Request: Provide option to specify NTP Server to use, stop hard-wiring it to pool.ntp.org

Agreed. I refuse to buy APC at work for this same reason.

S.

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Nice idea.

I have a GPS-disciplined stratum 1 NTP server on my LAN that provides NTP services to the house regardless of Internet status. I'd like to see this as well.

Regards,

Don

At one point, I pleaded to convert all of the edge closets to equipment that could run on DC from telco-style battery piles to get away from APC. I had one blow me across the room as it threw a plasma-type arc bubble out of the front panel while I was trying to turn it on, with no emergency battery disconnect to shut it down while it went "China Syndrome" other than using a screwdriver to remove the front panel to pull the battery plugs inside the melting down unit! Needless to say, there is no APC in my house.

Also, one "bit" me a few years back while handling the battery pack:

The only good thing about this is that the electrical burn self-cauterized, with no blood lost and no infection.....

You can use @dan.t's NTP client that installs as a driver to set the time on your HE from your own NTPd.

Looks like this:

I force an update via NR once a day.

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Wow, great! Will try it tonight!

Don

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Ouch!

S.

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GOOD LORD!!! You developers are AWESOME!! I have never seen this type of support for a device!! I run my own NTP server at home and this was one of my biggest gripes from any other home automation setup, there was no customization of NTP. It would check either a world clock or their own internal clock. Again, Thank you so much for paying so close attention to your community forum for feature requests!!

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Wow, this works perfectly!

I have a Stratum 1 GPS disciplined NTP serve on the local LAN. It's actually part of a lightning detection network that use nanosecond-level accuracy GPS time to measure the arrival time of detected lighting strikes all over the world and triangulate those with detected events from other stations. The local NTP is an added feature of the unit.

The unit use the PPS rising edge signal to get the nanosecond-level accuracy. This NTP code can't do that, but even with the local delays in the LAN and devices, I'm getting 35 ms difference between NTP and Hubitat time.

NTP_Server

Great job and many thanks!

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OK so I am new to this...

So I save the code as text file somewhere, then create a virtual device, and 'change it to the code' does that mean paste the code into the device somehow? I will play around with this, but it's not that clear to me (yet) I mean I could always rtfm right?

Never said leak. But I would prefer at this point in consumer energy storage to move to Li-Ion. Wait-what? Did I say that? Talk about little fires everywhere.

At work (power electronics / industrial) Schneider's Li-Ion rack based UPS is pretty impressive - with ModbusTCP built in. But it's a bit pricey for home use. What is more I need UPS at several places, for RPis, NASs, and a DVR backend, and now the Hubitat. I ordered (4) yesterday - and reading the reviews it seems like a crap shoot.

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To be clear, the great job was by @dan.t - he wrote the NTP client. I just linked to it in this thread.

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OK I rtfm'd. Virtual Device is in the Hub
Need to setup an ntp server - think I'll use the pvr backend windoze box for that.

Thanks much Hubitat denizens.

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You "import" the code. Click on Drivers Code in the Left Menu and then New Driver, top right.

You've followed a Link to a github repository for the NTP Code. You click RAW and then 1) select all the code to copy. then paste that into the HUb's driver code window, click Save. OR 2) you select the URL for the raw code, and on the Hub, click IMPORT. Paste the github URL into the Import box and click Import. Click OK, then Click Save

  1. is the better choice because the URL is saved and when you wish to do an Update, you just click Import, Import, OK, save and the latest version of the code is imported.

With the Code on the Hub, you create a virtual device, and give it a name. Then click the list of drivers adn scroll to the very end/bottom. User imported code is always at the very end. You'll see the NTP driver there and select it. Click Save Device and you'll be taken to the device Info page, where you can fill in the blanks.

Thanks much, I found the help topic that walked me through it. I have it setup.

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Hot damn tomale....

Current States
lastDiffMS : 932
lastHubDate : Mon May 25 11:16:10 EDT 2020
lastNTPdate : Mon May 25 11:16:11 EDT 2020
updateHubTimeTo : Mon May 25 11:16:11 EDT 2020
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Blitzortung? I recall there being a caution about enabling the NTP server feature (at least on the System Blue receivers), because it bogged the processor down for the detection function.....

System Red! It works flawlessly.

I was one of the first few in the US.

Blitzortung/NTP Hardware

The Leviton Smart Dimmers throw up loads of 120 Hz interference, but the periodic pulse filters take care of most of it.

The Inovelli is dead quiet! Not a glitch on the 'scope.

Best,

Don

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Glad to hear that, because I'm about to install a new Inovelli Red switch in the same room as my System Blue receiver.

Maybe I just got lucky with the filters or live in a naturally RF-quiet area, but I am shocked at how my station (2603) is almost always on the middle of the first page for most used stations in the world...and how it occasionally winds up on the top of that list.

As the offspring of several generations of ham radio operators, you can take it to the bank that there is not a single dimmer anywhere on our property for RF reasons..... :rofl:

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To be fair, I'm driving 200 total watts of incandescent decorator bulbs on the Inovelli, but 9 ceiling cans with dimmable LED 60-watt equivalent BR30 bulbs from the Leviton. The interference could be a combination of dimmer/LED drivers and the more extensive load side wiring, compared to the Inovelli. The wiring is also closer to the magnetic antennas.

I have the electric field antenna/receiver outside on a mast and the shielded magnetic ferrite antenna in a garage attic away from most of the house wiring. The antennas are a homebrew design I developed with cheap surplus high-permeability ferrite slugs.

Don

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I had some issues and tracked them down to out of sync clock on HE. I had power/internet outage for some hours, when power came back, internet was still down, so my HE powered on but it didn't sync internal clock at boot. I thought it had an internal battery but I found out the date/time was way out of sync. I went into the options because I thought HE would allow you to set the NTP server so I can point it to my internal ones (like my router or NAS, that I use as main time source for my LAN devices), and I noticed it didn't.

IMHO, this is a big design flaw: no internal battery, reliance only on internet to sync the clock. I chose HE exactly for the fact that I don'w want my automation to depend totally on the internet.

Thanks for pointing us to @dan.t NTP client. That should be integrated in HE options. And in next hw revision I'd consider a battery for the clock.

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