If you're looking for a different method of setting the time and date in popular RTC ICs, then the solution by Arduino enthusiast Luca Dentella may be of interest. Luca has written a small Windows-based C# application that works in conjunction with an Arduino sketch to pass the data from the PC to the IC.
The application uses a simple and familiar interface to allow the user to send time, date and also retrieve this data from the RTC. At first thought this may seem somewhat pointless as you can easily set the time and data inside an Arduino sketch, however by using this method and then uploading the sketch, you don't need to modify the sketch or waste code on time-setting procedures.
For more information on how the application communicates with the Arduino and all the necessary code, visit Luca's website. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.
Luca's program is designed to work with the DS1307 RTC, and thus also works with the more accurate DS3232 - the heart of our fully-supported Maxim DS3232 real-time clock IC module:
Apart from keeping accurate time for years due to the temperature-controlled oscillator and having a tiny coin-cell for backup, it is very simple to connect to your Arduino project. A driver library allows your program to easily set or read the time and date. Perfect for clock projects, dataloggers or anything that needs to know the date and time. Furthermore it contains a digital thermometer and 236 bytes of non-volatile memory to store user settings and other data. For more information, check out the module page here.
