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• Adding GPS/NMEA as a Time Source

  Christian • 2 hours ago • 0 comments

  chrono-ntp currently uses NTP servers to determine an accurate time offset independent of the local system clock. While this works well on networked systems, the next step is to support GPS as an alternative time source.

  Many USB GPS receivers expose a serial interface and provide NMEA sentences, including time and date information derived from GPS signals. Using GPS would allow chrono-ntp to operate as a network-independent reference clock, useful in environments without reliable internet access or where an external time source is preferred.

  The plan:

  • Read NMEA data from a serial device (USB GPS receiver)
  • Extract time information from standard sentences (e.g. RMC, ZDA)

  At the moment, I’m looking for a suitable USB GPS receiver to test this with real hardware rather than relying solely on simulated NMEA data. Once a device is selected, initial work will focus on basic parsing and validation before integrating it cleanly into chrono-ntp’s existing architecture.

  This should keep the tool simple while expanding it beyond network-based time synchronization.

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