Re: Alpha Clock 5 – GPS support

Home Evil Mad Scientist Forums Clock Kits Alpha Clock 5 – GPS support Re: Alpha Clock 5 – GPS support

#21160
wbp
Participant

I have seen other logic where the date/time was checked as you say, “when the date arrives … we adjust the RTC…”.  That works great if the clock is running during this event, but not so great when someone builds a clock and powers it up (or powers it back up after some time) and the transition to DST has already occurred.  The original DST code for Adafruit’s Ice Tube clock worked this way.  This is why I decided to rewrite the DST logic so it can be called at any time, and then check for DST transitions once a minute.  It could also be done when the clock is booted, but doing it this way has the advantage that one can play around with the date and time settings and see the clock adjust itself…

The GPS has the advantage that it works without any configuration at all, and pretty much anywhere (assuming it can get signal).  As for cost, the Ultimate GPS is less money than the IMP and it’s adapter, so I don’t see that as an advantage either…
I’m glad you are happy with the IMP, it does look like an interesting device, but for my money (and time) it’s not the right choice for this application.