Sync Rio to realtime clock?

[Sam_Sharp]

Just as a couple of other solutions that maybe you hadn't thought of if it's just for a series of one-off tests:

1) Use another laptop/microcontroller to send the time to the cRIO via serial/ethernet when you power it up.

2) Record the start time/date when you power on the cRIO and add that as an offset to your data files.

They both require doing 'something' when you plug in the cRIO but at least it would save you having to interface to an RTC circuit/chip.

[bill_gilbert]

Godd suggestions all, which I will follow up.  I looked around and it appears that almost all the microcontroller demo boards omit the RTC, and I would be right back to interfacing an external I2C RTC module.

If I remember correctly, the 9381 MultiFun module we installed has a four bit LVTTL port that might be ideal for I2C or SPI, if I don't have to gin up the port and driver from the ground up. Not sure I'm ready to jump at that. Even with downloadable IP, I suspect it would involve serious amount of development time that would be hard to justify.

Being lazy, and since the 9075 backplane has an RS232 port that we aren't using, I will continue to look for solutions using that. 

The existing strategy is to set the clock at powerup, since the human being in charge will most likely have a latop running our interface LV app plugged in for a few minutes. Then the package is buttoned up for flight and will be running unattended on batteries in the cargo hold of an airliner. Eventually it would be good to be able to have someone just turn it on and let it rip if none of the researchers can be there at the right time. We'll have to see if this thing works, and maybe get serious about this issue if it moves forward.

Thanks,

BG