Why Carl (and Dave) Did Not End Up With A Real Time Clock

Oh wow, that is serious “modder” territory.

Long ago, my definition of “ideal home robot” included not only a RTC but the ability to sleep the bot and wake at a specified time. The idea being to get on the recharging dock, go to sleep, and wake up just before the expected trickle time (and adjusting the expected recharge duration for the next just-before-trickle wakeup.)

The GoPiGo3 power system does not support that level of control, so I ended up with a 24/7 “don’t do any strenuous computing while on the recharger” so as not to confuse the “smart charger” and no overwhelming need for an RTC on Carl.

Dave on the other hand is not a 24/7 bot, so probably could benefit from a RTC for those early system logs, but as I don’t dig into them on Dave either, he is also not getting a RTC for his birthday.

2 Likes