can only use
                              flag 3 0 (use the ntpd clock discipline)
                              and not
                              flag 3 1 (use the kernel discipline)
                              for PPS
                              if you try to use flag 3 1 you see in the syslog this:

                              refclock_params: time_pps_kcbind: Operation not supported
                              

                              this is because the kernel is compiled without CONFIG_NTP_PPS

                              Immagine.jpg

                              obviusly
                              as a good nerd I recompiled ... 😑

                              this is ublox now

                              server 127.127.20.0 mode 89 iburst prefer minpoll 2 maxpoll 4
                              fudge 127.127.20.0 flag1 1 flag3 1 time1 0.0 time2 0.025 refid GPS
                              
                              pi@raspberrypi3:~/linux $ uname -a
                              Linux raspberrypi3 4.19.118-v7lntp+ #1 SMP Fri Dec 11 14:42:08 CET 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
                              
                              pi@raspberrypi3:~/linux $ ntpq -crv -pn
                              status=041d leap_none, sync_uhf_radio, 1 event, kern,
                              version="ntpd ntpsec-1.1.3 2019-11-18T06:04:00Z", processor="armv7l", system=" Linux/4.19.118-v7lntp+", leap=00, stratum=1, precision=-20, rootdelay=0.0, rootdisp=2.18, refid=GPS, reftime=e37e600c.8bd6769d 2020-12-11T21:15:56.546Z,
                              clock=e37e6018.d0a57250 2020-12-11T21:16:08.815Z, peer=11020, tc=4, mintc=0, offset=7.8e-05, frequency=-18.907623, sys_jitter=0.000277, clk_jitter=0.000728, clk_wander=0.001816, tai=37, leapsec="2017-01-01T00:00Z",
                              expire="2021-06-28T00:00Z"
                                   remote                                   refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset   jitter
                              =======================================================================================================
                              oNMEA(0)                                 .GPS.            0 l   12   16  377   0.0000   0.0001   0.0003
                              

                              Immagine.jpg

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                              • S
                                sagliklihayatimiz Banned
                                last edited by

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                                • T
                                  tman222
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi all -

                                  Wanted to follow up on this thread as I recently acquired a Stratum 1 NTP server for my network (LeoNTP - very cool little device). Currently, I have it setup as the only NTP time server on pfSense (i.e. no other servers are configured). Is this an acceptable setup, or should I be adding a few additional public Stratum 1 servers as a sanity check, and set the LeoNTP device as the preferred server? I realize with just one server I don't have any redundancy, but is that the only main drawback? Thanks in advance!

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                                  • kiokomanK
                                    kiokoman LAYER 8 @tman222
                                    last edited by kiokoman

                                    @tman222
                                    if I remember correctly you need at least 3 good ntp server on the list to see if the leontp is working correctly
                                    without any reference you don't know if the time is correct

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                                    • Q
                                      q54e3w @tman222
                                      last edited by

                                      @tman222 I run a few Pi based GPS devices that don't offer the same accuracy, and a few external sources for backup. The LeoNTP takes precedence as primary source of time due to its accuracy.

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                                      • T
                                        tman222
                                        last edited by

                                        Thanks @kiokoman and @q54e3w, I really appreciate the help and advice. Do either of you use the "prefer" keyword on your local NTP server(s), or do you leave the server choice solely to the selection algorithm? Thanks again.

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                                        • kiokomanK
                                          kiokoman LAYER 8 @tman222
                                          last edited by

                                          @tman222
                                          this is my config for the ublox

                                          server 127.127.20.0 mode 89 iburst prefer minpoll 2 maxpoll 4
                                          fudge 127.127.20.0 flag1 1 flag3 1 time1 0.0 time2 0.025 refid GPS
                                          
                                          tos mindist 0.060
                                          
                                          server 192.168.10.200
                                          server 151.3.106.211
                                          server ntp1.inrim.it
                                          server ntp2.inrim.it
                                          pool 0.it.pool.ntp.org
                                          pool 1.it.pool.ntp.org
                                          

                                          this is the results

                                          remote                          refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset   jitter
                                          ========================================================================================
                                          oNMEA(0)                        .GPS.            0 l   11   16  377   0.0000   0.0002   0.0003
                                          +192.168.10.200                 .GPS.            1 u   42   64  377   0.0996  -0.0002   0.0149
                                          +151.3.106.211                  .GPS.            1 u   40   64  377  24.2144   0.1478   0.9674
                                          -193.204.114.232                .CTD.            1 u   59   64  377  25.2698  -4.7052   0.3729
                                          +193.204.114.233                .CTD.            1 u   49   64  377  12.5229   0.0942   0.3967
                                           0.it.pool.ntp.org              .POOL.          16 p    -  256    0   0.0000   0.0000   0.0010
                                           1.it.pool.ntp.org              .POOL.          16 p    -  256    0   0.0000   0.0000   0.0010
                                          -37.247.53.178                  193.204.114.233  2 u   57   64  377  11.9465   1.0424   0.6543
                                          -162.159.200.123                10.20.14.167     3 u   37   64  377  25.2151   0.8878   0.4707
                                          +212.45.144.206                 193.204.114.232  2 u    9   64  377  10.5258   0.5104   0.3046
                                          

                                          2bec0572-bb2b-4b3f-bb7e-f9ea25d706d3-image.png

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