accessory:add-on_boards:rtc_shield

PCF8563 RTC Module With Odroid C2/C4/HC4

201604071404256735.jpg

Preparations

  • Odroid-C2/C4/HC4/N2/N2L
  • uSD-Card ⇒ over 8GB or eMMC Module
  • PCF8563 RTC Module (ODROID-N2 and N2+ have the RTC chip on the board by default)
  • Requirement Linux kernel version
    • Odroid-C2
      • 3.14.65-66 or higher
    • Odroid-C4
      • 4.9.113 or higher
    • Odroid-N2/N2L
      • 4.9.113 or higher

Configuration

Ubuntu

Insert the RTC Shield on your Odroid as the above pictures and turn on the system.

Then enable the RTC Shield driver in the Device Tree file and make sure the I2C driver loaded.

Odroid-C2

target
sudo apt install device-tree-compiler
sudo fdtput -t s /media/boot/meson64_odroidc2.dtb /i2c@c1108500/pcf8563@51 status "okay"
echo "aml_i2c"|sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo "rtc_pcf8563"|sudo tee -a /etc/modules
sudo reboot

Odroid-C4/HC4

Check your ODROID-C4/HC4 has the kernel which supports the DTB Overlay feature.
The kernel version is above 4.9.230 will be able to support it.
If you want to know more about DTBO, please visit ☞ the wiki

1. Using DTB Overlay
Add “pcf8563” at overlays list in your /media/boot/config.ini file like below.
Then do system rebooting.

; Device Tree Overlay
overlay_resize=16384
overlay_profile=
overlays="pcf8563"
target
sudo reboot

2. Using DTB(Not Overlay)

target
sudo apt install device-tree-compiler
sudo fdtput -t s /media/boot/meson64_odroidc4.dtb /soc/cbus@ffd00000/i2c@1d000 status "okay"
sudo fdtput -t s /media/boot/meson64_odroidc4.dtb /soc/cbus@ffd00000/i2c@1d000/rtc@51 status "okay"
sudo reboot

Odroid-N2/N2L

Check your ODROID-N2/N2L has the kernel which supports the DTB Overlay feature.
The kernel version is above 4.9.230 will be able to support it.
If you want to know more about DTBO, please visit ☞ the wiki

1. Using DTB Overlay
Add “pcf8563” at overlays list in your /media/boot/config.ini file like below.
Then do system rebooting.

; Device Tree Overlay
overlay_resize=16384
overlay_profile=
overlays="pcf8563"
target
sudo reboot

Check the I2C & RTC module status after reboot, like the following contents.

Odroid-C2

target
odroid@odroid64:~$ cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
 
aml_i2c
rtc_pcf8563
odroid@odroid64:~$ ls /dev/rtc*                                                  
/dev/rtc  /dev/rtc0
odroid@odroid64:~$ lsmod
.....
rtc_pcf8563             3996  0
aml_i2c                16898  0
.....

Odroid-C4/HC4

1. Using DTB Overlay

target
root@odroid:~# ls -l /dev/rtc*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4 Apr  2  2020 /dev/rtc -> rtc0
crw------- 1 root root 251, 0 Apr  2  2020 /dev/rtc0
root@odroid:~# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep PCF8563
CONFIG_RTC_DRV_PCF8563=y
root@odroid:~# lsmod
.....
i2c_meson_master       20480  0
.....
root@odroid:~#

/dev/rtc0 would be your RTC shield and you can't see the pcf8563 kernel module by “lsmod command” because the kernel has a built-in PCF8563 device driver.
And to use rtc_pcf8563, must have loaded i2c module like above i2c_meson_master for interfacing between pcf8563 and S905X3. It has dependencies on I2C communication.

2. Using DTB(Not Overlay)

target
odroid@odroid:~$ ls /dev/rtc*                                                  
/dev/rtc  /dev/rtc0  /dev/rtc1
odroid@odroid:~$ lsmod
.....
rtc_pcf8563             3996  0
i2c_meson_master       20480  0
.....

