# How to setup ds3231 hardware RTC clock on Banana PI **URL:** \ **Category:** balenaOS\ **Created:** [October 19, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922 "2022-10-19T21:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/1 "2022-10-19T21:50:13Z")
> [@Current state of hardware RTC support](https://forums.balena.io/t/current-state-of-hardware-rtc-support/6727/23): > > Just a FYI for anyone else stumbling in here - if you have additional dtoverlay parameters you should group these two together separately. For example, note how I’ve separated the touch screen parameters: "rpi-ft5406,touchscreen-swapped-x-y=1,touchscreen-inverted-x=1","i2c-rtc,ds3231" I couldn’t get the hwclock to return with the time until separating them in this fashion, as opposed to stringing it all together without quotes. Also just to point out I’m using a different clock so replace ds32… Follwing the last post in this topic I added BALENA\_HOST\_CONFIG\_dtparam “i2c-rtc,ds3231” but after a restart the system loses the clock. [https://wiki.banana-pi.org/BPI\_RTC\_real\_time\_Module](https://wiki.banana-pi.org/BPI_RTC_real_time_Module) This wiki suggest that the module should be detected at address 68 but when I run `i2cdetect -y 2` from a privileged container slot 2 doesn’t exist. Could you please suggest things I can try to enable the module. I tried armbian with ``i2cdetect -y 2` and there it exists and I can read and write the time to the module. balenaOS 2.46.1+rev2 ---
**Author:** ![mpous](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mpous/32/4742_2.png) [@mpous](https://forums.balena.io/u/mpous)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 10:25am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/2 "2022-10-20T10:25:18Z")
Thanks @krasi-georgiev for your message. Let me ask to the balenaOS team to get more information! ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2022, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/5 "2022-10-21T08:20:59Z")
Thanks, I have enabled support access. Maybe the first thing to establish is if the `BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_dtparam` is applied. When I print the env in a container and in the host I don’t see this env variable. How can I check if the `i2c-rtc,ds3231` is enabled? ```auto RESIN_APP_ID=145430 BALENA_APP_ID=145430 I360_STORE_ENABLED=false I360_AUDIOR_CAPTUREDEVICE=default:CARD=sun4icodec HOSTNAME=d697324 BALENA=1 RESIN_SUPERVISOR_VERSION=10.6.27 I360_CONTROLLERJAM_GPIOSTOPOFFSET=274 RESIN_APP_LOCK_PATH=/tmp/balena/updates.lock BALENA_APP_LOCK_PATH=/tmp/balena/updates.lock BALENA_SUPERVISOR_VERSION=10.6.27 PWD=/ I360_AUDIOR_RATE=48000 BALENA_SERVICE_NAME=i360 I360_REPORTERJAM_GPIOREADYOFFSET=259 BALENA_APP_NAME=kuakata HOME=/root I360_REPORTERJAM_GPIOAUDIOOFFSET=275 RESIN_SERVICE_NAME=i360 I360_SYNCER_ENABLED=false I360_VIDEORRTSP_CAPTUREDEVICE=rtsp://192.168.1.10:554/stream1 RESIN_DEVICE_UUID=d6973249f77d4d928c43684653846b4d I360_CONTROLLERJAM_GPIOSTARTOFFSET=273 TERM=xterm I360_NODEID=kuakata RESIN_APP_NAME=kuakata USER=root RESIN=1 BALENA_DEVICE_NAME_AT_INIT=wide-rock BALENA_DEVICE_UUID=d6973249f77d4d928c43684653846b4d SHLVL=1 I360_REPORTERJAM_GPIOSYNCOFFSET=275 I360_AUDIOR_RECTIMEOUT=10h PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin BALENA_DEVICE_TYPE=bananapi-m1-plus RESIN_SERVICE_KILL_ME_PATH=/tmp/balena/handover-complete RESIN_HOST_OS_VERSION=balenaOS 2.46.1+rev2 RESIN_DEVICE_NAME_AT_INIT=wide-rock RESIN_DEVICE_TYPE=bananapi-m1-plus BALENA_HOST_OS_VERSION=balenaOS 2.46.1+rev2 I360_CONTROLLERJAM_GPIOVIDEOOFFSET=275 I360_VIDEORRTSP_RECTIMEOUT=10h BALENA_SERVICE_HANDOVER_COMPLETE_PATH=/tmp/balena/handover-complete ``` ---
**Author:** ![wolvi-lataniere](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/wolvi-lataniere/32/8352_2.png) [@wolvi-lataniere](https://forums.balena.io/u/wolvi-lataniere)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/10 "2022-10-21T11:30:42Z")
Hi Krasi, can you confirm the device you are trying to debug it [this one](https://dashboard.balena-staging.com/devices/d6973249f77d4d928c43684653846b4d)? I tried to connect to it but can’t get any SSH access to investigate the internal state of the device. You can get information about your device tree by exploring “/proc/device-tree/” on your hostOS, for instance with `find /proc/device-tree/ -name "*rtc*"`. You are also mentioning `BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_dtparam` but the forum link you posted specifies `BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_dtoverlay`, could you try changing this to see if it improves what you are seeing? Thanks, Aurélien ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 7:57am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/12 "2022-10-22T07:57:37Z")
