Syncing AR1 to local network time server

PAC Project
1

I have an application where I have a closed network that requires a time server for my AR1 and PAC Control strategy to sync with. All the addresses on the network are static - no internet - no DHCP.

I’d like to have them sync to a time server on my “UI” windows laptop that the user will interface with groov View on. I’ve got a time server installed on this laptop and have successfully synced up using my PAC Control Strategy. This was configured using something akin to “udp:192.168.1.24:123”.

On the AR1, however, the “Time server sync” menu is giving me issues. When I put in my IP for the laptop as “192.168.1.24”, I get:

ntpdate[31542]: no server suitable for synchronization found

Any variations on the syntax (“udp:192.168.1.24”, “udp://192.168.1.24…”) I’ve thought of give me name-resolution errors:

ntpdate[499]: name server cannot be used: Temporary failure in name resolution (-3)

Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong with my address syntax for the AR1?

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2

I don’t have my AR1 setup just now, but what about 192.168.1.24:123?

You say you have synced time with PAC Control, so you must have port 123 open on the Windows laptop or are you using SoftPAC and so are running on the same computer as the time server?

To me a big clue is the ‘no server’ error, the name stuff I get, when you put anything in front of the IP it thinks its a host name, but the ‘no server suitable for synch’ error is saying that it reached out to that IP, but did not get any connection on port 123. Hence my Windows firewall question.

3

Also verify you have the right IP for the time server, you are using two different ones in your post.

4

So after a bit more digging, I can sync the AR1 with a public pool IP, (1.pool.ntp.org => 216.218.254.202) and it syncs up fine. Note, this is while the AR1 is connected to the internet.
I think that straightens out the syntax, but I’m still confused why it doesn’t see my server as suitable…

As for the laptop, I indeed do have port 123 open on my Windows laptop - not SoftPAC.

5

That was a mix-up I made making the post - the IP is the same across what I’ve done :upside_down_face:. Thanks though

6

What time sync software are you using on Windows to be the NTP server?
I have tinkered a little with some and gave up since it was hit and miss. Ended up building a GPS Stratum 1 server on a Pi and used that on my network.

7

I’m using the functionality built into Windows actually. I had considered a Pi, but the windows computer is going to be sitting there either way and I figured I might as well use it.

Another small update, I did get an EPIC working with my timesync server. Too bad the customer didn’t buy an EPIC…

8

So my current thought is to get node-red to run an exec function and change the time. I found an NTP time server library that can connect to my server.

Maybe worth a separate post, but is there a way to SSH into the AR1 to do some linux-y root permission changes? I figure if I can update the hardware time periodically with the time-server, things should be just as good.