When it comes to measuring time on microcontrollers, there’s plenty of ways to go about things. For most quick and dirty purposes, such as debounce delays or other wait states, merely counting away a few cycles of the main clock will serve the purpose. Accurate to the tens of milliseconds, they get the average utility jobs done without too much fuss.
However, many projects are far more exacting in their requirements. When you’re building a clock, or a datalogger, or anything that relies on a stable sense of passing time for more than a few minutes, you’ll want a Real Time Clock. So called due to their nature of dealing with real time, as we humans tend to conceive it, these devices take it upon themselves to provide timekeeping services with a high degree of accuracy. We’ve compiled a guide to common parts and their potential applications so you can get things right the first time, every time.
Requirements Are Key
The RTC you choose for a given project will come down to a variety of factors. Battery-powered projects will benefit from a low power draw, while scientific measurement devices may need the ultimate in accuracy over time. Interfaces are important too, as implementing an RTC in an already-existing design may necessitate part choice due to the availability of I2C or SPI. Budget is not commonly a problem for the home experimenter in this space, as parts are cheap, however a production run in the thousands will make huge savings in quantity from a cheaper part. As always, having a clear idea of the project requirements is key to choosing the right component for the job.
I Just Need To Know What Time It Is!
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