Rich Noordam
Published © GPL3+

Using the ESP32 with RTC DS3231 module

Example of how to use the ESP32 with the RTC DS3231 module for accurate time keeping.

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Using the ESP32 with RTC DS3231 module

Things used in this project

Hardware components

ESP32S
×1
DS3231
×1
Jumper wires (generic)
Jumper wires (generic)
×1

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE
Arduino IDE

Story

Read more

Schematics

Fritz Diagram

ESP32S fritz part

Code

Using the ESP32S with the RTC DS3231

Arduino
How to use the ESP32 to connect to the NTP, and get epochTime (seconds since 1970)
#include <NTPClient.h>
#include <WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>
// WiFi details
const char *ssid     = "YOURSSID";
const char *password = "YOURPASS";
// I use static IP's, and found i had to put in DNS to make it work properly.
IPAddress local_IP(XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX);
IPAddress gateway(XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX);
IPAddress subnet(XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX);
IPAddress primaryDNS(XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX);
IPAddress secondaryDNS(XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX);
// NTP
WiFiUDP ntpUDP;
// i'm in PDT which is -7 from GMT.
NTPClient timeClient(ntpUDP, "us.pool.ntp.org", -7*3600);
// RTC Libraries
#include <Wire.h> 
#include <RtcDS3231.h>
RtcDS3231<TwoWire> Rtc(Wire);

void WiFi_Setup(){
  if (!WiFi.config(local_IP, gateway, subnet, primaryDNS, secondaryDNS)) {
    Serial.println("STA Failed to configure");
  }
  Serial.print("Connecting to ");
  Serial.println(ssid);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.println("WiFi connected!");
}

// ************************************
// ** RTC Setup
// ************************************
void RTC_Update(){
  // Do udp NTP lookup, epoch time is unix time - subtract the 30 extra yrs (946684800UL) library expects 2000
  timeClient.update();
  unsigned long epochTime = timeClient.getEpochTime()-946684800UL;
  Rtc.SetDateTime(epochTime); 
}
bool RTC_Valid(){
  bool boolCheck = true; 
  if (!Rtc.IsDateTimeValid()){
    Serial.println("RTC lost confidence in the DateTime!  Updating DateTime");
    boolCheck = false;
    RTC_Update();    
  }
  if (!Rtc.GetIsRunning())
  {
    Serial.println("RTC was not actively running, starting now.  Updating Date Time");
    Rtc.SetIsRunning(true);
    boolCheck = false;
    RTC_Update();
  }
}

void setup(){
  Serial.begin(115200);
  WiFi_Setup();
  // Start NTP Time Client
  timeClient.begin();
  delay(2000);
  timeClient.update();
  Rtc.Begin();
  RTC_Update();
}

void loop() {
  if (!RTC_Valid()){
    RTC_Update();
  }
  RtcDateTime currTime = Rtc.GetDateTime();
  printDateTime(currTime);
  Serial.println(timeClient.getFormattedTime());
  delay(10000);
}
// Utility print function
#define countof(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))
void printDateTime(const RtcDateTime& dt)
{
    char datestring[20];
    snprintf_P(datestring, 
            countof(datestring),
            PSTR("%02u/%02u/%04u %02u:%02u:%02u"),
            dt.Month(),
            dt.Day(),
            dt.Year(),
            dt.Hour(),
            dt.Minute(),
            dt.Second() );
    Serial.println(datestring);
}

Credits

Rich Noordam

Rich Noordam

10 projects • 33 followers
Many interests, computing obviously being one of them. MS SQL Server Database Administration, Reporting, Data Science, and more.

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