ELK-M1G Setting current time via the serial port

I have a ELM-M1G connected to a computer via a serial interface. The time keeps rolling out of sync. It is running fast gaining about 1 min per month I did not purchase an ethernet adapter for my ELK. Does anyone have a serial terminal script or a small utility that will check the time on a Windows XP computer (Internet time sync is enabled on the PC) and then reset the time on the ELK-M1G? It looks like it can be done as there is an ASCII protocol spec.

I don't know of a utility that is designed to exclusively sync an M1's clock. I'm familiar with the rw command and it would probably take someone a few hours to put together a simple utility using VB.

If you want something free, that does a lot more than just sync the clock, may I suggest you consider using a Home Automation program like Premise Home Control. I wrote an M1 driver for Premise and it lets you sync the clock and a whole lot more using a web browser:

Arm/Disarm
Control Relays
Control Lighting
Display Temperature
Play Voice Messages

For more information, see the Premise forum here on Cocoontech.

123 said:

I don't know of a utility that is designed to exclusively sync an M1's clock. I'm familiar with the rw command and it would probably take someone a few hours to put together a simple utility using VB.

If you want something free, that does a lot more than just sync the clock, may I suggest you consider using a Home Automation program like Premise Home Control. I wrote an M1 driver for Premise and it lets you sync the clock and a whole lot more using a web browser:

Arm/Disarm
Control Relays
Control Lighting
Display Temperature
Play Voice Messages

For more information, see the Premise forum here on Cocoontech.

Click to expand...

Thanks 123,

I don't have a home automation program yet. I have still been looking into which one will wrok best for my needs. I will definately look at Premise.

Rod

ELKRP allows updating the M1's clock in the Send/Rcv button.

I wrote a little utility which will do this for you. I am not sure why you would need it, as the M1 really shouldn't run into these kind of clock issues, but I wrote it just so I could test my new Flash based Elk M1 driver. Screenshot:



It is obviously very basic, it won't save settings, but it doesn't take much to get it running. Just enter ip and port of the M1 XEP, and hit connect. Once you did that, enter the timer value (i.e. every 60 minutes), and hit the Play button, which will start the timer. That's it. It may have bugs, but it tested fine on my system.

View attachment myElkTime.zip

If you don't have the M1 XEP Ethernet adapter, you can use something like hw_vsp to achieve the same effect. It will turn the PC into an ethernet adapter for the M1.

My M1G runs about a minute or so slow a month.

I would suggest to Elk that they write a small clock correction routine into the firmware.
This routine would have the ability to add or subtract a few seconds every week.
This way you could compensate for the internal inaccuracy of the internal clock.

Cliff s

FWIW, I have had some clock issues with some of my customers. I have since recommended an M1XEP with each install so I can do a time sync each night. Now they have an M1 clock they can set their watch by.

My ELK-M1G is off by a minute compared to my computer which runs NISTTIME every night - http://www.time.gov/ and it's set to sync up at 2:47am every day with the timer server at IP address 64.125.79. Even when I connect and do a "test" from the m1exp setup page, the time is still off.

It looks like I specified the wrong default port #. If you haven't changed this setting on your M1 XEP, then you need to change the port value to 2101 (insecure port), as 2601 is reserved for SSL use only. Sorry about that!

Btw: If you want to try this, without sending a command to your M1, simply do not start the timer once connected.