pi-star time & date

[Phoenix805]

OK, I have another dumb question for you smart people. To make a long story short - I was having problems with my pi-star hotspot and finally got it working correctly again. BUT - it lost the time and date. It's like 7 days and 6 1/2 hours off! I found some info on the web about entering some code to correct the problem, but I haven't figured out how or where to enter the code. After the problems I had I'm afraid of making it worse. Any help is appreciated. Bob

 

[w2xq]

I assume the date/time on your router and computer are correct. Launch Pi-Star: Configuration > third panel down = General Configuration > System Time Zone. What do you have selected? It should be "America/<pick the appropriate city>" For some reason I don't see Tucson or Phoenix...

HTH.

 

[Phoenix805]

Hi Tom, how are you doing? Yes, I know what/where you're talking about but that's not the problem. Everything I can see is set correctly ie the timezone. From what I've read if the time gets off a little for some reason the server will update the time. But if for some reason it gets too far off you have to reset it manually but I can't figure out how.

The time's not off by (for example) 1 or 2 hours where the timezone might be off. Right now its 10:17 PM (eastern) and my dashboard thinks it 2:57. It also thinks it's June 12. Weird!

per pi-star forum:
Sometimes simply restarting Pi-Star will correct the date/time, but if it gets too far out of sync, you may need to stop and then restart the NTP service to reset it. To do that, log into Pi-Star via SSH, and then run these three commands:
Code: Select all
sudo systemctl stop ntp.service
sudo ntpdate pool.ntp.org
sudo systemctl start ntp.service

I don't understand logging in via SSH and where to insert this code.

thanks,
Bob

PS we're back in Ohio. I tried to call you a few days ago but for some reason my NJ talk group was corrupted and I haven't got around to fixing it. It shows NJ as being 31341. I think it's 3134, not sure where the extra 1 came from.

 

[KE5MC]

Bob,
SSH is a terminal window in the pi-star application on your hotspot. "sudo... " are DOS like commands.

Select "configuration" --> "expert" --> "SSH Access"

My page will look a little different than yours.

Good Luck!

 

[Phoenix805]

KE5MC - thanks for your reply. I found the screen and logged in. I changed to read-write and It took the stop ntp command. When I tried to put in the update command (several times) I would get either 'no servers can be used' or 'name or service not known' error messages. It would then accept the start and return to read-only OK, but since the update command wouldn't run, nothing changes.

 

[KE5MC]

I've done a few updates at this level and I don't recall needing to change to read-write. Worth the try...

 

[Phoenix805]

I tried it first without the read-write change and it didn't work. Then I remembered reading that you PROBABLY need to change the ro to rw so I did that. Still nothing! It just looks like it can't find the server, not sure why.

 

[KE5MC]

I'm wondering if a ports is blocked on the router. Rebooting the router is my alternate solution to the MS three finger salute.
From time to time the "TimeServer" is not green for my admin page. How is yours? Not sure if that is any help. Not sure why mine changes.

 

[Phoenix805]

hmmm, hadn't thought about that - mine is NOT green (not surprising). I've been researching pool.ntp.org and found some interesting info, unfortunately nothing has helped (story of my life)! I also turned off my firewall, didn't think it would help, but it was worth a try. I'll try booting my router in a few minutes, another option worth trying.

 

[K5MPH]

are you using Brandmeister.

 

[Phoenix805]

are you using Brandmeister.

Yep. Everything works fine as near as I can tell. Just the date and time are way off and won't sync.

 

[K5MPH]

I think they might be a setting on Brandmeister in your selfcare settings for your time zone.....

 

[Stupidfatkid]

It's odd your TimeServer status is showing red in Pi-Star. You might to try setting your date/time on the command line. Login into the SSH Access again and issue the command below (obviously you want to change the date/time part to the current date/time).

sudo date -s "19 JUN 2019 14:08:00"

 

[Phoenix805]

Son of a gun, IT WORKED! Thanks Fat Kid. Only thing is it wouldn't take 16:00:00 for some reason, but it took 04:00:00. I have a feeling it's set to 4 AM. That's OK, I'll keep an eye on it and make additional changes if needed. Thanks again!!

Tom W2XQ told me there's a new version of Pi-Star out and highly recommended changing to it. Now that the date and time are right I'm afraid to try updating for fear of making it worse.

 

[w2xq]

A possible reason (my guess) why you might not have been able to enter a 24 hour number is Stupidfatkid is running v4 rc4 wheress you are running 3.4.16.

Easy to upgrade.

Make a new config zip file with your now properly functioning hotspot.

On a new 16 or 32gb SD card:
1. Install v4 rc4.
2. Copy the 3.4.16 settings config zip file onto the SD card.

Put the new SD card card into the hotspot and power it on.

Once Pi-Star is running, go to Configuration, sign in, and choose Update. That will ring the Dashboard date forward to 20190526.

The entire process should take less than 10 minutes.

C.f., Amateur radio: Updating and upgrading Pi-Star for a more expansive explanation.

The one additional thing you might have to adjust is to avoid the satellite frequencies, c.f. Amateur radio: Pi-Star troubleshooting for an explanation.

HTH.

P.S. Set the old SD card aside until you are satisfied with v4, then redo the old card.

 

[Phoenix805]

Updated to v4.0.0 tonight. I was a little nervous, things go wrong sometimes. I'm often tempted to leave well enough alone, but I jumped in and upgraded and everything went fine.

 

[w2xq]

And for anyone reading this thread... last night's Pi-Star update pushed the date to 20190621.