Meinberg VP100 20 User Manual
FUNKUHREN
Technical Information
Operating Instructions
VP100/20
Impressum
Werner Meinberg
Auf der Landwehr 22
D-31812 Bad Pyrmont
Phone: ++49 52 81 - 9309-0
Fax: ++49 52 81 - 9309-30
Internet: http://www.meinberg.de
Email: info@meinberg.de
September 3, 2004
Inhaltsübersicht
Impressum ............................................................................................ 2
General Information about DCF77 ...................................................... 5
Features of the VP100/20..................................................................... 6
Installation............................................................................................ 6
Power Supply.............................................................................. 6
VP100/20 as Stand Alone Clock.......................................................... 7
VP100/20 as Radio Clock .................................................................... 7
Mounting the Antenna ................................................................ 8
Usage of the Buttons MENU and SET ................................................ 8
The Menus in Detail ................................................................... 9
Time & Date...................................................................... 9
Language ........................................................................... 9
Brightness.......................................................................... 9
Daylight Saving................................................................. 9
Winter/Summer Changeover........................................... 10
Summer/Winter Changeover........................................... 10
Serial Number ................................................................. 11
Exit .................................................................................. 11
Rear View VP100/20 ......................................................................... 12
D-SUB Connectors............................................................................. 13
Pin Assignments of IN.............................................................. 14
Pin Assignments of OUT.......................................................... 14
Pin Assignments of PC IN........................................................ 15
Pin Assignments of RELAY..................................................... 15
Rear Panel Connectors.............................................................. 15
CE Label ............................................................................................ 15
Technical Specifications: ................................................................... 16
Format of the Meinberg Standard Time String ........................ 17
Programming Text Messages and the Relay...................................... 19
Files on the Diskette ................................................................. 19
Jumper Arrangement.......................................................................... 21
General Information about DCF77
The radio remote clocks made by Meinberg receive the signal from the long wave
transmitter DCF77. This long wave transmitter installed in Mainflingen near Frankfurt/Germany transmits the reference time of the Federal Republic of Germany. This
time reference is either the Central European Time (Mitteleuropäische Zeit, MEZ) or
the Central European Summer Time (Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit, MESZ). The
transmitter is controlled by the atomic clock plant at the Federal Physical Technical
Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig/Germany and transmits the current time of day, date
of month and day of week in coded second pulses. Once every minute the complete
time information is available.
At the beginning of every second the amplitude of the high precision 77.5 kHz
carrier frequency is lowered by 75% for a period of 0.1 or 0.2 sec. The length of these
time marks represent a binary coding scheme using the short time mark for logical
zeroes and the long time mark for logical ones. The information on the current date
and time as well as some parity and status bits can be decoded from the time marks of
the 15th up to the 58th second every minute. The absence of any time mark at the 59th
second of a minute signals that a new minute will begin with the next time mark.
Our radio remote clocks decode the highly accurate information on date and time
within a wide range around Germany. So some of our clocks are installed in Bilbao/
Spain as well as in the city of Umeå in northern Sweden - fully satisfying the
requirements of the users. The radio remote clocks automatically switch to summertime and back. The reception of the time information is free of charge and does not need
to be registered.
Generally it is important to position the antenna in an optimal way. It should be
mounted at least 30 centimeters away from the clock unit and from solid steel. The
antenna should be aligned at a right angle to the direction of the transmitter (Frankfurt).
Figure: Decoding Scheme
P
8
3
M
4
Year of the Century
Month of Year
Day of Week
Day of Month
0
0
2
0
1
0
8
4
2
1
1
0
50
8
4
2
1
4
2
1
40
0
2
0
1
8
4
2
1
0
30
2
0
P
2
0
1
Hour
P1
8
1
4
2
(reserved)
10
R
A
1
Z
1
Z
2
20
A
2
S
1
2
4
8
1
0
2
4
0
Minute
0
M Start of Minute (0.1 s)
R RF Transmissio n via secondary antenna
A1 Announcement of a ch ange in dayligh t saving
Z1, Z2 Time zone identification
Z1, Z2 = 0, 1: Daylig ht saving di sabled
Z1, Z2 = 1, 0: Daylig ht saving enab led
A2 Announcement of a lea p second
S Start of time code information
P1, P2, P3 Even parity bits
5
F eatures of the VP100/20
The large display VP100/20 is a 50mm hight LED matrix display that shows time and
date 20 character wide as follows: day of the week, day of month, month, hours,
minutes and seconds. It can be driven as a free running stand alone clock or as a radio
clock with integrated DCF77 receiver.
Fig.1:
Front View
The DCF variant provides automatic changeover of daylight saving. In case of
supply voltage failure the on board R TC keeps the time based on XTAL for at least 10
years. Time and Date can be displayed in different languages. The wall mounted
housing of the VP100/20 is made of plastic coated steel sheet.
The power connector, the antenna input and the RS232/20mA interfaces provided
by VP100/20 are accessible via connectors in the rear panel of the case.
Installation
P ower Supply
The requested supply voltage is applied via the power cord receptacle in the rear
panel. After connecting the power cord and the antenna (only DCF variant) the system
is ready to operate. Time and date become visible on the display.
6
VP100/20 as Stand Alone Clock
After connecting the power supply the displayed time/date can be set by the two
buttons in the rear panel of the case. The accuracy of the time depends on the precision
of the internal quartz base.
An automatic changeover of daylight saving can be programmed as described in
section "Daylight Saving".
VP100/20 as Radio Clock
It is not possible to run this variant of the VP100/20 as a slave clock. The DSub
connector (IN) in the rear panel has no effect. The DSub connector (OUT) can be
connected to further VP100/20s or similar systems to run them as slave clocks.
An external ferrit antenna is used to receive the signal from DCF77 and supplies it
to the on-board LF receiver where it is demodulated by a synchronous detector with
automatic gain control. The demodulated time marks are fed to the clock´s microprocessor.
The time marks from the receiver circuit are filtered and decoded by the microprocessor system. Parity and consistency checks over a period of two minutes take care
for detecting errors in the received time string. The checked and decoded time is
written to the on-board real time clock and spread by the interfaces. A software
watchdog lets the microprocessor recover from malfunction. A power-fail comparator
resets the microprocessor if the supply voltage drops below a specified threshold.
In case of supply voltage failure the on-board real time clock keeps the time
powered by a lithium battery which has a live time of at least 10 years guaranteed.
After powering up the system the time keeped in the real time clock is displayed
immediately. A dot below the colons of the time on the display indicates the modulated DCF77 signal. After synchronisation this dot dissappears, however, after loss of
reception for more than 6 hours the colons start flashing. If the antenna is installed
properly and the signal from DCF77 can be received without strong distortions, the
"Modulation Dot" starts blinking exactly once per second, corresponding to the time
marks from DCF77. For a better control an acoustic signal is added to the "Modulation
Dot" for 2.5 minutes.
7
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