yes it is that device. for some reason, I can’t ssh using the device ID, but I can ssh using the local IP address. noob mistake about the config name, I just added that one as well, but no difference. How do I check that it is applied? When I use `i2cdetect -y 2` on armbian it detects the hardware clock on address 68, but on balena I get `Error: Could not open file `/dev/i2c-2’ or `/dev/i2c/2': No such file or directory` and `i2cdetect -y 0` show nothing and `i2cdetect -y 1` shows the output below, but nothing on address 68 ```auto i2cdetect -y 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f 00: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 30: -- -- -- -- UU -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ``` ```auto find /proc/device-tree/ -name "*rtc*" /proc/device-tree/soc@1c00000/rtc@1c20d00 /proc/device-tree/ __symbols__ /rtc ``` ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/13 "2022-10-26T01:53:35Z")
@wolvi-lataniere do you need any more details? I can try to reflash the device to see if this will recover the vpn access if that helps ---
**Author:** ![wolvi-lataniere](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/wolvi-lataniere/32/8352_2.png) [@wolvi-lataniere](https://forums.balena.io/u/wolvi-lataniere)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 9:25am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/14 "2022-10-26T09:25:57Z")
Hi @krasi-georgiev, Thanks for the update. If you can restore VPN access I think it will help for the debugging. I don’t have that hardware on hand and can’t explore the file system to help without access. ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/15 "2022-10-27T23:02:26Z")
you should have access now > **[balena dashboard](https://dashboard.balena-staging.com/devices/d6973249f77d4d928c43684653846b4d)** > > Sign in to monitor and manage your device fleet from the balena dashboard. ---
**Author:** ![wolvi-lataniere](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/wolvi-lataniere/32/8352_2.png) [@wolvi-lataniere](https://forums.balena.io/u/wolvi-lataniere)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 10:21am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/16 "2022-10-31T10:21:33Z")
Hi @krasi-georgiev, Thanks for the link. I couldn’t go to it immediately, and now device is offline. Could you fix the issue or do you still want us to have a look? Thanks, Aurélien ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/18 "2022-10-31T11:42:01Z")
yes please have a look the device id is different. I posted a link in my last message, but here it is again It is online > **[balena dashboard](https://dashboard.balena-staging.com/devices/9bdbb726752b0c1921bba5d9630c757a)** > > Sign in to monitor and manage your device fleet from the balena dashboard. ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/23 "2022-11-01T13:49:45Z")
@wolvi-lataniere did you manage to connect to the device? ---
**Author:** ![wolvi-lataniere](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/wolvi-lataniere/32/8352_2.png) [@wolvi-lataniere](https://forums.balena.io/u/wolvi-lataniere)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 2:03pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/24 "2022-11-02T14:03:52Z")
Hi @krasi-georgiev, Thanks for the link. I tried to connect on Monday but the connection was very lagy and I coudn’t do much back then. I’m retrying right now. ---
**Author:** ![wolvi-lataniere](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/wolvi-lataniere/32/8352_2.png) [@wolvi-lataniere](https://forums.balena.io/u/wolvi-lataniere)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/25 "2022-11-02T15:01:29Z")
Hi again! I think I finally pin pointed the issue, it seems you are missing the `overlay` directory in your SDCard boot partition, without it you wont be able to get the `dtoverlay` param to do anything (an overlay is an addition to your device tree, but has to come from somewhere at boot-time). This is what your boot partition looks like: ```bash root@9bdbb72:/mnt/boot# ls -la total 8407 drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 16384 Jan 1 1970 . drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Jan 13 2020 .. -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2048 Jan 1 1980 FSCK0000.REC -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 604 Oct 16 15:15 config.json -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2119 Jan 13 2020 device-type.json drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Jan 13 2020 dtb -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 44 Jan 13 2020 image-version-info -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 208 Jan 13 2020 os-release -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 24 Jan 13 2020 resin-image -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 571 Jan 13 2020 resinos.fingerprint drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Jan 13 2020 splash drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Oct 16 15:19 system-connections -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 480829 Jan 13 2020 u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8087472 Jan 13 2020 uImage ``` and for instance, this is what a regular BalenaOS rasbperry pi boot partition looks like: ```auto ➜ resin-boot ls -la total 8409 drwxr-xr-x 6 avalade avalade 3072 Jan 1 1970 . drwxr-x---+ 7 root root 4096 Nov 2 15:52 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 24 Jun 1 19:53 balena-image -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 17578 Jun 1 19:53 balenaos.fingerprint -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 27696 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 27967 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 27307 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-b-rev1.