Waveshare Pico Clock and NTP

M75512 · 3 July 2023 02:00

I’d like to get a bedroom clock (automatic dimming etc) that can be set by NTP.

The Waveshare Pico Clock Rectangle Electronic Clock For Raspberry Pi Pico, Accurate RTC, Multi Functions, LED Digits | Pico-Clock-Green looks like it might be able to do it

Waveshare tells me that “The demo we provided has the code of how to write the RCT chip, but there is no code for network acquisition Pico-Clock-Green - Waveshare Wiki”
There is already code available for the Pico to get onto the Internet

Any idea how this could be achieved?
I can’t code in C

James · 3 July 2023 04:07

Hi M,

Looks like Waveshare suggest there are demo files for MicroPython, but I couldn’t find them! (just C).

I couldn’t find a microPython library elsewhere either for the display driver chips on this board.

I think you might want to try a DIY solution to this one with some better supported hardware.

Adafruit sell matrix displays that talk over I2C and have CircuitPython libraries (their fork of MicroPython) and it looks like it has a dimming function, so you’d just need a light sensor on the I2C bus as well so a Pico W could read the light and set the brightness:

As far as NTP goes, it seems there are some micropython examples floating around:

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/aallan/581ecf4dc92cd53e3a415b7c33a1147c

picow_ntp_client.py

import network
import socket
import time
import struct

from machine import Pin

NTP_DELTA = 2208988800
host = "pool.ntp.org"

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Alan37799 · 3 July 2023 10:05

Hi,

I have the PiicoDev_RV3028 Real Time Clock module.

I downloaded the ntptime library from Github

( micropython-lib/micropython/net/ntptime/ntptime.py at master · micropython/micropython-lib · GitHub

It works fine.

What I’ve been unable to do is use the time to update the RV3028. I’m at the very beginning of learning python, so it will take me some time to figure it out.

Suggest you look there.

Cheers!