Re: WTD: WWVB receiver

Jim Thompson wrote:

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:55:36 -0800, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Spehro Pefhany wrote:


On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:08:25 -0800, the renowned Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Donald wrote:



I am looking for WWVB receiver to add to an existing product.

I found at Digikey: 561-1005-ND

This receiver module: C-MAX CME8000-BUS-LP-01

Are there other modules like this but cheaper.
I am looking for 50-100 units.

Clocks with receivers in them cost $10. So these modules must be cheap somewhere.

Any links to offshore sites would work.


It's the same like it is with LCD modules. A module will always be somewhat of a boutique part and thus expensive.


Worse, in fact. LCD modules are actually used in relatively high+
volume products (I can see several of them in commercial products
without getting out of my desk chair). If you wanted to duplicate the
functionality you'd need to add pretty much as many parts as are on
the module-- there is no micro in them, and really little or no
duplication.

You can be sure there is no such module inside a $10 retail product--
or rather the 'module' is (at best) a discrete chip for the receiver.
At worst, it could be a corner of a chip.


Actually, sometimes there is. For example, when my trusty old HP-III printer died I parted out the LCD. Lo and behold it was a nice two-line version with a HD44780 compatible chip on there. Same in the old Toshiba fax (single-line). Same in the old Sanyo fax (two-line again). Sweet. Of course, they bought those by the gazillion. But now I don't have to wait for a Digikey order if I quickly need to pipe out some alphanumeric data. I could even do that in Japanese ;-)


Considering your low quantity the only way I see is buying a clock and parting it out.


They are probably designed around a single chip for the radio portion.
There are still a few parts outside such as tuning fork crystal
filters and passives, as well as the ferrite antenna. You can see the
radio portion on the left-hand part of the module. The right-hand
portion is what you probably don't need to buy if you already have a
microcontroller in your product. So, find that ASIC (eg. from Temic
nee Telefunken) and compare costs including amortized engineering
time.


Yep. Sometimes it is better to use a complete chip, disregard 90%+ of its innards and try to tap off a signal at one of its younger stages. I've done that a lot with radio comms chips where all I needed was the RSSA output.


Anything wrong with these........

http://www.ntp-time-server.com/wwvb-receiver/wwvb-receiver.htm

Of course I can't find a price list :-(


That always makes me suspicious. Anyhow, this site talks about UKP30 for parts which is a whole lotta Dollars:
http://www.buzzard.me.uk/jonathan/radioclock.html

Ouch. Looks like buying an atomic clock at Walmart and parting it out is going to cost less. Mine had cost $19.95 plus tax.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.

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