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RTC Real-Time Clock Usage Tutorial

Contents

RTC Real-Time Clock Usage Tutorial#

What is RTC?#

RTC (Real-Time Clock) is a clock module independent of the main processor, used to track the current date and time, retaining the set time even after a system restart (if battery-powered). It is widely used in:

Data timestamp recording (e.g., logs)
Scheduled trigger control
Low-power wake-up scenarios

K230 RTC Features#

Feature	Description
Module Support	K230 has 1 built-in RTC module
Precision	Second-level precision, supports setting to microseconds
Typical Applications	Time synchronization, date display, event scheduling
Time Format	Returns tuple format `(year, month, day, weekday, hour, minute, second, microsecond)`

Application Example: Getting and Setting System Time#

This example demonstrates how to use the RTC module to set and read the system time.

Example Code#

from machine import RTC

# ========== Initialize RTC ==========
rtc = RTC()

# ========== Get Current Time ==========
print("Current time:", rtc.datetime())

# ========== Set Current Time ==========
# Set to: February 28, 2024 (Wednesday) 23:59:00.000000
rtc.init((2024, 2, 28, 2, 23, 59, 0, 0))
print("After new time set:", rtc.datetime())

Interface Description#

Method Name	Description
`RTC()`	Create RTC instance
`datetime()`	Get the current RTC time, return a tuple
`init(datetime)`	Set the RTC time, the parameter is an 8-element tuple `(year, month, day, weekday, hour, minute, second, microsecond)`

Example Analysis#

Initialize RTC Object rtc = RTC() creates and binds a real-time clock instance.
Get Current Time rtc.datetime() returns the current set time tuple, e.g., (2024, 2, 28, 2, 23, 59, 0, 0) represents February 28, 2024, Wednesday 23:59:00.
Set Current Time rtc.init(...) can set a new time, usually used to synchronize an external time source at program startup.

Time Tuple Description#

Index	Meaning	Example Value
0	Year	2024
1	Month	2
2	Day	28
3	Weekday	2 (0=Sunday)
4	Hour	23
5	Minute	59
6	Second	0
7	Microsecond	0

Further Reading#

K230 RTC API Documentation