Internal clock

This page is about the internal clock of the SpinetiX players. For details about clock/watch animations, see the "Clock widgets" page.

Description

The SpinetiX players have an internal real-time clock (RTC) for keeping the date & time information even when the device is not powered on. The internal clock is based on a quartz crystal and powered by a supercap (40 days of autonomy) in the case of HMP400, HMP400W, HMP350, HMP300, and DiVA player models, respectively, a battery in the case of iBX440, iBX410, iBX410W, HMP200, HMP130, and HMP100 devices.

The date & time information can be retrieved by the player from an NTP server (recommended) or provided manually. This is configured from Control Center → System→ Date & Time page, respectively, from the Date/Time page for legacy players.

The player's internal clock must be calibrated for an accurate time keeping, as it is not calibrated when shipped from the factory.

Time drifting

Any quartz-crystal based clock is subject to time drifting, but this is compensated onto the player by using one or more NTP servers.

• By default, SpinetiX players are set to use NTP servers from the NTP pool, which are good for getting time updates for regular usage (but not for advanced synchronization usage), as long as access to the Internet is permitted.
• If the player doesn't have regular access to an NTP server, then it will slowly drift away from the actual time; for a calibrated clock, the time drift is less than 2s per day (or 1 min per month) under ideal operating environment conditions, however different environmental factors can affect the time drift, which can go up to 4-5 sec per day.
• Note that a non-calibrated player might behave very differently comparing to other players that have been calibrated.

Calibration

Internal clock calibration is necessary for normal operation of NTP and consists in finding the offset in frequency between the internal clock and an NTP reference.

The calibration process is started automatically when at least one NTP server is available, and it will take approximately 70 minutes. Once the calibration data is set, the player needs to be manually rebooted to save the data – the player must not be unplugged before this reboot, otherwise the procedure needs to be restarted. Afterward, the calibration data is reused whenever the device is rebooted or powered off.

To manually calibrate the player's internal clock, follow these steps:

1. Start the device and access the Control Center interface.
2. Open System → Date & Time page and make sure that "Automatic time from Internet (NTP)" is checked.
   • On HMP200, HMP130, and HMP100 players, open Date/Time page and check that at least one NTP server is added under "Time Sources" tab.
3. The default NTP time-servers (e.g., pool.ntp.org ones) require Internet access for the player. If this is not possible, then use an NTP server from your network.
4. Check the NTP statistics for the local clock calibration information – if it says that the internal clock is calibrated, no other operations are required, otherwise continue to the next step.
5. Check that at least one NTP server, other than loopback, is reachable and selected as peer. Otherwise, wait until one of the reachable NTP servers become peer.
   • If no NTP server is reachable, check that the NTP servers are correctly entered and that the network configuration is good; if necessary, modify the settings and restart the procedure.
6. After a peer (other than loopback) is selected, leave the device running for at least 70 minutes without rebooting it.
7. After 70 minutes, check that the local clock is calibrated - if it is not, then leave the device running for more time and redo the check later.
8. After the local clock is calibrated, restart the player.

Note:

The player must not be unplugged during this time and before the reboot, otherwise the procedure needs to be restarted.