/dev/rtc1 would be your RTC shield.

Odroid-N2/N2L

1. Using DTB Overlay

target
root@odroid:~# ls -l /dev/rtc*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4 Apr  2  2020 /dev/rtc -> rtc0
crw------- 1 root root 251, 0 Apr  2  2020 /dev/rtc0
root@odroid:~# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep PCF8563
CONFIG_RTC_DRV_PCF8563=y
root@odroid:~# lsmod
.....
i2c_meson_master       20480  0
.....
root@odroid:~#

/dev/rtc0 would be your RTC shield and you can't see the pcf8563 kernel module by “lsmod command” because the kernel has a built-in PCF8563 device driver.
And to use rtc_pcf8563, must have loaded i2c module like above i2c_meson_master for interfacing between pcf8563 and S922. It has dependencies on I2C communication.

  • If you want to choose a specific rtc file when using hwclock command, use -f option.
    • hwclock -s -f /dev/rtc1

Next, if you want to update system Time/Calendar from the Hardware RTC shield at boot time,

Method one is edit /etc/rc.local file.
Add the following line into the end of /etc/rc.local file.

target
hwclock -s

Then the contents will be like the following. 

if [ -f /aafirstboot ]; then /aafirstboot start ; fi
 
hwclock -s
 
exit 0

Make sure to put that line into above the “exit 0” line. Then reboot your Odroid to take effect.

target
reboot

If everything worked correctly, the RTC shield on your Odroid should be initialized on boot and the stored current date and time will be loaded into Linux.
If it doesn't, check if the “rtc-pcf8563” line exists in the outputs of “lsmod” command if your kernel has built with a module.

Method two has introduced by @e-pirate in our forum Go see. Thank you for calling attention to us.

  • Create a file “50-rtc.rules” which is located at /etc/udev/rules.d/ with below line.
KERNEL=="rtc0", TAG+="systemd"
 
  • Create a file “hwrtc.service” which located at /lib/systemd/system/ with below lines.
[Unit]
Description=Synchronise System clock to hardware RTC
DefaultDependencies=no
Wants=dev-rtc0.device
After=dev-rtc0.device
Before=systemd-journald.service time-sync.target sysinit.target shutdown.target
Conflicts=shutdown.target
 
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/sbin/hwclock --hctosys --rtc=/dev/rtc0 -v --utc --noadjfile
RestrictRealtime=yes
 
[Install]
WantedBy=sysinit.target
 
  • And then apply by this command “# sudo systemctl enable hwrtc” and reboot
target
    root@odroid:~# systemctl enable hwrtc
    root@odroid:~# reboot
    .
    .
    root@odroid:~# systemctl status hwrtc
     ● hwrtc.service - Synchronise System clock to hardware RTC
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/hwrtc.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Fri 2021-01-15 11:23:08 KST; 12min ago
     Main PID: 2116 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Tasks: 0 (limit: 3839)
     Memory: 0B
     CGroup: /system.slice/hwrtc.service
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: ioctl(4, RTC_UIE_ON, 0): Invalid argument
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Waiting in loop for time from /dev/rtc0 to change
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: ...got clock tick
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Time read from Hardware Clock: 2021/01/15 02:23:08
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Hw clock time : 2021/01/15 02:23:08 = 1610677388 seconds since 1969
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Time since last adjustment is 1610677388 seconds
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Calculated Hardware Clock drift is 0.000000 seconds
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Calling settimeofday(NULL, 0) to lock the warp_clock function.
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Calling settimeofday(NULL, -540) to set the kernel timezone.
     Jan 15 11:23:08 odroid hwclock[2116]: Calling settimeofday(1610677388.000000, NULL) to set the System time.
 



