PPSCHECK(8)

NAME
ppscheck - tool to check a serial port for PPS

SYNOPSIS

ppscheck [-h] [-V] device

DESCRIPTION

ppscheck watches a specified serial port for transitions that might be PPS. It looks for changes in handshake lines CD, RI, and CTS by running ioctl(...., TIOCMIWAIT, ...) in a loop. When it sees a state change it emits a timestamped line of output dumping the state of the handshake signals. It's useful for checking whether a device is emitting PPS.

To check the first serial port do this:

    ppscheck /dev/ttyS0

ppscheck is not intended for routine use, but rather for diagnostic purposes. Once you have verified a particular device can output PPS signals you will never need to use it again on that device.

The program accepts the following options:

-h
    Display help message and terminate.

-V
    Dump version and exit.

The "device" argument should be the pathname of a device. It will be the device monitored.

Each output line is the second and nanosecond parts of a timestamp followed by the names of the handshake signals then asserted. Off transitions may generate lines with no signals aserted.

If you don't see output within a second, use gpsmon or some other equivalent tool to check that your device has a satellite lock and is getting 3D fixes before giving up on the possibility of PPS.

Check your cable. Cheap DB9 to DB9 cables such as those issued with UPSes often carry TXD/RXD/GND only, omitting handshake lines such as DCD. Suspect this especially if the cable jacket looks too skinny to hold more than three leads!

Most GPS that have built in USB do not support PPS. When in doubt, contact the vendor for confirmation that your device does supply PPS.

RETURN VALUES

1 if the device counld not be opened. 0 otherwise

SEE ALSO

gpsd(8).

AUTHOR

Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>.