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Real-time Clock (clock)

STICKER maintains accurate wall-clock time via an internal Real-Time Clock (RTC). Wall-clock time is required for precise timestamping of Sensor History log records, Alarm Rules event triggers, and network status messages.

Firmware v1.4.0

The Real-time Clock (RTC) capabilities described on this page are a core feature of STICKER firmware v1.4.0 and are not available in v1.3.x.


Time Synchronization Mechanisms

The RTC can be synchronized through three independent methods:

  1. LoRaWAN Network Sync (DeviceTimeReq):

    • The device automatically requests network time using the standard LoRaWAN MAC command DeviceTimeReq upon joining the network.
    • Periodic re-synchronization is performed to correct clock drift during long-term field deployment.
  2. Encrypted NFC Local Sync:

    • When configured using the HARDWARIO Manager app on a smartphone, the phone's system time can automatically update and set the STICKER RTC over NFC.
  3. Remote & Shell Commands:

    • Time can be queried or manually updated using developer shell commands or remotely via LoRaWAN downlink commands on fPort 85.

Developer Shell Commands (clock)

Developer shell commands allow inspecting and managing the RTC directly (see Firmware Setup for opening the console):

CommandDescription
clock getRead and print the current UTC wall-clock time and Unix timestamp.
clock set <unix>Manually set the RTC using a 32-bit Unix epoch timestamp (seconds since Jan 1, 1970).
clock syncForce an immediate LoRaWAN DeviceTimeReq MAC command to request network time synchronization.