Wish feature... Auto sync AC time with PC time

[lvreefer]

My ACIII seems to loose roughly 20 seconds every hour. Is there a way to auto update the time on my controller? I do have the full version of Aquanotes, so I could build a macro of some sort. However I think it would be cool if I could add a line in the AC program to auto update or sync with the computer time.
Maybe it’s already possible. Does anyone have a solution for automatically syncing their AC time? I’m running the latest posted release of firmware (3.3_8C07c) and Aquanotes (Build 3.5.3) for the ACIII / PC paring.

[kenargo]

AquaNotes already syncs the time, but I don't know how often or under what conditions it is done.

In the Database, Tank Database, Config, there is a 'Configuration' checkbox labeled 'Auto Set Clock', it even allows you to offset the clock time.

[jmkarcz]

I had to stop and look, mine hasn't been set since I set it up and it's still accurate - even after DLST. I had my box checked.

[Tech Diver]

As I recall, one of the "side effects" of setting the time is that the controller erases its tank data (temp and pH only). Unless this behavior is changed, synchronizing the clock every hour or so will leave you with no data to look at.

[kenargo]

You are correct; setting the clock using the AC buttons does clear the log but when using AquaNotes the same does not appear to be true; I have never experienced missing data so it must do something different.

[Tech Diver]

AquaNotes periodically looks at the data on the controller and makes a copy of it in its own database. Even if the controller's data is erased AquaNotes can show you what was there (provided it had a chance to "imported" it). I strongtly suspect that if you directly access the controller after having adjusting the time in AquaNotes, you would see that the controller's data is gone. But please let me know if I am mistaken.

[kenargo]

Behavior may be different is you are using the 'Auto Clock Update' or the 'Set AquaController Time'; I was referring to the former, where AquaNotes is updating the time in the AquaController without user intervention.

This would be a great question for Curt!

1) Under what conditions and when does AquaNotes update the time in the AC3

2) When the clock is updated, what happens to the logs? Are they downloaded into AquaNotes so log information is not lost?

[lvreefer]

Thanks for the discussion guys. If we don’t hear back soon I’ll email Neptune support and post back the results.

[clp]

If you have the auto clock set feature on, then AquaNotes first attempts to download the datalogs, and if successful and the time is off by more than 2 minutes, the time is updated. If the clock was updated then the datalog is cleared.
If you manually update the controller's clock through AquaNotes, then the datalog is cleared.

Curt

[lvreefer]

Thank you for the clarification.