NIST Time Works

[NZ0I]

I tried modifying a test sketch to make it read the current time from the NIST web site every 12 seconds or so. It seems to work reliably, as shown by the serial monitor cut-and-paste below. So support for another WiFi feature has been demonstrated. Also demonstrated 2-way communications when running the TCP-to-UART sketch. The two sketches will need to be combined, and ways for the ATmega328p to communicate with the ESP8266 to control its behavior will need to be added.

So it appears that the ESP8266 can probably be made to do everything we want using a sufficiently sophisticated sketch. There are lots of details to work out, and that's where the devil lives. But I think that the ESP8266, with some work, will do whatever we need for WiFi functionality. Not bad for under $10.

WiFi connected

IP address: 

10.0.1.27

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:00:57 50 0 0 925.3 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:01:09 50 0 0 805.3 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:01:21 50 0 0 726.3 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:01:33 50 0 0 618.9 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:01:45 50 0 0 593.5 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:01:57 50 0 0 516.4 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:02:09 50 0 0 490.8 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:02:21 50 0 0 354.7 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection

connecting to time.nist.gov

Requested time: 

57912 17-06-08 20:02:33 50 0 0 267.5 UTC(NIST) * 

closing connection