WiFi Clock

Apr 07, 2025 Last reply: 1 year ago 16 Replies

My Ali Express WiFi clock arrived at lunchtime:



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I hadn't expected it would be a kit! 4 bits of transparent plastic, the actual working bit and some stand offs and screws. I think I know why the Chinese are so clever, there were no instructions and I expect it would have taken a Chinese toddler 5 minutes but I took half an hour.



Anyway, plug if in (you need your own USB lead and power supply) and it sprang into life. I managed to follow the instruction on the web page to connect to its built in server to give it my WiFi details (presumably now stored in the Chinese equivalent of the Kremlin) whereupon it put itself to the correct time, presumably in China - the minutes were correct but the hour miles out.



I had a devil of a job setting the time zone. It was set to 0 but refused to change. Long story short, change it to something else then back to 0 and you're in business.



I paid around £10 (it's shown at a higher price now) and if it continues to work that is a bargain in my book.


So that's an ESP32, a display, an RTC chip with button cell for timekeeping, but no battery. ie it needs USB power at all times, they haven't bothered making it low power to run off its own battery. Fine if you want a desk clock, I suppose the LED display is going to chew through power anyway so not much point battery powering it.

Theo

All my LED clocks are mains powered, presumably as you say to power the display.

Why this clock when every device in the home and pocket has a clock in it?

>

Because I want a clock that sits on the side and shows the time.

Yeh, but they are £7.99 for an 8" dial in Lidl's middle aisle.

Usenet never changes does it -)

Cost me a fiver in fuel to get to lidl and find they don't have one

And I don't want an analogue clock :-)

Well I dont want ANOTHER one. I have at least 5....

Do the current Lidl radio-controlled clocks (being German) sync with Athorn? Older ones only synced with Mainflingen and struggled to get signal in some parts of the UK.

The Chinese one I have is WiFi not radio controlled which is why I was so pleased to find it - and at a good price!

When I lived in Pewsey none of my radio controlled clocks could pick up a signal (army territory, lots of conspiracy theories as to why!). It is better here but I still have a situation where if they are one side of the bed they will work but not the other side.

The implication here, is with the radio clock, you can extend the LC antenna assembly, away from the unit, for antenna positioning.

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Paul

The article is not about radio clocks it's about NTP clocks which is what I bought from Ali Express.

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