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I am setting up my sBitx V3 for the 1st time. ?New sBitx. ?New sBitx user. ?Experienced Linux user.
My
#1 problem is time. ?I opened the raspi-config app and then the
localization tab. ?After much googling of time zones, I selected Beulah N
Dakota (very strange). ?It is in the Central TZ. ?Unfortunately, the
time displayed in the header bar of the desktop is -1 hr off from the
actual central time.
As the list
of time zones in the raspi-config app was very very strange and limited,
I set the time zone using the “timedatectl” cmd line method.
?America/Chicago for me. ?This was picked up by raspi-config after a
reboot. ?However, the displayed desktop time is still wrong.
Next, go to terminal. ?Run the timedatectl command, resulting in… ? ?correct local and zulu time shown ? ?RTC time - n/a ? ?correct TZ displayed ? ?system clock sync - no ? ?NTP - inactive ? ?RTC in local TZ - no
Next, search the repository for help. ? In message #102077 I found a similar problem and followed the link
Side note, there is an error in the document linked just above, in the section titled ..."Checking if the RTC module is properly installed and working:" pi@sbitx:~$ cd ~/sbitx pi@sbitx:~$ cd ./sbitx
should actually be
pi@sbitx:~$ cd ~/sbitx pi@sbitx:~$ ./sbitx???????? (changed)
After rebooting and executing the ./sbitx program, I do see the “Reading rtc…done!” message as described.
Unfortunately, the time displayed in the header of the desktop is STILL -1 hr incorrect.
Rerunning the timedatectl cmd now yields the following… ? ?correct local and zulu time shown ? ?RTC time - n/a ? ?correct TZ displayed ? ?system clock sync - YES ? (this value changed) ? ?NTP - inactive ? ?RTC in local TZ - no
Please
help.? The time shown on the desktop is the only way to verify it is
correct prior to running certain digital modes.? TIA.
Roy KF5CDB
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On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 08:48 PM, rdg wrote:
My #1 problem is time. ?I opened the raspi-config app and then the localization tab. ?After much googling of time zones, I selected Beulah N Dakota (very strange). ?It is in the Central TZ. ?Unfortunately, the time displayed in the header bar of the desktop is -1 hr off from the actual central time.
The time shown in the header bar of the sbitx text-based app is supposed to be UTC/Zulu time.
?
The manual says:
?
To maintain proper time, connect the sBitx to the Internet through Wifi or Ethernet and reboot and run the sBitx. The correct UTC time should automatically display at the top.
So, when you say it shows local minus one hour, I thought that was really odd.
I found something perhaps of interest if you want a work-around, it suggests you can enter the "\utc" command in the TEXT box and set the time there.
That command operates on my sbitx, but I didn't actually use it to mess with the time.
?
If you don't have a keyboard/mouse hooked up you should be able to use the KBD button to turn on the keyboard, then CMD to enter a command, then UTC to get that message to appear and then if you type in the full UTC command similar to the example it gives, it should change your time.
This isn't a great workaround (and I don't even know if it works) but it could be a workaround for your #1 problem, at least till a better solution is found.
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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Dave —
I’ll take the work around for now, thanks for the suggestion. ?Hoping for a root cause, of course. Also not sure how I didn’t click to that except you included. ?I thought I read that info thoroughly, but oops.
R
On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 22:39, Dave, N1AI via groups.io < n1ai@...> wrote: On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 08:48 PM, rdg wrote:
My #1 problem is time. I opened the raspi-config app and then the localization tab. After much googling of time zones, I selected Beulah N Dakota (very strange). It is in the Central TZ. Unfortunately, the time displayed in the header bar of the desktop is -1 hr off from the actual central time.
The time shown in the header bar of the sbitx text-based app is supposed to be UTC/Zulu time.
The manual says:
To maintain proper time, connect the sBitx to the Internet through Wifi or Ethernet and reboot and run the sBitx. The correct UTC time should automatically display at the top.
So, when you say it shows local minus one hour, I thought that was really odd.
I found something perhaps of interest if you want a work-around, it suggests you can enter the "\utc" command in the TEXT box and set the time there.
That command operates on my sbitx, but I didn't actually use it to mess with the time.
If you don't have a keyboard/mouse hooked up you should be able to use the KBD button to turn on the keyboard, then CMD to enter a command, then UTC to get that message to appear and then if you type in the full UTC command similar to the example it gives, it should change your time.