You can check the current time on the RTC shield by the following command.

target
sudo hwclock -r

If this is the first time you have run the RTC shield on your Odroid, it will show like “APR 20th 2016”, the default DateTime set into.

If your Odroid can connect to the internet, the date and the time should be set automatically using the internet. Otherwise, you can set them manually by the following command.

target
sudo date -s "20 APR 2016 18:00:00"

You can check the current OS DateTime with a command; “date”.

To save the DateTime from Linux OS to the RTC shield, use the following command.

target
sudo hwclock -w

Read the DateTime on the RTC shield by the following command to check if it is saved correctly.

target
sudo hwclock -r
  • Kernel update can break up the RTC functionality.
    • To avoid this problem, you can use this workaround that will patch the dtb all the time the kernel updates.

Odroid-C2

target
sudo -s
echo '#!/bin/sh' > /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc
echo 'fdtput -t s /media/boot/meson64_odroidc2.dtb /i2c@c1108500/pcf8563@51 status "okay"' >> /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc
chmod +x /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc

Odroid-C4

target
sudo -s
echo '#!/bin/sh' > /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc
echo 'fdtput -t s /media/boot/meson64_odroidc4.dtb /soc/cbus@ffd00000/i2c@1d000/rtc@51 status "okay"' >> /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc
chmod +x /etc/kernel/postinst.d/rtc

Disable RTC on Android

  • On Android, RTC works by default. Please see this guide if you want to use I2C for other purposes.
  • This guide works on Android 5.1.1 V2.8 or higher(ODROID-C2)/ Android Pie 64bit (202007xx) or higher(ODROID-C4).

THIS GUIDE IS FOR DISABLING THE RTC FUNCTIONALITY.

ODROID-C2

  1. Open File Manager app.
  2. Edit /storage/internal/boot.ini like the below. Check near the end of the file. If you use Android v4.0 or later, edit /internal/boot.ini instead.
    1. Before edit.
      1. movi read dtb 0 ${dtbaddr}
# load kernel from vfat or boot partition.
movi read boot 0 ${loadaddr}
#fatload mmc 0:1 ${loadaddr} Image_android
booti ${loadaddr} - ${dtbaddr}
    2. After edit.
      1. movi read dtb 0 ${dtbaddr}
# load kernel from vfat or boot partition.
#movi read boot 0 ${loadaddr}
fatload mmc 0:1 ${loadaddr} Image_android
booti ${loadaddr} - ${dtbaddr}
  3. Load a kernel image from the vfat partition which not include rtc module.

If you see a message like “'fatload' command not found”, remove /storage/internal/boot.ini (or /internal/boot.ini) file and reboot system then try again.

ODROID-C4

  1. Open Odroid-Settings app.
  2. Select a DTBO Overlay menu.
  3. Select the DTB Overlay List and edit it. If you want to remove rtc module, Please remove the 'pcf8563'.
i2c0 i2c1 spi0 uart0 pcf8563

Don't use NTP service

  • If your network firewall is blocking the NTP service or has no internet connection, you must stop the NTP service. Once the NTP failed, the RTC value could be reset.
  • This guide was made by phaseshifter from our forum. Thanks.

There're two ways to stop NTP daemon.

target
sudo /etc/init.d/ntp stop
 
# or,
 
sudo service ntp stop

To prevent it from starting at boot time, enter the following command.

target
sudo update-rc.d -f ntp remove

Estimated life cycle of the battery

We did cleanly install the Android 5.1 V3.3 image and measured the power consumption with Odroid-C2.

  • When C2 turns on, it consumes less than 1uA.
  • When C2 turns off, it consumes around 15uA.

According to the CR2032 Panasonic datasheet, its nominal capacity is 225mAh.

So its backup time could be around 15000 hours (~ two years). If on/off ratio is 1:1, it can be 3~4 years.

  • accessory/add-on_boards/rtc_shield.txt
  • Last modified: 2023/09/20 16:36
  • by justin