GPS Time Server FC-NTP-100 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Jdw1953
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 28, 2025, 07:07:07 pm
content: I have taken an interest in a GPS time server described pretty well on this site:https://fc-ntp-100.toimii.fi/This particular time server is found on eBay for around $80. I’m looking for any advice from someone already using this NTP server as to getting it working properly during initial installation and how well it works when connected to a Windows 10 or 11 PC.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 12:16:20 pm
content: Why is this under "Dodgy Technology"? These things are all over Aliexpress and most of them have five-star reviews. Here'sone example, taken from a list of other 5-star reviews:Quote

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 02, 2025, 06:57:19 am
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on May 31, 2025, 12:16:20 pmNo idea? Anyone?

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2025, 11:57:13 pm
content: I thought I saw it start in another forum and then get moved here by a mod so it wasn't originally here, but the original question still stands.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2025, 11:46:57 am
content: Since it works fine with the classic ntp daemon it should also work with Windows.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 03, 2025, 11:10:45 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on June 02, 2025, 06:57:19 amOdd, no idea.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2025, 09:06:12 am
content: Quote from: madires on June 03, 2025, 11:46:57 amI have one of mtharp's sadly discontinuedLaureline's otherwise I'd be running one of those NTP devices as well, they seem perfectly reasonable for the price.

author: Jdw1953
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 09, 2025, 09:17:16 pm
content: I went ahead and got one of these on eBay.It was listed as:FC-NTP-Mini NTP Server Network Time Serer One Port For GPS Beidou GLONASS QZSSThere are many different sellers of this same device.Absolutely no instructions or clues were included on how to configure it for use with Windows or anything else. Good news however was that it's indicator lights came on once powered up and the GPNSS antenna was placed outside.Once connected to a Ethernet port of a laptop running Windows 10 it took a little time to discover how it could actually be configured for a NTP time synchronization source and/or for displaying my GPS coordinates.I'll share some screen shots of how I did all this in a followup reply.

author: Jdw1953
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 09, 2025, 10:45:32 pm
content: The method I used for verification as a NTP time server on Windows 10 was to first setup the laptop's Ethernet IPv4 connection to be a static address of 192.168.0.102 (the FC-NTP-MINI device itself is supposedly defaulted at 192.168.0.100). I also put the laptop's wifi into airplane mode so no chance some other internet based time server could be involved during the verification.Next I ran the NTPConfig_EN.exe configuration program that you can download fromhttp://fc-ntp-100.toimii.fi/web site I referenced in the initial post.Finally I used the date/time settings in control panel of Windows 10 to test the NTP server.Although above image is showing server address as 192.168.0.245 (required by a later configuration change you should keep as 192.168.0.100 until you do the later steps for GPS).If you hold up some other cell phone, tablet, or some other device with the Time.is web page displaying internet time when you press the "Update Now" button you should see time on Windows 10 suddenly match that time. If you unplug the Ethernet cable and try to update again it will have an error message and it fail to update. The first time I did this on a laptop that had not been updated by any NTP internet time servers for a very long time and it was in good disagreement initially with the Time.is web page so I was able to easily see the immediate correction.This test was simple enough to prove it was indeed serving up NTP time!In another reply I show some screen shots how I got PowerGpS.exe correctly listing my GPS coordinates on Windows 10 with this device.

author: gmb42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 09:36:16 am
content: w32tmis the tool that gives a great deal of info and control of time settings on Windows systems.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 11:20:10 am
content: Since@Jdw1953has already covered the Windows setup, here's the Unix one: Edit/etc/ntp.confand add the lineserver <ip_address> preferin the servers section. I'm pretty sure systemd will have broken this by now as with everything else it touches, in which case you're on your own, sorry.Also if you prefer the CLI option for Windows, changeHKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\NtpServerto<ip_address>,0x1, then from an admin shell:Code:net stop w32timenet start w32timew32tm /resyncThis is particularly useful for older versions of Windows which had braindamaged handling of not-approved-by-Microsoft NTP servers.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 01:08:53 pm
content: If you don't need systemd-timesyncd disable the service.

author: Jdw1953
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 01:54:02 pm
content: Verification that this device would also serve up GPS coordinates proved more of an adventure. Once again thathttp://fc-ntp-100.toimii.fi/web site had clues. First needed was to translate the NTP网络时间服务器说明书_桌面型.pdf user manual from Japanese to English via the Google translate web page (which can convert an entire pdf document for free). This manual has details on configuring things so to get PowerGPS (also downloaded from this web site) up and running with it. Initially I had attempted to simply configure PowerGPS with the default address of 192.168.0.100 which was already working as a NTP source but no success. I noticed in user manual that the NTP配置工具.exe program was being used to instead configure it with 192.168.0.245 for some reason so I tried that.andThis actually worked!When it's resultant GPS coordinates were searched via the Google maps web page the resulting satellite image (zoomed in a little) was exactly where I had placed the GPNSS antenna outside of my house.Now I went back and reconfigured my NTP server to also be at 192.168.0.245 and both are working fine. This concluded my quest to verify what I had purchased actually would deliver.Note also that I opened all these the executable files with administrator privilege when configuring things.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 02:04:06 pm
content: Slightly off-topic but that's never stopped anyone before :-), if you've got an Android phone there's a very cool app called GPS Info that has an AR mode where it uses the phone's camera to show wherever you are with the GNSS satellites superimposed over the video image. There are several with this name, the one you want has an icon that looks like a cross between a seagull and a satellite.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 02:05:46 pm
content: Quote from: madires on June 10, 2025, 01:08:53 pmI've found that to be a bit risky at times because systemd-something depends on systemd-everything-else, so you get this transitive breakage effect from disabling a theoretically optional component.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2025, 02:11:42 pm
content: I have disabled systemd-timesyncd long time ago on systems running ntpd. Never noticed any problems because of that.

author: Jdw1953
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 06:04:58 pm
content: Although the Windows PowerGPS software example given in discussion above was an excellant way to verify GPS functionality there needed to be a better application for the time server aspect. I have located such Windows software (freeware) here:https://www.fountainware.com/Products/TimeCalibrator/index.htmThis TimeCalibrator software can measure Windows time drift against a time server and correct Windows time so to mostly reduce it's drift. Following are some screens I used for setup and testing. Best results for calibration is to let PC first wrarm up about half hour while running software that can benefit from this type of precision. Also thing found to be good is running TimeCalibrator for about 60 minutes so to geed good drift statistics before enabling the actual calibration.