This isn't a great workaround (and I don't even know if it works) but it could be a workaround for your #1 problem, at least till a better solution is found.
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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Further information and clarification regarding incorrect time display in V3
The system clock and RTC clock are correct. The desktop toolbar time shown in the upper right of the display screen is -1 hr incorrect. The sBitx header line correctly displays “call” “grid” “date” and “utc”.
So the remaining question is how to get the desktop time to display either my TZ or UTC.
Thanks.
On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 22:39, Dave, N1AI via groups.io < n1ai@...> wrote: On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 08:48 PM, rdg wrote:
My #1 problem is time. I opened the raspi-config app and then the localization tab. After much googling of time zones, I selected Beulah N Dakota (very strange). It is in the Central TZ. Unfortunately, the time displayed in the header bar of the desktop is -1 hr off from the actual central time.
The time shown in the header bar of the sbitx text-based app is supposed to be UTC/Zulu time.
The manual says:
To maintain proper time, connect the sBitx to the Internet through Wifi or Ethernet and reboot and run the sBitx. The correct UTC time should automatically display at the top.
So, when you say it shows local minus one hour, I thought that was really odd.
I found something perhaps of interest if you want a work-around, it suggests you can enter the "\utc" command in the TEXT box and set the time there.
That command operates on my sbitx, but I didn't actually use it to mess with the time.
If you don't have a keyboard/mouse hooked up you should be able to use the KBD button to turn on the keyboard, then CMD to enter a command, then UTC to get that message to appear and then if you type in the full UTC command similar to the example it gives, it should change your time.
This isn't a great workaround (and I don't even know if it works) but it could be a workaround for your #1 problem, at least till a better solution is found.
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
|
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Further information and clarification regarding incorrect time display in V3
The system clock and RTC clock are correct. The desktop toolbar time shown in the upper right of the display screen is -1 hr incorrect. The sBitx header line correctly displays “call” “grid” “date” and “utc”.
So the remaining question is how to get the desktop time to display either my TZ or UTC.
Thanks. R
On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 22:39, Dave, N1AI via < n1ai@...> wrote: On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 08:48 PM, rdg wrote:
My #1 problem is time. I opened the raspi-config app and then the localization tab. After much googling of time zones, I selected Beulah N Dakota (very strange). It is in the Central TZ. Unfortunately, the time displayed in the header bar of the desktop is -1 hr off from the actual central time.
The time shown in the header bar of the sbitx text-based app is supposed to be UTC/Zulu time.
The manual says:
To maintain proper time, connect the sBitx to the Internet through Wifi or Ethernet and reboot and run the sBitx. The correct UTC time should automatically display at the top.
So, when you say it shows local minus one hour, I thought that was really odd.
I found something perhaps of interest if you want a work-around, it suggests you can enter the "\utc" command in the TEXT box and set the time there.
That command operates on my sbitx, but I didn't actually use it to mess with the time.
If you don't have a keyboard/mouse hooked up you should be able to use the KBD button to turn on the keyboard, then CMD to enter a command, then UTC to get that message to appear and then if you type in the full UTC command similar to the example it gives, it should change your time.
This isn't a great workaround (and I don't even know if it works) but it could be a workaround for your #1 problem, at least till a better solution is found.
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
|
On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 02:47 AM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
Have?you seen? ?
Yes, he says he has in the first post of this thread.
It wouldn't hurt to go through it again, though.
?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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OK, lets try one more time to explain this problem.?? See included screenshot below.?
- terminal shows current time as 12:57:09 CST -- correct when queried
- terminal shows UTC time as 18:57:09 UTC? -- correct when queried
- sBitx shows time as 18:58:30Z -- correct by the time window resized & scrn shot
- desktop manager shows time as 11:58:30 --? NOT central time, NOT UTC time.
- delta btwn sBitx and desktop is 7 hrs, but my TZ is -6 hrs
And NOTE this is only the first of 5 problems that I am having with the system as installed and tested by HF Signals.
On Thursday, December 21st, 2023 at 08:54, Dave, N1AI via groups.io <n1ai@...> wrote:
On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 02:47 AM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
Have?you seen? ?
Yes, he says he has in the first post of this thread.
It wouldn't hurt to go through it again, though.
?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 02:19 PM, rdg wrote:
- desktop manager shows time as 11:58:30 --? NOT central time, NOT UTC time.
