Real time clock ICs

[BobK]

Hi Eng 4444,

If you aren't looking for a "time stamp" of time and date then what you should try is Darrel Taylor's "Elapsed Timer" program on this site. Your program can control when to start timing and when to stop timing. Melanie's "Olympic Timer" is another example of a start and stop timer. You should look at these two programs. Both of them output the result to an LCD display. Both of these programs use a background timer using the PIC's timers. You can have your PIC do the calculations based on the inputs and then display the results.

The May 2006 issue of Nuts and Volts magazine has a nice tutorial on using PIC timers including a sample program that should help you out understanding how these timers are used. I believe this forum also has numerous posts relating to using PIC timers. I personally am just starting to use them so I wouldn't be much help in the actual design of one at this point. I just have a basic understanding of how they work.

[sayzer]

Also as BobK pointed in right direction, have the followings into consideration.

If you use RTC to calculate the elapsed time, you will have difficulties when time passes from one minute to other, or from one hour to other. You will be lost in HEX conversions to come with elapsed time.

I highly recommend using Melanie’s Olympic timer. It is already a timer just as you need, it is not an RTC.

It is quite easy to implement it into your PIC; even if you can’t use it with your PIC, have your energy calculation in your PIC by getting a signal from a separate PIC in which the Olympic timer is implemented.

[Eng4444]

Hi Eng 4444,

should try is Darrel Taylor's "Elapsed Timer" program on this site. Your program can control when to start timing and when to stop timing. Melanie's "Olympic Timer" is another example of a start and stop timer. You should look at these two programs.

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Sorry but where to find those 2 programs on this website? in which section?

[BobK]

Hi Eng4444,

From this forum's main menu select CODE EXAMPLES. There you will find the following items:

1) Olympic Timer
2) Easy & Accurate Clocks without RTC ICs
3) Elapsed Timer Demo

Of the three, #2 is the only one that I personally have tried. But you should look at all three programs and decide which one you want to use. They are all easy to understand.

BobK