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Breakout board for Symmetricom X72

DA
David Anderson
Fri, May 23, 2025 11:23 PM

Hi,

Many years ago I picked up a Symmetricom X72 rubidium frequency standard off ebay, and then didn't do anything with it. I dug it up recently, and learned that Molex discontinued the connector the X72 uses for I/O. So, I made myself a breakout board to pull the timing signals out to SMA connectors, and the power and digital signals to a standard 2.54mm header.

This is not a novel idea: from the list archives, I believe Mark Sims did this many years ago and did a short run of boards, which I missed at the time. But I was looking for an excuse to tinker with board design and prototyping anyway, so I rolled my own.

The design is open source and available at https://codeberg.org/danderson/symmetricom-adapter, along with a pic of the assembled result, with my X72 mounted.

If anyone else happens to have an X72 that could use this, I have two boards left over from the prototyping run that I'm happy to pass along at cost: $40 (USD), plus shipping from western Canada. Import duties and the like are on you.

Note that this board revision has a pair of minor errata (https://codeberg.org/danderson/symmetricom-adapter/src/branch/main/errata.md) which don't impede the main functionality, but that you'll have to accept as-is. I can pre-mount the stacking connector (errata 1) if you'd like, but the second rework is beyond my abilities and tools. And of course, I don't promise that the board won't somehow blow up your X72 or misbehave, they're hobbyist prototypes not a Product. All I can say is that it seems to work fine with my X72, errata notwithstanding.

In the unlikely event that there's demand for at least 3 boards with errata fixed, I can arrange for another manufacturing run. Let's say $65+shipping for such a run, so that I at least get a free board for myself for the trouble :). Let me know if

Cheers,

  • Dave
Hi, Many years ago I picked up a Symmetricom X72 rubidium frequency standard off ebay, and then didn't do anything with it. I dug it up recently, and learned that Molex discontinued the connector the X72 uses for I/O. So, I made myself a breakout board to pull the timing signals out to SMA connectors, and the power and digital signals to a standard 2.54mm header. This is not a novel idea: from the list archives, I believe Mark Sims did this many years ago and did a short run of boards, which I missed at the time. But I was looking for an excuse to tinker with board design and prototyping anyway, so I rolled my own. The design is open source and available at https://codeberg.org/danderson/symmetricom-adapter, along with a pic of the assembled result, with my X72 mounted. If anyone else happens to have an X72 that could use this, I have two boards left over from the prototyping run that I'm happy to pass along at cost: $40 (USD), plus shipping from western Canada. Import duties and the like are on you. Note that this board revision has a pair of minor errata (https://codeberg.org/danderson/symmetricom-adapter/src/branch/main/errata.md) which don't impede the main functionality, but that you'll have to accept as-is. I can pre-mount the stacking connector (errata 1) if you'd like, but the second rework is beyond my abilities and tools. And of course, I don't promise that the board won't somehow blow up your X72 or misbehave, they're hobbyist prototypes not a Product. All I can say is that it seems to work fine with my X72, errata notwithstanding. In the unlikely event that there's demand for at least 3 boards with errata fixed, I can arrange for another manufacturing run. Let's say $65+shipping for such a run, so that I at least get a free board for myself for the trouble :). Let me know if Cheers, - Dave