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    Building a Stratum 1 NTP Server Using Raspberry Pi

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    • Q
      q54e3w @tman222
      last edited by

      @tman222 https://v3.airspy.us/product/upu-leontp/

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      • kiokomanK
        kiokoman LAYER 8
        last edited by kiokoman

        yesterday I received the waveshare max-m8q GPS hat for raspberry, I have configured it with the shared memory with gpsd, I still need to understand how to remove unnecessary GPS sentences, this is based on ublox, the adafruit was easier to configure. it seems to me that with SHM the offset is more unstable

        UBLOX
        status=0115 leap_none, sync_pps, 1 event, clock_sync,
        version="ntpd ntpsec-1.1.3 2019-11-18T06:04:00Z", processor="armv7l", system="Linux/5.4.72-v7l+", leap=00, stratum=1, precision=-20, rootdelay=0.0, rootdisp=1.135, refid=PPS, reftime=e37124c1.ed9d57a5 2020-12-01T20:23:29.928Z,
        clock=e37124cb.3ec99709 2020-12-01T20:23:39.245Z, peer=13250, tc=4, mintc=0, offset=0.000691, frequency=-18.836975, sys_jitter=0.000413, clk_jitter=0.000419, clk_wander=0.000275, tai=37, leapsec="2017-01-01T00:00Z",
        expire="2021-06-28T00:00Z"
             remote                                 refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset   jitter
        =====================================================================================================
        *SHM(0)                                .GPS.            0 l   10   16  377   0.0000   2.6169   1.5005
        oPPS(0)                                .PPS.            0 l    9   16  377   0.0000   0.0007   0.0004
        -192.168.10.200                        .GPS.            1 u   63   64  377   0.0923  -2.0291   0.0163
        -151.3.106.211                         .GPS.            1 u   64   64  376  31.6928  -1.2702   1.2323
        +193.204.114.232                       .CTD.            1 u   27   64  377  39.7531   0.6983   0.9118
        +193.204.114.233                       .CTD.            1 u   20   64  375  30.1307   5.2933   0.7851
         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
        -194.0.5.123                           85.199.214.100   2 u   58   64  377  20.8733  -0.5592   1.2309
        +37.247.53.178                         193.204.114.232  2 u    -   64  375  19.3794   0.6783   0.8454
        
        ADAFRUIT
        status=0415 leap_none, sync_uhf_radio, 1 event, clock_sync,
        version="ntpd ntpsec-1.1.3 2019-11-18T06:04:00Z", processor="armv7l", system="Linux/5.4.72-v7l+", leap=00, stratum=1, precision=-20, rootdelay=0.0, rootdisp=100.12, refid=GPS, reftime=e37127b4.87c1698d 2020-12-01T20:36:04.530Z,
        clock=e37127bc.a80fc6d1 2020-12-01T20:36:12.656Z, peer=52517, tc=6, mintc=0, offset=-0.392457, frequency=-12.429184, sys_jitter=1.986283, clk_jitter=2.402087, clk_wander=0.192477, 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    8   64  373   0.0000  -0.3925   1.9863
        +192.168.10.203                        .PPS.            1 u   30   64  377   0.1134   2.0148   0.2716
         193.204.114.232                       .CTD.            1 u    -   64  375  31.0446   6.9845   0.8522
         193.204.114.233                       .CTD.            1 u   30   64  377  32.4280   6.2898   0.5521
         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
        +212.45.144.88                         193.204.114.233  2 u   60   64  377  18.1799   1.5251   1.2220
        +95.110.248.206                        193.204.114.233  2 u   14   64  377  29.5371   3.1092   0.6852
        -162.159.200.123                       10.48.8.4        3 u   83  128  257  45.1323  -3.8529  11.8599
        -80.211.178.99                         216.239.35.0     2 u   33  128  337  29.3981   3.7633  20.6043
        

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        • Q
          q54e3w
          last edited by q54e3w

          How long has it been running? Give it 24 hours to find its groove.

