RTC Pi Python Library

Python Library to use with RTC Pi Raspberry Pi real-time clock board.

The example python files can be found in /ABElectronics_Python_Libraries/RTCPi/demos

Downloading and Installing the library

Python 3

To install the library you will need the Python3 build and install packages. To install them run the following command.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-build python3-installer git

Download the ABElectronics_Python_Libraries to your Raspberry Pi:

git clone https://github.com/abelectronicsuk/ABElectronics_Python_Libraries.git

To install the python library navigate into the ABElectronics_Python_Libraries folder and run:

python3 -m build
sudo python3 -m installer dist/*.whl

Python 2

If you want to install the library on older versions of Linux using Python 2 you can run the following command.

sudo python setup.py install

If you have PIP installed you can install the library directly from GitHub with the following command replacing python2.7 with the version of Python on your computer:

sudo python2.7 -m pip install git+https://github.com/abelectronicsuk/ABElectronics_Python_Libraries.git

Using classes without installing the library

To use a specific part of our Python library in your project without installing the entire library, you can simply copy the needed class file into your project's directory. For example, to use the RTC Pi, copy the RTCPi.py file from the RTCPi directory to where your project files are located. After doing this, you can use the class in your program by adding an import statement at the beginning of your Python code. This allows you to directly utilize the class's functionality in your project.

from RTCPi import RTCPi

Required Libraries

The library requires smbus2 or python-smbus to be installed

For Python 2.7:

sudo pip install smbus2

For Python 3:

sudo pip3 install smbus2

Class:

RTC(bus)

Parameters:
bus (optional): I2C bus number (integer). If no value is set the class will try to find the i2c bus automatically using the device name.

Functions:

set_date(date) 

Set the date and time on the RTC in ISO 8601 format - YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS
Parameters: date
Returns: null

read_date() 

Returns the date from the RTC in ISO 8601 format - YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS
Returns: date

enable_output() 

Enable the square-wave output on the SQW pin.
Returns: null

disable_output()

Disable the square-wave output on the SQW pin.
Returns: null

set_frequency(frequency)

Set the frequency for the square-wave output on the SQW pin.
Parameters: frequency - options are: 1 = 1Hz, 2 = 4.096KHz, 3 = 8.192KHz, 4 = 32.768KHz
Returns: null

write_memory(address, valuearray)

Write to the memory on the ds1307. The ds1307 contains 56-Byte, battery-backed RAM with Unlimited Writes
Parameters: address - 0x08 to 0x3F
valuearray - byte array containing data to be written to memory
Returns: null

read_memory(address, length)

Read from the memory on the ds1307
Parameters: address - 0x08 to 0x3F length - up to 32 bytes.
length can not exceed the available address space.
Returns: array of bytes

Usage

To use the RTC Pi library in your code you must first import the library:

from RTCPi import RTC

Next, you must initialise the RTC object:

rtc = RTC()

Set the current time in ISO 8601 format:

rtc.set_date("2013-04-23T12:32:11")

Enable the square-wave output at 8.192KHz on the SQW pin:

rtc.set_frequency(3)
rtc.enable_output()

Read the current date and time from the RTC at 1-second intervals:

while (True):
  print rtc.read_date()
  time.sleep(1)