SheevaPlug Time Drifts about 10 seconds per minute

[ambientweather]

I am having an issue where the clock drifts about 10 seconds per minute.

1. The occurs with multiple SheevaPlug units (I tested 3 with the same issue).
2. It does not matter if I use the weather station clock or either Time Server.
3. The time eventually corrects (as one expects with the time server/weather station clock sync function).

It is curious that we operate at 60 Hz and Europe is 50 Hz, and this may account for the 10 second error. I am not sure if the system clock is somehow tied to the electrical frequency.

Anyone else in the USA experiencing this issue? One of my customers is also seeing the same issue.

[admin]

We are a bit closer to the solution. It is nearly 100% for sure that newest SheevaPlugs have a slightly different silicon. To check if you have the old ones, which do fine with Meteohub or the new ones that have the time drift issue, you simply have to check "dmesg" log.

old: [42949373.220000] Kirkwood: MV88F6281-A0, TCLK=200000000.
new: [42949373.220000] Kirkwood: MV88F6281-Rev-Unsupported, TCLK=166666667.

As you see the "-A1" chipset variant used in the newer plugs is not recognized "Rev-Unsupported" and gets a wrong default TCLK which results in a 1large clock drift that impacts Meteohub operation on many levels.

I am working on upgrading the kernel to a version that should be able to handle this recent shift (2.6.32 and never are told to do).
But this is still work in progress. For the moment I don't recommend to use the new plugs. I don't think that a simply application update will fix this, I guess I will be forced to release a complete new disk image for that.

[admin]

kernel 2.6.32 solves the issue.

[ambientweather]

Thanks, Boris, can you provide a link to the update so I may update returned units?

When I select Update with the web interface, it states no update is available (the last revision is 4.6i).

Regards,

Ed

[admin]

I am working on a new SD card image. You will have to install that onto SD cards with diskimage or dd. A self update via Meteohub webinterface will not do, too much things have changed.

My quick tests indicate that kernel 2.6.32 runs very well, but I cannot rule out, that there might be some hidden problems. So anyone giving it a try is welcome to report bugs.

Coming updates will run on the "old" Meteohub images for SheevaPlug (kernel 2.6.29) and on the new image (kernel 2.6.32). So there is actually no need for users to install the new image on their SheevaPlugs, when the old image runs fine. Brand new SheevaPlugs will need the new image, as the old one wont do correctly.

While switching to the new image the old activation code should still be true. Pleas copy it somewhere before reflashing your SD card.

[admin]

new SD card image is ready for download: http://wiki.meteohub.de/Images

[ambientweather]

Has anyone else tried this? I consistently can not get it to boot up with the latest hardware revision from SheevaPlug. All older versions work fine.

Regards,

Ed

[Heuer]

The latest Sheevaplugs require kernel 2.6.34.5 or later for the A1 revision processor. These plugs have 0301B on the back label. Running the earlier kernel will result in huge time drifts and other stability issues (including not being able to get an IP connection, sometimes at random). Latest kernel is 2.6.35.6 so worthwhile upgrading if you are affected.

Just been through this whole rigmarole with SqueezeboxServer application on an A1 - took me days to understand what was happening