arduino real time clock ds3231 with lcd display supplier

Time is a critical element of our existence that will never get old, and with technology, we can find better and more intuitive ways to measure it. In one of our past tutorials, we looked at how the DS3231 real time clock module can be used with Arduino to display time on a 16×2 LCD display. Today, we will build an upgrade to that project using an Arduino Due, the DS3231 RTC module and a 3.2″colour TFT display in place of the 16×2 LCD display used in the previous project.

At the heart of today’s project is the DS3231 real time clock module which we will use to obtain the current time, date and temperature of the environment. The DS3231 real time clock module is one of the most popular real-time clock chips among makers and DIY enthusiasts. It is a low-cost, highly accurate, I2Cbased real-time clock (RTC) with a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) and crystal integrated into it.  The module integrates a coin cell battery input which helps it retain date and time even when the main power to the device is interrupted. It maintains seconds, minutes, hours, day, date, month, and year information, automatically adjusting the date for months with fewer than 31 days, including corrections for leap year. It can be set to operate either in the 24-hour or 12-hour format with an active-low AM/PM indicator. It has been used in several projects on this website mostly, due to its accuracy, and its low power requirements which help it keep time accurately, for a longer period of time compared to other real-time clocks (RTC) modules.

Another key part/component that we will use in today’s tutorial is the Arduino Due. One of the important things, when designing electronic systems that have displays is ensuring, that there is no flicker or lag when updating information on the screen and one of the best ways to ensure that, is to use a fast enough micro-controller. Putting this into consideration, for this project, we will use the very fast Arduino Due board. The Arduino Due has one of the fastest CPU in the Arduino family. The Due runs on an 84MHz CPU compared to the 16MHz CPU speed of the Arduino UNO, and as such, it is able to update the screen without any visible flickering.

The most important update to the previous project, however, is the 3.2″color LCD display being used. The display gives us the ability to create a better, bigger and colourful user interface for our clock at a cheap price as it costs about 7$ on banggood.

The goal for this project is to build a real-time clock with a user-friendly interface capable of displaying (without lag or flickering) the current time, date, temperature including the minimum and maximum temperature recorded in a particular environment over time.

The 3.2″ TFT, like most other TFT displays, comes as a shield which can be easily mounted on the Arduino Due. This, however, makes it difficult to access the IOs of the Arduino after the display has been mounted, as it tends to cover the front face of the board. To solve this, so that the DS3231 module can be connected, male headers are used (after bending them as shown in the picture below) to connect the RTC module to the Arduino.

To easily write the code for this project, we will use two libraries: the Bodmer TFT HX8537  library for the TFT display and the Sodaq DS3231 library to easily interface with the DS3231 module. Both libraries can be downloaded via the links attached to their names above. The Bodmer library is a version of the UTFT library specially modified for the Arduino Due as this particular display is incompatible with the UTFT library.

With the libraries installed, relaunch the IDE to begin writing the code. The code for this project is quite simple but bulky, due to the functions used to create the user interface.

Next is the void setup function. We initiate communication with the RTC module and Initialize the display, setting our preferred orientation for the display and print the UI to the display.

With this done, we move to the void loop function. Under this function, we write the code to update all the parameters (after specific intervals) on the display including the min temperature, the max temperature, time and the date.

That’s it for this tutorial guys, there are several useful projects that can be built using this tutorial as a foundation. You could decide to add a buzzer to the project to create an alarm clock or make a to-do list based project, all out of this.

In this Arduino Tutorial we will learn how to use the DS3231 Real Time Clock Module. You can watch the following video or read the written tutorial below.

The first question that comes here is why we actually need a separate RTC for our Arduino Project when the Arduino itself has built-in timekeeper. Well the point is that the RTC module runs on a battery and can keep track of the time even if we reprogram the microcontroller or disconnect the main power.

The DS3231 is a low-cost, highly accurate Real Time Clock which can maintain hours, minutes and seconds, as well as, day, month and year information. Also, it has automatic compensation for leap-years and for months with fewer than 31 days.

Once we connect the module we need to program the Arduino Board to work with the Real Time Clock. However, when it comes to programing a communication between Arduino and an I2C module the code isn’t that small and easy. Luckily, there are already several libraries for the DS3231 RTC which can be found on the internet.

So once we download and install the library we can use its first demo example to initially activate the clock of the RTC module. In the setup section of the demo example code we can notice that there are three line that we need to uncomment in order to initially set the day of the week, the time and the data.

The first line is for setting the day of the week, the second line is for setting the time in hours, minutes and seconds, and the third line is for setting the date in days, months and years.

Now even if we disconnect the Arduino power and then reconnect it and run the Serial Monitor again we can notice that the time keeps going without being reset.

So now we have our Real Time Clock up and running and we can use in any Arduino Project. As a second example I connected an LCD to the Arduino and printed the time and the date on it.

