setting local time on pico w

[diegorebollo]

As far i know the way to set the time on a pico w is using ntptime module, this works fine but i want to set my time zone and i don´t know how to do it. Is there any "official" way for that?

[jimmo]

I think it makes sense for ntptime to set the time in UTC. The issue is that micropython itself has no built-in notion of timezones or the current timezone, so time.localtime and time.gmtime will always return the same thing.

In micropython-lib we have a (micro) datetime package. I have not looked into it in detail, but I believe that as long as your app code knows the current timezone, then you can construct offset times. e.g. assuming the clock has been set by ntptime

my_timezone = timezone(timedelta(hours=10))
current_time = datetime.datetime.now(my_timezone)

https://github.com/micropython/micropython-lib/tree/master/python-stdlib/datetime

(You can install this via mip if you're using the latest mpremote (0.4.0) or nightly build of the pico w firmware)

[diegorebollo]

Thanks! I just tried using datetime as you suggests and everything works as expected.

[jimmo]

That's great to know! Thanks

[profhuster]

Here is a module I wrote. It defaults to Eastern Standard Time, UTC-5. It is much simpler than one of the other posted solutions.

"""
getNow.py
[email protected]
2022-12-12

Usage (assuming a network connection):
>>> from getNow import getNow
>>> print(getNow(UTC_OFFSET=-5))
(2022, 12, 12, 10, 34, 34, 0, 346)

"""

import time
import ntptime
try:
    ntptime.settime()
except:
    raise Exception("npttime.settime() failed. No network connection.")

def getNow(UTC_OFFSET=-5):
    return time.gmtime(time.time() + UTC_OFFSET * 3600)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(getNow())

[GM-Script-Writer-62850]

This was my solution:
from TIME import time
TIME.py:

#!/usr/bin/python3
import time as TIME
class time:
	tz=-4
	tz_sec=tz*3600
	tz_ms=tz_sec*1000
	tz_ns=tz_ms*1000000
	gmtime=TIME.gmtime
	def localtime(t=0):
		if not t:
			t=time.time()
		t+=time.tz_sec
		return TIME.localtime(t)
	mktime=TIME.mktime
	sleep=TIME.sleep
	sleep_ms=TIME.sleep_ms
	ticks_us=TIME.ticks_us
	ticks_cpu=TIME.ticks_cpu
	ticks_add=TIME.ticks_add
	ticks_diff=TIME.ticks_diff
	time=TIME.time
	#def time():
	#	return TIME.time()+time.tz_sec
	def time_ms():
		return round(time.time_ns()/1000000)
	time_ns=TIME.time_ns
	#def time_ns():
	#	return TIME.time_ns()+time.tz_ns
	def tzset(tz):
		time.tz=int(tz)
		time.tz_sec=tz*3600
		time.tz_ms=tz_sec*1000
		time.tz_ns=tz_ms*1000000

-4 is the default timezone, easily change in source or set on the fly via time.tzset(8) where 8 is the hours to add/subtract
time.localtime() will adjust the time given for the local time if you need a converted time stamp time.time()+time.tz_sec

[clach04]

This only works for whole hour timezones (for example won't work for India). I like the monkey-patch-like approach 👍

[peterhinch]

See this version of ntptime.

[beetlegigg]

Yet another option is to get the time from http://worldtimeapi.org which can return the time in json format for any location including the daylight saving time if its in operation.

[Zorbadil]

I don't know if this helps at all, but I simply took the tuple from rtc.datetime() and converted it to a list called tlist, changed the hour element in the list and initalised the rtc with the list using rtc.init(tlist). This works fine on the esp32. As the 2040 has an RTC I would assume it would work on it too.

RTC imported as:
from machine import RTC
rtc = RTC()
assuming wirelss connection achieved:

ntptime.settime()
tlist = list(rtc.datetime())
tlist[4] = tlist[4] + 1 # BST in the UK is UTC + 1
rtc.init(tlist)

then use rtc.datetime() as the time source.

[Zorbadil]

I wasn't aware of that, being fairly new to python and micropython. I'd tried the C syntax Variable++ for other stuff and found it didn't work, so I lazily drew the line at that and went back to what I was almost certain would work. My coding at the moment is fuctional, but not very elegant.

Thanks for the tip though. It's much nicer and I'm sure my OCD will appreciate it for future use.

[GM-Script-Writer-62850]

i'm sure i have done the same thing not being sure if it would work in a given language

sadly tlist[4]++ does not work in python

[peterhinch]

@Zorbadil Does this solution work when the UTC time is 23:xx?

[vodkawasserfall]

tlist[4] = ( tlist[4] + 1 ) % 24
@Zorbadil @peterhinch

[peterhinch]

Well, yes. Rollover into date, weekday etc.?

[Zorbadil]

No. It's in it's a very crude form of an immediate solution to a problem. Taking the time accross the date line in the change, and changing/not changine the time based on the date are a couple of the things yet to be addressed.

[peterhinch]

See my take on this.

[clach04]

Opened:

• ntptime time offset limited to whole hours peterhinch/micropython-samples#49

[peterhinch]

As stated in the docs, code in my micropython-samples repo is intended for others to adapt and build on. I don't generally respond to feature requests. If others wish to publish a fully supported, more full-featured implementation, I will happily link to it.

[projectgus]

I've started a Discussion here to talk about the overall problem and possible ways forward for it:
https://github.com/orgs/micropython/discussions/12378

[viji2ks]

'''
file name : getNow.py
altered for local time with float like in india is utc = +5.5 hours ahead of globa time
'''

import time
import ntptime
try:
ntptime.settime()
except:
raise Exception("npttime.settime() failed. No network connection.")

def getNow(UTC_OFFSET=+5.5):
local_time = int(UTC_OFFSET * 3600)
return time.gmtime(time.time() + local_time)

if name == "main":
print(getNow())

"""
how to use ?

copy whole content to file and save as getNow.py
[email protected] for any contact
16-09-2023

Usage (assuming a network connection):

from getNow import getNow
print(getNow(UTC_OFFSET=+5.5))
(2022, 12, 12, 10, 34, 34, 0, 346)
( 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 )
year, month, day, wday, hour, minute, second, ms_ = rtc.datetime()

read current datetime from RTC

Index Attribute Values
0 tm_year (for example, 1993)
1 tm_mon range [1, 12]
2 tm_mday range [1, 31]
3 tm_hour range [0, 23]
4 tm_min range [0, 59]
5 tm_sec range [0, 61]
6 tm_wday range [0, 6], Monday is 0
7 tm_yday range [1, 366]
8 tm_isdst 0, 1 or -1

"""

[firehurtnova11]

Thank you for this solution.