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 27581 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 27441 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-zero.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 28792 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2708-rpi-zero-w.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 28842 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 28991 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2710-rpi-2-b.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 30647 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 31266 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2710-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 28942 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2710-rpi-cm3.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 51675 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2711-rpi-400.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 51543 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 52116 Jun 1 19:53 bcm2711-rpi-cm4.dtb -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 52460 Jun 1 19:53 bootcode.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 437 Jun 1 19:53 boot.scr -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 137 Jun 1 19:53 cmdline.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 756 Aug 6 2021 config.json -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 36243 Jun 1 19:53 config.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 2361 Jun 1 19:53 device-type.json -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 0 Jun 1 19:53 extra_uEnv.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 3145 Jun 1 19:53 fixup_cd.dat -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 7223 Jun 1 19:53 fixup.dat -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 10199 Jun 1 19:53 fixup_x.dat drwxr-xr-x 2 avalade avalade 512 Nov 2 2022 .fseventsd -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 41 Jun 1 19:53 image-version-info -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 489264 Jun 1 19:53 kernel7.img -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 157 Jun 1 19:53 os-release drwxr-xr-x 2 avalade avalade 22016 Jun 1 19:53 overlays -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 0 Jun 1 19:53 rpi-bootfiles-20220120.stamp drwxr-xr-x 2 avalade avalade 512 Aug 6 2021 splash -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 800028 Jun 1 19:53 start_cd.elf -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 2964864 Jun 1 19:53 start.elf -rw-r--r-- 1 avalade avalade 3716296 Jun 1 19:53 start_x.elf drwxr-xr-x 2 avalade avalade 512 Jun 1 19:53 system-connections ``` on the second one I have an `overlays` folder with all possible overlays. I’m not sure why it is missing here. You can try to replace it with the one you grab from your standard BananaPi distribution, they could be compatible. Let us know if it helps. ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/28 "2022-11-02T17:43:18Z")
this is the contents of the boot folder of the armbian. It has `overlay-user` directory, but it is emtpy Can you try to copy the content from the Rpi and check if it works? Please feel free to do whatever with that BananaPi, there is no data and nothing important on it. ---
**Author:** ![mpous](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mpous/32/4742_2.png) [@mpous](https://forums.balena.io/u/mpous)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 11:51am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/35 "2022-11-04T11:51:14Z")
Hello Krasi, as you know, sadly you are using a balenaOS version which is not on production but staging. So not sure it makes sense to experiment on the device. Having said that, we added this device to the OS test workflow (testbot) but currently the tests are failing. Once a new release passes test, it will be deployed to production, and at that moment we will be able to look into any issues for that production OS release. ---
**Author:** ![krasi-georgiev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@krasi-georgiev](https://forums.balena.io/u/krasi-georgiev)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 12:05pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-setup-ds3231-hardware-rtc-clock-on-banana-pi/364922/36 "2022-11-04T12:05:09Z")
Thanks. Can you maybe explain what is the actual workflow with the `dtoverlay` logic from the linux perspective so that I can try and set it up manually?