Information on the Raspberry Pi NTP-Clock

When originally written in December 2012 the Raspberry Pi Python code for the NTP Clock depended on several other Adafruit programs to be loaded.  Plus the method used to get the program to start on power-on was not a standard method.  In addition, the user was left with the task of getting the program onto the Raspberry Pi.  Finally, it was a resource hog, taking up over 98% of the CPU resources.

This September 2013 rewrite has removed a dependency on other programs by including the necessary code in the Clock.py program itself.  It was also revised in such as way that it sleeps rather than constantly polling — this has reduced the CPU load to about 0.2%, meaning the program can now run in the background without swamping the CPU.  Also, the program was revised to work with either the standard Wired Ethernet connection or the WiFi Connection.  Finally, it has been placed into a public git repository so it can be cloned onto the RPi.

If you have your Pi up and running, you can obtain the code and the setup instructions by executing the following command (at a location like /home/pi )

git clone https://BBeatty@bitbucket.org/BBeatty/wb4son_ntp_clock.git

Of course you might not have git installed on your Pi.  Start from scratch instructions can be found here:  WB4SON NTP Clock Setup Guide

A small presentation was given at a NCRC meeting about the NTP Clock.  Click HERE for a copy.

Click here for the python program (change the name from Clock.txt to Clock.py — WordPress doesn’t allow .py files): Clock Code

An interesting RPI project to create a M0JMO-Tiny_Python_Panadapter-Raspberry_Pi_Setup_Guide-v1_2 is described here.  Supplemental Files, and Tiny Panadapter QST – April 2014 [38 – 39].