Book Image

Raspberry Pi Zero Cookbook

Book Image

Raspberry Pi Zero Cookbook

Overview of this book

The Raspberry Pi Zero, one of the most inexpensive, fully-functional computers available, is a powerful and revolutionary product developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Raspberry Pi Zero opens up a new world for the makers out there. This book will give you expertise with the Raspberry Pi Zero, providing all the necessary recipes that will get you up and running. In this book, you will learn how to prepare your own circuits rather than buying the expensive add–ons available in the market. We start by showing you how to set up and manage the Pi Zero and then move on to configuring the hardware, running it with Linux, and programming it with Python scripts. Later, we integrate the Raspberry Pi Zero with sensors, motors, and other hardware. You will also get hands-on with interesting projects in media centers, IoT, and more.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Raspberry Pi Zero Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Interfacing RTC to get accurate time


The real-time clock (RTC) is a way to keep the right time even if you've lost power. The low-power requirements of a clock make it easy to accurately keep time, and it can run for years on just a small battery. If your Raspberry Pi Zero is going to live somewhere it will be off and unable to access an NTP server over a network, an RTC board will help when keeping accurate time is important.

Getting ready

You'll need an RTC board. I used the board included in the Elego Super Complete Starter Kit, which uses the DS3231 chip. There are a few different RTC boards available, most of which will work with your Raspberry Pi Zero.

You'll also need to ensure that I2C is enabled on your RPZ. The recipe on I2C basics in Chapter 5, Getting Your Hands Dirty Using the GPIO Header can step you through getting I2C and its tools set up if you haven't already.

How to do it...

  1. Configure the RTC clock pins to the Raspberry Pi as follows:

    Note

    If you are connecting the RTC board...