- delta btwn sBitx and desktop is 7 hrs, but my TZ is -6 hrs
It's pretty hard to debug this remotely.? One thing that might help aid troubleshooting:
NTP does not regconize time zones, instead it manages all time informations based on?.
In general the handling of time zones is a job of a computer's operating system. Under Windows, Linux and FreeBSD the system clock is based on UTC, the configured local time zone only is applied when a time information has to be displayed somewhere.
Example: If you configure Windows to use your local time zone, the system clock continues with using UTC time. Only when the date/time is shown (e.g. in a clock application), it will be transformed from UTC into the locally configured timezone.
Ref:?
So, IMO what you are fighting is a Raspberry Pi OS issue rather than a sbitx application issue.
I've read some of the sbitx code and what I see is that internally it works in Greenwich Mean Time, not your local time.?
However it is odd that your screen shot says "System clock synchronized: no".? Again, this is a Pi OS thing not a sbitx app thing.? As Farhan's link says:
When it reboots, reopen the Terminal and type ntpstat again, this time it should synchronize? with the network time. It may take a few seconds for the time sync to work, but it usually syncs within a minute. You may have to repeat the command a few times, see the last time of the screen shot below:
This won't fix your issue (because ntp only works in UTC/GMT and not the local time zone), but still.
Also your screen dump says "RTC time: n/a" when it should be the same as UTC time.
As Farhan's link says:
Technical Tip: The sBitx checks to see if the operating system time is synced with the UTC by runnning the ntpstat utility, if it reports that the Raspberry Pi time is synchronized to the UTC, then it copies the current time and date over to the Real Time Clock module.
Each time the sBitx starts, it looks to see if the time is synced and updates the RTC. The code for this in a function called rtc_sync() .
And this happens in the sbitx application as he says in the rtc_sync() function.
Again, this won't fix your issue (because ntp only works in UTC/GMT and not the local time zone), but still it suggests you are not reliably getting time from your network.
?
And NOTE this is only the first of 5 problems that I am having with the system as installed and tested by HF Signals.
But not tested in your network.? Note also the Pi might be learning the time zone / offset via the DHCP network protocol, different parts of the OS may be using info learned from different places.? There are a lot of things not under their control.? It's not likely to be their fault that the Pi's desktop clock's time is off by one hour.? Their app is working in UTC and is working correctly.
?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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RDG,
See the manual on the sBitx.net site that Ashhar Farhan has set up.? Here is the page that explains how to set time on the sBitx:
The key on this page is that the Raspberry Pi OS time may not be the same as the sBitx and RTC time.
73
Evan
AC9TU
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Time Problem SOLVED.
Someone modified the ~/.profile file on the image sent to me with the sBitx.
The last line of the ~/.profile contained the following... ???? TZ=America/Phoenix; Export TZ
Once this line was commented out, all of the times displayed on terminal, desktop, and sBitx are in agreement.
I want to thank everyone the contributed their thoughts and suggestions on this problem. You have to wonder how this happened.
On Thursday, December 21st, 2023 at 15:22, Evan Hand via groups.io <elhandjr@...> wrote:
RDG,
See the manual on the sBitx.net site that Ashhar Farhan has set up.? Here is the page that explains how to set time on the sBitx:
The key on this page is that the Raspberry Pi OS time may not be the same as the sBitx and RTC time.
73
Evan
AC9TU
|
On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 04:59 PM, rdg wrote:
Once this line was commented out, all of the times displayed on terminal, desktop, and sBitx are in agreement.
Yes, this is under the "different parts of the OS may be using info learned from different places" category from my earlier post.
Glad it works now!
It motivated me to do a deeper dive on how time is managed on the sbitx, which led me to the great article by N8ME:??/g/BITX20/files/SBITX-RTC-GPS.pdf
There's a lot to learn from that article, but I imagine you should move on to problems 2-5 first.
?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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Dave
The #2 problem was that my call sign and grid square would not persist. ?After stopping sbitx and restarting that app, my entries were gone.?
This happened about 4 times. ?Then suddenly they persisted with no changes on my part.?
It remains a mystery to me. ?
On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 16:15, Dave, N1AI via groups.io < n1ai@...> wrote: On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 04:59 PM, rdg wrote:
Once this line was commented out, all of the times displayed on terminal, desktop, and sBitx are in agreement.
Yes, this is under the "different parts of the OS may be using info learned from different places" category from my earlier post.
