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Section 8. Operation

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3. PakBus (p. 77) commands — the CR800 is a PakBus device, so it is capable of

being a node in a PakBus network. Node clocks in a PakBus network are

synchronized using the SendGetVariable(), ClockReport(), or

PakBusClock() commands. The CR800 clock has a resolution of 10 ms,

which is the resolution used by PakBus clock-sync functions. In networks

without routers, repeaters, or retries, the communication time will cause an

additional error (typically a few 10s of milliseconds). PakBus clock

commands set the time at the end of a scan to minimize the chance of skipping

a record to a data table. This is not the same clock check process used by

LoggerNet as it does not use average round trip calculations to try to account

for network connection latency.

4. Radios — A PakBus enabled radio network has an advantage over Ethernet in

that ClockReport() can be broadcast to all dataloggers in the network

simultaneously. Each will set its clock with a single PakBus broadcast from

the master. Each datalogger in the network must be programmed with a

PakBusClock() instruction.

Note Use of PakBus clock functions re-synchronizes the Scan()

instruction. Use should not exceed once per minute. CR800 clocks drift at

a slow enough rate that a ClockReport() once per minute should be

sufficient to keep clocks within 30 ms of each other.

With any synchronization method, care should be taken as to when and

how things are executed. Nudging the clock can cause skipped scans or

skipped records if the change is made at the wrong time or changed by

too much.

5. GPS — clocks in CR800s can be synchronized to within about 10 ms of each

other using the GPS() instruction. CR800s built since October of 2008 (serial

numbers ≥ [7920] ) can be synchronized within a few microseconds of each

other and within ≈200 µs of UTC. While a GPS signal is available, the CR800

essentially uses the GPS as its continuous clock source, so the chances of

jumps in system time and skipped records are minimized.

6. Ethernet — any CR800 with a network connection (internet, GPRS, private

network) can synchronize its clock relative to Coordinated Universal Time

(UTC) using the NetworkTimeProtocol() instruction. Precisions are usually

maintained to within 10 ms. The NTP server could be another logger or any

NTP server (such as an email server or nist.gov). Try to use a local server —

something where communication latency is low, or, at least, consistent. Also,

try not to execute the NetworkTimeProtocol() at the top of a scan; try to ask

for the server time between even seconds.

8.2 Switched-Voltage Output — Details

Campbell CR800 Series User Manual

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