what do you think about Sparkfun's new GPSDO?

[slburris]

I'm referring to their new $2500 product: https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkpnt-gnss-disciplined-oscillator.html

I'm sitting on a couple of Thunderbolts, so I don't really --need-- another GPDSO, and as a hobbyist, it really
would need to be about 1/4th of the price to be interesting to me.  Any opinions on where this would land
in the GPSDO universe?  Does the performance justify such a price when there are much lower cost
"good enough for a lot of applications" GPSDOs out there?  And yes, I know the SparkFun unit talks to multiple
constellations, so it's really a GNSSDO instead of a GPSDO.  Does talking to multiple constellations at the same
time really help for this?

I'm kinda intrigued that they are using a fancy TCXO, instead of an ovenized oscillator.  Hmm, what if you
enclosed the SiT5358 chip and temperature stabilized it yourself?

Huh, I went and skimmed the datasheet https://www.sitime.com/products/super-tcxos/sit5358 -- if this part
weren't so expensive, I'd play with the DCTXCO version. Maybe prices will come down someday.

[Smoky]

I watched Sparkfun's video about the disciplined oscillator.

If I have it right, the unit is $2500 but you must also pay their monthly network fee of $1,000

[mikeselectricstuff]

I watched Sparkfun's video about the disciplined oscillator.

If I have it right, the unit is $2500 but you must also pay their monthly network fee of $1,000

If you actually need those extra 4 nS, $1K isn't going to be a big deal...

[MIS42N]

Just from the specifications, you get what you pay for. The GNSS receiver is the key, Digikey has it at $745. As a positioning device, they are accurate down to a few cm. As a timing device, it's going to provide timing pulses consistent within 1ns (light travels 30cm in 1ns). The oscillator specs 1ppb/°C and 1.5e-11 ADEV at 10 seconds are not brilliant, good OCXOs are better. The pulling of the digital control version is quotes as 5 parts per trillion, which sets the lower limit on the accuracy of the output frequency.

So it's a fairly conventional design made from top quality components with lots of bells and whistles. If your requirement is for accurate timing, good choice. If you want accurate frequency, it should perform well in a stable temperature environment. The limit may be set by that ADEV figure - 1.5e-11. For less than a tenth the price, you should be able to get a GPSDO that delivers 1e-10 (10MHz±1mHz). Which for most hobby purposes I think is 'good enough'.