Operating instructions - advanced

Advice on out-of the box setup, floating advice and any other hints
Tony
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Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:05 pm

Operating instructions - advanced

Post by Tony »

An Android app is in development which will allow you to control the clock with a much simpler interface but for now you will need to send serial data commands directly.
Pair your device with the power controller's Bluetooth interface which will be indentified as 'Time flies'. The code is '1234'.
Configure your terminal to transmit at 9600bps, 8n1 if requested but most terminals will default to these settings.
You can use either an Android phone or a PC Bluetooth dongle. It won't work with an iphone.

Now as a test, enter the following into your terminal window and press 'send'

0x13,$REL1,2,3,4,5,6,7***

You should see the yellow LED on the power comtroller box flash, followed by the green LED flickering. The centre blue LED on the base unit will then flash to confirm it was a valid command.

This will display '12 34' for 7 seconds ( or 12 34 56' if you have a 6 digit display module). This is the 'Relay' mode.

The first command you'll probably need is 'set timezone' to set the GPS GMT time to match your local time. Use 0x13,$PSU,6,4,17,6*** for example to set GMT -5 hours.


This is a full list of commands, they'll look quite difficult at first but once you grasp the concept they're quite easy.

Make sure you have the correct profile selected before sending any LED or profilebyte commands as they will only affect the current profile.
  • LED xx RGB value - $LED9,B,5***

    Modify configuration bit x to state y (0 or 1) - $BITx,y*** - $BIT13,0***

    ;Bit15 - Display off unswitched*
    ;Bit14 - Display off switched movement sensor*
    ;Bit13 - TOGGLE SUMMERTIME HOUR - adds or removes one hour*
    ;Bit12 - D/M or M/D TOGGLE*
    ;Bit11 - Sticky date/time mode*
    ;Bit10 - Random length seconds*
    ;Bit9 - Seconds tick*
    ;Bit8 - 12/24 hour mode*
    ;Bit7 - Show Seconds - ignored on 6 digit displays
    ;Bit6 - Show Date - use date colon/indicators
    ;Bit5 - Show Time - Use internal timebase as backup
    ;Bit4 - Dim display on
    ;Bit3 - Fade transition off
    ;Bit2 - Ripple on
    ;Bit1 - Ripple direction
    ;Bit0 - Ripple speed

    Select profile 0-3 - $PROx*** - $PRO1***

    Set time HH,MM,SS,DD,MM,YY - $TIM01,23,45,17,01,18*** (overwritten by GPS - simply unplug the GPS mouse to prevent it transmitting an update)

    Set dim on/off times DimHHon,DimMMon,DimHHoff,DimMMoff,DimValue - Set dim on/off times - $DIM23,23,23,26,5***

    Set alarm and switch on AlaHH,AlaMM - $ALA23,25***

    Set timezone offset - $PSU,6,4,20,6*** values 1-12 are added, 13-23 are subtracted -12 so 13 becomes -1.

    Send Relay bytes to display Relay1,Relay2,Relay3,Relay4,Relay5,Relay6,Holdtime,07 - $REL1,2,3,4,5,6,7*** The holdtime is in seconds +1.

    Cathode remap cat0cat1,cat2cat3,cat4cat5,cat6cat7,cat8cat9 - $PSU,8,98,76,54,32,10*** By default is mapped 1:1 for IN-14 eg: 01,23,45,67,89. Changing this will result in weird displays unless the mapping matches the nixie tubes fitted.