The Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock is a battery backed real-time clock board for the Raspberry Pi A+, Raspberry Pi B+, Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Despite the Raspberry Pi is a great low cost computer with thousands of different uses it comes without a real-time clock. In order to keep updated the date and time the Raspberry Pi connects to an Internet Time Server and synchronizes them using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). If the Raspberry Pi is not connected to the net, every time you switch it off, it forgets the date and time and you have to manually set them again next time you switch your Raspberry Pi on. The Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock is a battery backed real-time clock board for the Raspberry Pi A+, Raspberry Pi B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. It keeps the date and time while the Raspberry Pi is switched off. When Raspberry Pi switched back on, it can synchronizes the date and time from the Real Time Clock. The Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock uses the DS1307 RTC real time clock and a CR2032 battery to maintain the date and time when the main system power is not available. The Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock also includes an I2C logic level converter making the Raspberry Pi's I2C bus, 5V devices tolerant. Warning: Do not connect the Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock to your Raspberry Pi when powered without the battery installed. This can damage the DS1307 RTC chip. The Raspberry PI HAT - Real Time Clock uses a CR2032 button battery (battery included). *The color may be different from the photos.
S**N
Works, but flawed in physical design and packaging needs improved.
This is a two part review:PACKAGING: Poor. Though it was in a anti-hate bag and had foam over the GPIO pins and came with a GPIO reference card, it came in a bubble envelope, which did not protect the product during shipping very well. As a result, all of the top GPIO pins were bent (see image).DESIGN: The design is very close to a true HAT and it has a groove in the PCB to allow ribbon cable access of the Pi, however the board is enough out of spec that it does not fit a HAT case, specifically the C4Labs zebra cases which fit perfectly a RPi HAT. The RTC HAT design split a layer of acrylic. The top GPIOs are long, which isn't indicated in the product description and would do well with spacers in the top to help with bent pins but eliminate bare wire exposure.EDIT UPDATE: I do small scale modelling and have a set of rather small unique handtools for working with metal detail parts. Using one of those I was able to bend the GPIO pins back to expected form very quickly and easily. I'm disappointed I needed to and think a cardboard box would be a more appropriate packaging decision in the future but the integrity of product is unchanged and as stated, works fine. The PCB is a bit harder to alter as the 5 pin header nearly touches the edge of the board so filing it down without damaging the product is too great a risk IMO. I've upgraded this to 3 stars in light of how easily I repaired the product despite the need to and the misalignment of the board over the Pi within the case.
B**C
This board does its job well. Very happy.
I bought this to use with the WeeWx weather station software on a Raspberry Pi 3 B. The Pi doesn't have a battery-backed internal clock so a reboot will cause a small amount of time-error before ntpd picks up the correct time again. And that can cause some inaccurate records to be written to the weather station database.This board fixes that problem nicely. The commands in the documentation ran without a problem and the included battery has been ticking along fine in the months since I made the purchase. Very happy!
J**N
If you want an expandable system and a real time clock this is the eway to go.
This product does exactly as it was described to do it keeps the clock accurate even without internet connection. This card is afull size card that has a lot over the mini card that plugs into part of the GPIO pins. It allows addition of other cards as it has a pass through GPIO header.
J**.
Raspberry Pi knows the time
Now I can run my Raspberry Pi free of the Internet and know the time. Very useful. Wish I had ordered this sooner.
M**S
Let your Pi know what time it is without Internet connection.
Great little addition for those of us who don't want to keep our Pins connected to the Internet all the time. Easy install, easy to use. Great addition for the money.
L**L
Real Time Clock
Works great. Easy to install. Allows me to expand my Raspberry Pi and add more to it.Software update instructions are great
V**L
Does not fit the the Rspberry Pi 3 case
I bought the real time clock for my Raspberry Pi 3 project. However it does not fit the case that I have. Looking for another case at this time.
Trustpilot
2 months ago
3 weeks ago
