Set-up the analog meter to be 1 volt at center scale. 2 volts full scale. Voltage above 1 volt indicates frequency of the oscillator is below 10.00000, and voltage below 1 volt indicates frequency above 10.00000. If HP10811 or equivalent oscillator. (voltage up, frequency down)
Its nice to mount the meter with ZERO up and FULLSCALE down. (edgemount meter) Then when the needle is up, the freq is high (get it ?) and vice-versa. The needle will rest at mid scale when everything is locked up. It is also nice to have the LEDs mounted vertically with (guess what ?) the high at the top and low at the bottom with the "heartbeat" LED in the center.
Its nice to have the pot connected so that turning to the right (clockwise) raises the frequency.
A 50 k pot with a 10 turn reduction drive is worth doing. Other values of networks can be used, but this is easy, and it works. (see notes)
Don't use the 5 volts from the controller board for the EFC tuning voltage, it's too dirty for precision work.
A digital voltmeter is essential for expedient diagnosis and tweaking. I haven't found a panel mount one yet, so I have been using a $20.00 Radio Shack model 22-806. It resolves to tenths of millivolts on the lowest scale and is still on the original batteries after many hours of operation. (it's been more than a year as of this editing and the same batteries are in the meter, I still haven't mounted a digital meter, and probably never will. The lock range has not not needed tweaking for 13 months.)
Measuring the voltage on the EFC lead is interesting, but loads the cicuit too much to hold lock, although it is useful to see if the arm is pretty well centered.
Don't expexct to get any sort of meaningful results until the power has been on for at least an hour. Use your Klingon pain stick for an hour to achieve the same level of gratification.
Remember the analog meter is to FINE TUNE the PHASE DIFFERENCE. The LEDs are to tune the Frequency and are very difficult to use for setting the phase.The meter MUST sit very near 1 volt for 30 seconds (longer than 30 seconds is better) before switching to N=1. If you have (or can borrow) a second oscillator that is on frquency and also have a dual trace scope, then it is simple to get the oscillator very close to the same frequency as the standard.
If you can't get a good position entered in the Position Hold (PHP lat D, M, S lon D, M, S etc) just let it go until after you have found lock the first time. It is tough enough getting this thing tweaked the first time, with out fighting the GPS too. If you enter a postion and altitude in PHP, and the tuning (analog) meter seems to flicker more often, then there is a good chance the position you entered is not close enough to the correct position. The Oncore board is quite good and will give more than adequate 1 PPS to get things lined up without the PHP function.
After things are locked up the first time, let it run, tweak the frequency a bit and get the DAC output voltage to run in the millivolt range +/-. Unplug the soldering iron and let it run. Make some notes about everything that must be done to finalize the installation. Did you remember to drill a hole for the GPS annena connector ?? Maybe if you are better at this than I, the next time on will be the last time it all gets dis-assembled.