Glad it works now!
It motivated me to do a deeper dive on how time is managed on the sbitx, which led me to the great article by N8ME:??/g/BITX20/files/SBITX-RTC-GPS.pdf
There's a lot to learn from that article, but I imagine you should move on to problems 2-5 first.
?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
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Hi,?
?
I'm new to the group, and got my V3 just last week.. and now time to fiddle..?
First I made a copy of the internal SD card, then saw the issue with the time.. until I found this solution...?
Many thanks to rdg!
?
73,
?
Dick
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My recently purchased sBitx V3 is not receiving signals on any band....just hearing the noise floor.? On 20 and 17 m., I am hearing something like a heterodyne across those bands.? HF Signals sent me another V3 image file to burn to a micro
SD card but did not solve the problem.? Any suggestions from there?
Thanks,
Don
W5MMJ
Get
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Hi,?
?
I'm new to the group, and got my V3 just last week.. and now time to fiddle..?
First I made a copy of the internal SD card, then saw the issue with the time.. until I found this solution...?
Many thanks to rdg!
?
73,
?
Dick
|
On Wed, Jul 24, 2024 at 03:23 PM, Don Judd wrote:
My recently purchased sBitx V3 is not receiving signals on any band....just hearing the noise floor.? On 20 and 17 m., I am hearing something like a heterodyne across those bands.? HF Signals sent me another V3 image file to burn to a micro SD card but did not solve the problem.? Any suggestions from there?
What power supply are you using Don?
In my use, I have v2, which I supply with 12.5V and have a current limit of 6.3A. Yours is v3, then you can use a higher voltage up to 13.8V. If I had it, I would also use it with current limitation.
A possible error in the audio final amplifier is that the IC power supply of the final stage is fed through a 2R2 resistor. It's worth checking, it might be broken or soldered wrong. Before you watch this, you can also try it with headphones, in which case the audio output stage is not in use.
These are just tips, you have to find and fix the error if you don't want to send it back to the manufacturer.
--
Gyula HA3HZ
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Thanks for the comments about the power supply and possible other audio related problem.? I am also consulting with HF Signals.? They asked me for some videos of what is going on.? They also suggested consulting the forum.? ?The V3 software
seems to be functional.? Is it possible the RPi 4 board is the culprit?
Don
W5MMJ
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Wed, Jul 24, 2024 at 03:23 PM, Don Judd wrote:
My recently purchased sBitx V3 is not receiving signals on any band....just hearing the noise floor.? On 20 and 17 m., I am hearing something like a heterodyne across those bands.? HF Signals sent me another V3 image file to burn to a micro SD card
but did not solve the problem.? Any suggestions from there?
What power supply are you using Don?
In my use, I have v2, which I supply with 12.5V and have a current limit of 6.3A. Yours is v3, then you can use a higher voltage up to 13.8V. If I had it, I would also use it with current limitation.
A possible error in the audio final amplifier is that the IC power supply of the final stage is fed through a 2R2 resistor. It's worth checking, it might be broken or soldered wrong. Before you watch this, you can also try it with headphones, in which case
the audio output stage is not in use.
These are just tips, you have to find and fix the error if you don't want to send it back to the manufacturer.
--
Gyula HA3HZ
|
I had this same problem with computer time not in line with local time.
UTC time was correct but local time was 2 to 3 hours off. I located the .profile file
and at first changed the “Phoenix” location to my EST of “New York”.
This gave me UTC time on the sBitx app and UTC on my computer.
?I then commented out the entire line and rebooted.
The UTC stayed the same but now I have my local time on the computer which is?
what I was desiring to accomplish.?
Thank you for the good information.?
Daryl, N4NVS
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On Thu, Sep 19, 2024 at 12:06 PM, Daryl wrote:
I had this same problem with computer time not in line with local time.
UTC time was correct but local time was 2 to 3 hours off. I located the .profile file
and at first changed the “Phoenix” location to my EST of “New York”.
This gave me UTC time on the sBitx app and UTC on my computer.
?I then commented out the entire line and rebooted.
The UTC stayed the same but now I have my local time on the computer which is?
what I was desiring to accomplish.?
Thank you for the good information.?
Daryl, N4NVS
?
sBitx Toolbox has a script to change this automatically as well.? See ?
?
?
?
-JJ
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Dave, N1AI
HA3HZ
Daryl