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          • kiokomanK
            kiokoman LAYER 8
            last edited by kiokoman

            yeah i'm still playing with both.. you know start / restart / reconfigure / compare :)

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            • Q
              q54e3w
              last edited by

              You really need to compare over a long time window, add both NTP sources to pfSense's NTP server, enable monitoring and you can observe long term trends under diagnostics.

              pfSense.local.lan - Status: Monitoring 2020-12-01 14-05-08.png

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              • kiokomanK
                kiokoman LAYER 8
                last edited by kiokoman

                @johnpoz do you still have that uptronic running? it's basically the same one I have but from another vendor
                would you mind sharing your ntp.conf?
                i actually have this on my ntp.conf but compared to the adafruit is not that good

                ublox config ->

                server 127.127.20.0 mode 89 iburst prefer
                fudge 127.127.20.0 flag1 0 flag3 0 time1 0.0 time2 0.048 refid GPS
                
                server 127.127.22.0
                fudge 127.127.22.0 flag3 1 time2 0.0 refid PPS
                

                gps output

                pi@raspberrypi3:~ $ cat /dev/gps0
                $GNRMC,124146.00,A,4520.67417,N,01147.19928,E,0.138,,051220,,,A*6C
                $GNZDA,124146.00,05,12,2020,00,00*7A
                

                ublox ->

                *127.127.20.0    .GPS.            0 l   46   64  377    0.000    9.572   0.800
                o127.127.22.0    .PPS.            0 l   45   64  377    0.000    4.465   0.339
                

                adafruit part of it.pool.ntp.org ->

                oNMEA(0)                                 .GPS.            0 l    1   64  377   0.0000   0.0042   0.0199
                

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

                  what are you looking for exactly? I am running ntpsec

                  Keep in mind the sat signal just meant to get you close - the thing that keeps your time the pps

                  The signal from gps will almost never be the selected source..

                  And unless you don't have internet to get you close via another ntp source the gps signal doesn't mean all that much...

                  Your looking for a ntp server that time is stable and doesn't drift, that comes from the pps signal.

                  I don't bother playing with the fudge factors trying to get the gps to be inline with other time sources with very little offset, because in the big picture it doesn't matter.

                  But this does remind me that should prob update my ntpsec version.. Its a bit dated.. 1.2 came out back in oct.

                  Here is what I used to setup mine when I switched to ntpsec
                  https://www.ntpsec.org/white-papers/stratum-1-microserver-howto/

                  edit: Well this turned into a bit more than just clockmaker --update ;) updating my pi to buster from stretch.. Lets hope it works ;) I didn't bother to take a backup.. And just doing a dist-upgrade.. Either be real simple - or will force me to do a clean install.. Seems openssl doesn't have package for tls 1.3 support in stretch.. It's always something, and the new version of ntpsec seems to want that to compile.

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                  • kiokomanK
                    kiokoman LAYER 8 @johnpoz
                    last edited by kiokoman

                    @johnpoz
                    i was referring to the offset and jitter , it's much loweron the adafruit,
                    the difference between the adafruit and the ublox is that the adafruit have the pps signal inside /dev/gps0 so i only need
                    server 127.127.20.0
                    and with flag1 1 I have gps+pps
                    you see it because NMEA have the 'o' instead of only the '*'

                    with the ublox instead i have to use /dev/gps0 and /dev/pps0 but it end up with larger offset/jitter and it drift up and down very mutch during the day compare to the adafruit, i will wait another 24h and i'll show you how the graph from the adafruit is linear but the ublox is not

                    I'm not using gpsd / shm but direct driver, thanks for the link i will try that if i'm unable to achieve better results with my config

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

                      Ok... So I just rebooted and updated mine to ntpsec 1.2 so current values a bit off..

                      ntpq> version
                      ntpsec-1.2.0+ 2020-12-05T14:15:31Z (git rev 9842b560f)
                      

                      But looking over the data for last 2 days so can see 5 min entries.. This looks pretty stable to me

                      finetome.png

                      Those are micro seconds.. Not miliseconds.. Max offset of 0.42 ms, or 0.00042 seconds..

                      That clock jitter is pretty flat..

                      edit: Question for you, your running min pi install right? Or did you install the gui on your pi?

                      edit2: If your looking for some tuning advice check out
                      https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/gpsd-time-service-howto.html#_performance_tuning

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                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
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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
                                      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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