Real time clock module with the DS3231 chip. This module ensures that the Arduino knows the exact time at all times. By connecting the Arduino to the ´qw´ pin, it is possible to generate an interrupt every second with which sensor values or a display can be addressed.

This module uses the DS3231, which is the big brother of DS1307. This chip has an integrated timing crystal and temperature sensor, which provides more stability. With this module you have just that little extra precision and reliability that the predecessor is missing. The chip is fully compatible with the predecessor and therefore requires no modification in the source code.

In this project, I will discuss about DS3231 RTC Module, important components and features of this module and finally show you how to Interface a DS3231 Real Time Clock (RTC) Module with Arduino.

Real Time Clock or RTC is a timekeeping device in the form of an Integrated Circuit or IC. RTC is an integral component of many time critical applications and devices like Servers, GPS, Data Loggers etc.

With 8051, I have used DS1307 RTC Module in a project called RFID BASED CAR PARKING SYSTEM. Coming to Arduino, I have used the same DS1307 RTC in ARDUINO ALARM CLOCK and ARDUINO REAL TIME CLOCK TUTORIAL USING DS1307. If you want a quick reference, you can go through the provided links.

Also, in the Arduino Real Time Clock Tutorial using DS1307 project, I have talked about the need for an RTC. So, I won’t go into that aspect again. I will directly jump into the IC of interest: the DS3231 RTC IC.

The DS3231 is an RTC IC developed by Maxim Integrated. It is a low cost, extremely accurate RTC IC with communication over I2C Interface. An interesting feature of DS3231 RTC IC is that it has integrated crystal oscillator and temperature sensor and hence you don’t have to connect an external crystal.

Using DS3231 IC as the main component, several manufacturers developed DS3231 RTC Modules with all the necessary components. Almost all the modules available today consists of an additional IC, 24C32N (or something similar). This secondary IC is an EEPROM IC of 32Kb size.

Since RTC is all about maintaining time irrespective of the power supply, you can connect a 3V CR2032 Lithium Battery to the RTC IC to keep the clock ticking. In the DS3231 Module, there is a provision for you to connect a battery using the battery holder provided on the back.

As mentioned earlier, DS3231 IC and 24C32 EEPROM IC are the main components on a typical DS3231 RTC Module board. Apart from that, there are a few other components like Power ON LED, few resistors, capacitors, a battery holder and pins for connecting with microcontroller.

First, let me begin the connections between Arduino and DS3231. Since the interface between them is I2C, identify the I2C Pins on your Arduino Board (if you are using any other board than UNO).

In Arduino UNO, A4 and A5 are SDA and SCL pins. Connect these pins with corresponding SDA and SCL pins of the DS3231 Module. Also, connect the VCC and GND of the RTC Module to +5V and GND of Arduino.

I have used a special library called “RTClib” from Adafruit (which is a forked version of JeeLab’s RTC Library). Download the library from this link and place the extracted folder in the libraries directory of Arduino.

The working of the Arduino DS3231 RTC Module Interface is very easy. Arduino first initializes the RTC Module with its slave address (0x68 for DS3231 IC).

Arduino then updates the internal registers of the RTC IC with the date and time at which the code is compiled and uploaded to Arduino. The uploaded date and time can be viewed on the LCD display.

Z:\Arduino\Sketch Kühlschrank\Set_DS3231\RTCTFT160\RTCTFT160.ino:124:7: note: ‘void printText(char*, uint16_t, int, int, int)’ previously defined here

The DS3231 AT24C32 Real Time Clock Module adds timestamp and event scheduling information to your microcontroller projects. This module generates seconds, minutes, hours, day, date, month and year, and provides timekeeping until 2100 while compensating for leap years.

This device was added to Parallax inventory as a quick demonstration to the sample code for the Propeller 2 SPIN/PASM SPI Driver used in the Propeller 2 Live Forum and P2 Quick Byte “SPI Driver Object”. It is compatible with all Parallax microcontrollers, to provide simple visual feedback for numbers and data.

We were already playing around with LED MATRIX for time and temperature display with a Wi-Fi connection on an ESP8266, but we didn’t create yet a project with an RTC (Real Time Clock) module and an 1.8 inch TFT display; here we go. We will use again a ready to go code, but we will change it a bit for better looking. SO, we will learn How-To code rectangles and lines for a TFT screen, very easy… It is GOOD to try out different components to get used with coding, Maker, MakerED… Especially when we use displays, which ever ones, as one sees directly the results; sensation of direct success!!

The tutorial in the video shows an Arduino UNO, but we will use in this tutorial an Arduino NANO as it is less expensive (+/- 1/3 of the price of an Arduino UNO) and also it takes less place when integrating the components into a box.

As you can see it is a very cheap project, ONLY 22,98€and easy to realize! ALL what YOU need is a bit time, passion and here we GO!