Arduino: realtime clock test

Description of test

There is only one oscillator for primary mCPU on Arduino UNO board. It is running on 16 MHz frequency and have decent stability. The questions is: Is this enough precise to measure wall clock using Arduino UNO board? The best way how to get answer is to test it.

Code described in this article is measuring time starting at pre-set value. Idea is to keep this running for some time and then check difference between precise clock and clock measured by Arduino UNO.

Note: I recommend external RTC for time critical applications.

Technical description

• Arduino UNO board have 16MHz crystal. Timer1 is 16bit. Seconds are measured using following configuration: auto-reload at 62500 + 1/256 pre-scaler. (16MHz / 256 = 62500 ticks per second, Timer1 is calculating from zero). Clock update routine is invoked via interrupt handler.
• Data are send-out after each update using serial line.
• Reset routine ensure that counting start exactly when I would like to start test. It is invoked by "s" character send over serial line.
• "L" diode change status on each update (just to indicate that code is running).
• I cut-out "reset-en" to ensure that mCPU is not accidentally reset by connected computer.
• Pre-scaler running at 1/256 is required for fine tuning (Changing top value by "1" when prescaller is 1/1024 cause approximately 4 seconds difference per day).

Source code

Here is source code of my test. Please note that this code is designed for this test only. There are several parts which can result in race condition or are creating additional load to CPU. For example there is no need to update whole date/time string each second.

#define F_CPU 16000000
#define BAUD 9600

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <avr/interrupt.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <avr/sleep.h>
#include <util/setbaud.h>
#include <util/atomic.h>
#include <util/delay.h>

volatile struct {
        uint8_t month;
        uint8_t day;
        uint8_t hour;
        uint8_t minute;
        uint8_t second;
} time;

//                          012345678901234567890123456789
volatile uint8_t buf[30] = "2012-00-00 00:00:00          \r";
volatile uint8_t i;

ISR(USART_RX_vect) {
        uint8_t tmp = UDR0;

        if (tmp == 's') {
                // set initial time
                time.month = 8;
                time.day = 14;
                time.hour = 20;
                time.minute = 30;
                time.second = 0;
        };

}

ISR(USART_TX_vect) {
        if(i < 30) {
                UDR0 = buf[i];
                i++;
        } else {
                i = 0;
        }
}

ISR(TIMER1_COMPA_vect) {

        time.second++;
        if (time.second > 59) {
                time.second = 0;
                time.minute++;
        if (time.minute > 59) {
                time.minute = 0;
                time.hour++;
        if (time.hour > 23) {
                time.hour = 0;
                time.day++;
        if (time.day > 31) {
                time.day = 1;
                time.month++;
        if (time.month > 12) {
                time.month = 1;
        }}}}};

        buf[17] = time.second / 10 + '0';
        buf[18] = time.second % 10 + '0';

        buf[14] = time.minute / 10 + '0';
        buf[15] = time.minute % 10 + '0';

        buf[11] = time.hour / 10 + '0';
        buf[12] = time.hour % 10 + '0';

        buf[8] = time.day / 10 + '0';
        buf[9] = time.day % 10 + '0';

        buf[5] = time.month / 10 + '0';
        buf[6] = time.month % 10 + '0';

        UDR0 = ' ';
        PORTB = ( time.second & 0x01 ) ? _BV(PORTB5) : 0 ;

}

void main (void) {
        // setup serial port
        // 9600, 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity, interupt handler on RX/TX
        UBRR0H = UBRRH_VALUE;
        UBRR0L = UBRRL_VALUE;
        UCSR0B = _BV(RXCIE0) | _BV(TXCIE0) | _BV(RXEN0) | _BV(TXEN0);
        UCSR0C = _BV(UCSZ01) | _BV(UCSZ00);

        // Timer1 top value (for autoreload)
        // Note: this is two byte operation
        //       it should be secured by atomic block
        //       when accessing while interupts are enabled
        OCR1A = 62500;

        // Time1, 1/256, autoreload, interupt on compare
        TCCR1B = _BV(CS12) | _BV(WGM12);
        TIMSK1 = _BV(OCIE1A);

        //setup "L" led and blink to indicate startup
        DDRB = _BV(DDB5);
        {
          uint8_t i;
          for(i = 0; i < 10; i++){
                PORTB = _BV(PORTB5);
                _delay_ms ( 50 );
                PORTB = 0;
                _delay_ms ( 50 );
          }
        }

        // enable interupts
        sei();

        // send "start" character;
        UDR0= 's';

        // all done, wait for interupt
        for(;;) sleep_mode();
}

Result

After 24 hours I get following result:

Measured time using Arduino UNO was +5 second off compared to stratum 1 NTP server.

It looks like crystal is of by ~926 Hz (approximately 0.006 % ).

Calculated frequency of crystal is 16,000,925.93 Hz (this may change over time and also is specific for board used during test). It is good for mCPU itself but not so good to measure time. Correction can be made by altering Timer1 TOP value (OCR1A) but precision is not guaranteed over time.

If your project have access to precise time source or precise time measurement is not required then this is easiest way how to track "daytime". If precision is required and there is no way how to access better time source then dedicated RTC board is recommended.