3b1 real time clock runs fast

[Lenny Tropiano]

In article <671 at gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM> mrk at gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM (Michael R. Kesti) writes:
|>I have found that my 3b1's real time clock gains about a minute per week, and
|>was wondering if any of you hardware types out there might be able to steer
|>me toward a trim cap or something to correct this annoying, if not monumental,
|>problem.
|>
|>Thanks.
|>

I'm not sure why the UNIX pc software clock seems to mindlessly speed up.
It happens here pretty regularly.  I've seen it elsewhere, but I've 
also seen it where it runs perfectly.  In the stock /usr/lib/crontab there
is an entry:

3 3 * * 0 /bin/su root % /etc/clockupd.wk > /dev/null

#sccs	"@(#)fndetc:clockupd.wk	1.7"
# Write to the hardware clock every Sunday morning to accomodate 
# synchronization of time between s/w and h/w clock in case day light 
# saving time is being used.  Wait a minute to prevent recursion.
# Note: backslash needed to avoid SCCS conflict

sleep 60
date `date +%m%d%H\%M`

...
Which is run Sunday at 3:03am ... it basically get's the time, and then
sets it back...  I have a feeling that this set's the clock ahead
more often than not.  The reason for sleeping, as they explain is to
prevent the time from going back one minute and running this script
over and over from the cron facility.  This is the problem with the
program that someone posted (fixrtc.c) a while back...  It could
actually put the time back in the past and will run the 
program over and over and over ...

The "date(1)" command has an option "-" that is explain in the
manual as:

date -    sets the system time from the real time clock 

This is done on bootup in the /etc/rc file.   I run periodically here
manually a "date ; date - ; date" to see what the difference in the 
hardware and software clocks are ... and to reset the software clock.  I
don't have an automatic feature for this right now, maybe someone can
suggest something more reliable.  

Maybe I can write something with my Voice Power board to call up
the Recorded Time message, do some speech recognition, and set the
time  ... I guess not, it's too hardware dependent   :-)  

-Lenny
-- 
Lenny Tropiano             ICUS Software Systems         [w] +1 (516) 582-5525
lenny at icus.islp.ny.us      Telex; 154232428 ICUS         [h] +1 (516) 968-8576
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