Network Time Protocol (NTP) Client

In this example, you will use your Ethernet Shield and your Arduino to query a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. This way, your Arduino can get the time from the Internet.

Hardware Required

Circuit

The Ethernet shield allows you to connect a WIZNet Ethernet controller to the Arduino or Genuino boards via the SPI bus. It uses the ICSP header pins and pin 10 as chip select for the SPI connection to the Ethernet controller chip. Later models of the Ethernet shield also have an SD Card on board. Digital pin 4 is used to control the slave select pin on the SD card.

The shield should be connected to a network with an Ethernet cable. You will need to change the network settings in the program to correspond to your network.

Image developed using Fritzing. For more circuit examples, see the Fritzing project page

In the above image, the Arduino or Genuino board would be stacked below the Ethernet shield.

Schematic

Code

/*

 Udp NTP Client

 Get the time from a Network Time Protocol (NTP) time server
 Demonstrates use of UDP sendPacket and ReceivePacket
 For more on NTP time servers and the messages needed to communicate with them,
 see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol

 created 4 Sep 2010
 by Michael Margolis
 modified 9 Apr 2012
 by Tom Igoe
 modified 02 Sept 2015
 by Arturo Guadalupi

 This code is in the public domain.

 */


#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>
#include <EthernetUdp.h>

// Enter a MAC address for your controller below.
// Newer Ethernet shields have a MAC address printed on a sticker on the shield
byte mac[] = {
  0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED
};

unsigned int localPort = 8888;       // local port to listen for UDP packets

const char timeServer[] = "time.nist.gov"; // time.nist.gov NTP server

const int NTP_PACKET_SIZE = 48; // NTP time stamp is in the first 48 bytes of the message

byte packetBuffer[NTP_PACKET_SIZE]; //buffer to hold incoming and outgoing packets

// A UDP instance to let us send and receive packets over UDP
EthernetUDP Udp;

void setup() {
  // You can use Ethernet.init(pin) to configure the CS pin
  //Ethernet.init(10);  // Most Arduino shields
  //Ethernet.init(5);   // MKR ETH shield
  //Ethernet.init(0);   // Teensy 2.0
  //Ethernet.init(20);  // Teensy++ 2.0
  //Ethernet.init(15);  // ESP8266 with Adafruit Featherwing Ethernet
  //Ethernet.init(33);  // ESP32 with Adafruit Featherwing Ethernet

  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (!Serial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
  }

  // start Ethernet and UDP
  if (Ethernet.begin(mac) == 0) {
    Serial.println("Failed to configure Ethernet using DHCP");
    // Check for Ethernet hardware present
    if (Ethernet.hardwareStatus() == EthernetNoHardware) {
      Serial.println("Ethernet shield was not found.  Sorry, can't run without hardware. :(");
    } else if (Ethernet.linkStatus() == LinkOFF) {
      Serial.println("Ethernet cable is not connected.");
    }
    // no point in carrying on, so do nothing forevermore:
    while (true) {
      delay(1);
    }
  }
  Udp.begin(localPort);
}

void loop() {
  sendNTPpacket(timeServer); // send an NTP packet to a time server

  // wait to see if a reply is available
  delay(1000);
  if (Udp.parsePacket()) {
    // We've received a packet, read the data from it
    Udp.read(packetBuffer, NTP_PACKET_SIZE); // read the packet into the buffer

    // the timestamp starts at byte 40 of the received packet and is four bytes,
    // or two words, long. First, extract the two words:

    unsigned long highWord = word(packetBuffer[40], packetBuffer[41]);
    unsigned long lowWord = word(packetBuffer[42], packetBuffer[43]);
    // combine the four bytes (two words) into a long integer
    // this is NTP time (seconds since Jan 1 1900):
    unsigned long secsSince1900 = highWord << 16 | lowWord;
    Serial.print("Seconds since Jan 1 1900 = ");
    Serial.println(secsSince1900);

    // now convert NTP time into everyday time:
    Serial.print("Unix time = ");
    // Unix time starts on Jan 1 1970. In seconds, that's 2208988800:
    const unsigned long seventyYears = 2208988800UL;
    // subtract seventy years:
    unsigned long epoch = secsSince1900 - seventyYears;
    // print Unix time:
    Serial.println(epoch);


    // print the hour, minute and second:
    Serial.print("The UTC time is ");       // UTC is the time at Greenwich Meridian (GMT)
    Serial.print((epoch  % 86400L) / 3600); // print the hour (86400 equals secs per day)
    Serial.print(':');
    if (((epoch % 3600) / 60) < 10) {
      // In the first 10 minutes of each hour, we'll want a leading '0'
      Serial.print('0');
    }
    Serial.print((epoch  % 3600) / 60); // print the minute (3600 equals secs per minute)
    Serial.print(':');
    if ((epoch % 60) < 10) {
      // In the first 10 seconds of each minute, we'll want a leading '0'
      Serial.print('0');
    }
    Serial.println(epoch % 60); // print the second
  }
  // wait ten seconds before asking for the time again
  delay(10000);
  Ethernet.maintain();
}

// send an NTP request to the time server at the given address
void sendNTPpacket(const char * address) {
  // set all bytes in the buffer to 0
  memset(packetBuffer, 0, NTP_PACKET_SIZE);
  // Initialize values needed to form NTP request
  // (see URL above for details on the packets)
  packetBuffer[0] = 0b11100011;   // LI, Version, Mode
  packetBuffer[1] = 0;     // Stratum, or type of clock
  packetBuffer[2] = 6;     // Polling Interval
  packetBuffer[3] = 0xEC;  // Peer Clock Precision
  // 8 bytes of zero for Root Delay & Root Dispersion
  packetBuffer[12]  = 49;
  packetBuffer[13]  = 0x4E;
  packetBuffer[14]  = 49;
  packetBuffer[15]  = 52;

  // all NTP fields have been given values, now
  // you can send a packet requesting a timestamp:
  Udp.beginPacket(address, 123); // NTP requests are to port 123
  Udp.write(packetBuffer, NTP_PACKET_SIZE);
  Udp.endPacket();
}

See also


Last revision 2018/09/07 by SM