Topic: Chumby One Time

Doe s anyone else experience the time on the Chumby One is about 2 minutes fast.  I have the Chumby set to use Internet Time.  I also have my computers set to use internet time.  I also have an atomic clock.  The computers (pc and mac) match the time on the atomic clock, but the Chumby is always about 2 or 3 minutes fast.  Not a big deal, and actually is hepful when using the alarm, so I get up a tad earlier, but I find the discrepancy strange.

Re: Chumby One Time

What time zone are you in?

Re: Chumby One Time

Yep I've noticed the exact same thing.  I too have atomic clocks, internet clocks etc. and the Chumby after being on for a day or two gets to be about 2 minutes fast.  Going into the control panel and unticking and reticking the 'internet time' checkbox seems to fix it but only for a while.

I'm in the CST zone.

Re: Chumby One Time

OK, so the time get increasingly ahead over some period, just just always 2 minutes?

If you don't reset it, will the difference continue to increase?

Re: Chumby One Time

I've only had the Chumby One for a couple weeks so I haven't been able to test this extensively.  So far I haven't let it get more than 2 minutes out of sync.  I'm going out of town for the holidays so I can check where it's at when I get back and report in then.

Re: Chumby One Time

Thanks, that would be very helpful.

Re: Chumby One Time

Just wondering if the Chumbies listen to ntpd broadcasts? Might be useful to have that enabled if ntpd is running (I haven't looked). I have ntpd running on a Linksys NSLU2 Slug to serve as a time source for my local network. My Receiva radio time gets out of whack every so often, I guess due to some spurious problem with whatever its time source is. It might even be my router. Every now and then every PC on my LAN gets off by 6 hours and 2 minutes. A ping from ntpd sets it right immediately. When I got my chumby, I just added it automatically to my broadcast list and so far I haven't seen it off time yet.

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Chumby One Time

They don't run ntpd.  Instead, they use ntpdate to snag the time whenever the network connection is restarted.

Re: Chumby One Time

I've enabled ntpd on my chumby one.  I'd like to post the files, but the wiki apparently doesn't allow uploads.  Is there a way to have uploads enabled, so I can share the change?

Re: Chumby One Time

I got back last night.  When I left on Thursday 12/24 the time was right (at least within a minute.)  When I got back last night it was about 1 1/2 minutes fast so reading 1-2 minutes ahead of the actual time as confirmed by my atomic clock, the internet etc.  I've left it alone in case there's any diagnostic procedure you'd like me to try.  Just let me know.

Re: Chumby One Time

Steve, if you can't share on the Chumby Wiki, try creating a drop at http://drop.io -- it's a great way to share files with a group and there's no annoying password or wait period needed to download files.

Re: Chumby One Time

Thanks for the tip.  Ok, I uploaded to http://drop.io/saf_chumby with the file name ntpd.tgz.

scp this archive from your host computer to your chumby by typing the following command on your host computer.
(This command is for a linux host - I don't use windows, but something similar should work on a windows machine.)

scp ntpd.tgz root@your_chumby_ip_address:/psp

Then log into your chumby using ssh, and unpack the archive using the following commands on the chumby itself:

    mount -o remount,rw /
    cd /
    tar -xvzf /psp/ntpd.tgz

Make sure psp/ntp.drift is owned by ntp - this should happen automatically.  Then just reboot the chumby.  The
ntpd daemon should now be running, and keeping your time synch'd.  After an hour or so, ntpd will compute the
clock drift, and write a correction factor to /psp/ntp.drift.  My correction factor is currently -163.697.  This number
is a function of the clock accuracy within the chumby itself, and it will vary with temperature.

Every 6 months or so, you should check ftp://time.nist.gov/pub/ to get the latest leap-second file.  These files
have an expiration date, so you will want to stay current.  Once you download a new file, replace the one in
psp/ntp.leap and reboot.

I have two GPS timeservers, which I am using to sync my chumby.  Right now, the chumby is off by about
2 milliseconds, which is not bad for a wireless connection.

Re: Chumby One Time

@skain (or anyone else who is having this problem) -- Can you run the following and give me the output:

ntpdate -q pool.ntp.org; hwclock -r -u; date

I want to know if the hardware clock is functioning okay, and how it compares to the system clock.  That command will first see how far off your clock is, then print out the hardware clock's time, then print out the system clock's time.

Re: Chumby One Time

My device increases the amount of time it is ahead over time as well.

Robin

Re: Chumby One Time

My ChumbyOne does this too (clock is drifting ahead about a minute every few days).  Given that one of the main functions of this product is a "clock radio", and given that it is connected to the internet, it's crazy that it doesn't run ntpd "out of the box" and keep accurate time.  I shouldn't have to apply the hack myself that stevefalco developed, and I shouldn't have to reboot it every day.  I am also surprised at how poorly it is keeping time internally (without updates from the 'net).  Even a $3 "stick-on" LCD clock will keep better time than this.  Assuming there is a quartz crystal oscillator inside, it should be able to stay within a minute a month.

Re: Chumby One Time

chumby:/# ntpdate -q pool.ntp.org; hwclock -r -u; date
server 59.167.252.133, stratum 2, offset 0.048595, delay 0.05910
server 203.82.209.217, stratum 2, offset 0.056051, delay 0.10046
server 150.101.72.73, stratum 2, offset 0.049818, delay 0.06438
31 Dec 13:24:28 ntpdate[2506]: adjust time server 59.167.252.133 offset 0.048595 sec
-sh: hwclock: not found
Thu Dec 31 13:24:28 EST 2009


It doesn't seem to like the hwclock command

Re: Chumby One Time

I will weigh in here.  I've got a classic (mine) and a One (my wife's).  I see the drift on the One as my Classic seems to hang on with the correct time.  A reboot gets them back in sync.

Re: Chumby One Time

We're tracking this one down and have a potential fix under test right now.

Re: Chumby One Time

Duane,

Any update on the time issue with Chumby One?

Kind of annoying to have an internet-connected alarm clock that can't tell time...

How will users be notified when a fix has been released?

Thanks!

Re: Chumby One Time

When the bug is fixed, we'll post about it here, and at some point you'll get a firmware update notification on your device.  At that point, you'd simply confirm the update and it will be done over the network.

Re: Chumby One Time

I think it would be cool if there was a coming soon part on the software_update page (http://www.chumby.com/pages/latest_software) that would tell us of the new changes coming and an estimated release date, for example Feb 2010, or something pretty general.

Thanks for all your help Duane

Re: Chumby One Time

There are several posts on the topic of estimating release dates - basically we stopped doing that because people would seem to get very angry if our time estimates were in error.  This is one case where openness and transparency completely backfired on us, much to our dismay.

Our policy now is "we'll ship it when it's ready".

Re: Chumby One Time

Following up on my earlier reply, I installed stevefalco's NTP patch on 12/30, and it works as designed, to keep the Chumby in sync.

24 (edited by SvenC 2010-01-09 04:18:05)

Re: Chumby One Time

Hi.

Here the same problem with CET (Germany).
It seems that the internet time update is not working....
I have the chumby one since a week and I have now a time + 1 1/2 minutes.
In my mind, it is a little bit too much for me, because I would like to exchange my radio controlled clock with the cumby one.

For testing I will try the stevefalco's patch. wink

Re: Chumby One Time

Im curious, is NTPD small enough it could just be integrated into the normal Chumby distro?