Time Synchronization System - 18
A Time Synchronization System is used to synchronize the internal Qinsy clock and the Microsoft Windows system clock to UTC time.
Only a single Time Synchronization system is allowed per template.
Time synchronization can be very accurate (better than 0.5 milliseconds) when using a Qinsy Time Synchronization Adapter which interfaces a TTL 1pulse per second (Time Synchronization) signal from a GPS receiver into the computer. If this is not used an averaging of incoming time tags is used; this will be less accurate but stable.
Surveying without the Time Synchronization Adapter should only be done when the timing requirements are not so strict, e.g. because all timing critical sensor data is already UTC time tagged in the system itself or when no multibeam sounders are used.
In Database Setup the Time Synchronization system can be defined in a wizard with two pages: the first page will set up what type of time tag is used (e.g. ZDA GGA NTP) and on which port it is arriving, on the second page the COM port of the Time Synchronization Adapter can be selected.
For more info on the Time Synchronization adapter refer to the Knowledge Base article under header QPS Trigger Devices: QPS Time Synchronization Adapter.
MSWindows Clock synchronization
While online with the Controller the MSWindows Clock is synchronized every time it deviates from the internal Qinsy clock more than a hard coded offset (couple of milliseconds). Although Qinsy could run without a properly synchronized clock it is strongly advised to keep this enabled because there are some drivers that rely on it, for example Klein 3000/3900/5000 driver. The only valid reason to disable synchronization is when another program is setting the MSWindows Clock already and it's operation is interfered by Qinsy.
This can for example happen when one computer is shared by Qinsy and the Reson 7K topside software.
In that case please use the driver: Third Party synchronized Windows system time listed below.
As of April 2012 it is possible to use a single serial port to transfer Time tags and positions from a GPS receiver to Qinsy.
For more info refer to the driver pages.