Time Server

Name: Broadcast Time Server
Location: ITP floor, student lounge over central tables, 721 Broadway, NYC.
Contact: Rob Faludi

Site: http://itp.nyu.edu/~raf275/blog/archives/2007/02/xbee_time_respo.html
Picture of project:

Description: The Broadcast Time Server provides real time in both human- and machine-readable format to all locations on the ITP floor. Every hour, the system grabs a time update from the National Institute of Standards, and adjusts itself accordingly so that its signal is always accurate.

Public Variables: Eastern Time including year, month, day, hour, minute and second
Public Methods: none
Private Variables and Methods: day of week, last NIST update, last access time
Current users: Pravin, for solar tracking lamp
Ideas for new uses: planning to add a method for sending text to speech, once the clock is speech enabled for output

Technical addressing info (PAN ID, IP, etc):
The Broadcast Time Clock uses an XBee Pro radio in 802.15.4 mode
To get the time, set your XBee to:

• PAN ID: C
• Destination Low: 1
• My Address: 0

The clock also broadcasts the time in machine readable format every ten seconds to all addresses on PAN ID CC, and in human readable format on PAN ID CCC.

Technical protocol info (requests, language, syntax, timing, etc.):
Send "GET". You'll receive a time string is in the following format: *20061003143227 where the year is 2006, month is October, day is the 3rd, hour is 14 (2 p.m.), minute is 32 and second is 27.

Example code: http://rob.faludi.com/itp/clock_decode_with_debug.pde
Restrictions on use (if any): please wait at least one second between time requests, longer if possible