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**Pierre Bellisle** · 23 Jan 2008, 12:06 AM

Walter,
I got this RCF-867 code based on Mike Doty's work.

Code:

#COMPILE EXE '#Win 8.04#
#DIM ALL
#INCLUDE "Win32Api.inc"
 
$TimeServer = "time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov"
'$TimeServer = "time-a.nist.gov"             '129.6.15.28 NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland
'$TimeServer = "time-b.nist.gov"             '129.6.15.29 NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland
'$TimeServer = "time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov" '132.163.4.101 NIST, Boulder, Colorado
'$TimeServer = "time-b.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov" '132.163.4.102 NIST, Boulder, Colorado
'$TimeServer = "time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov" '132.163.4.103 NIST, Boulder, Colorado
'$TimeServer = "utcnist.colorado.edu"        '128.138.140.44 University of Colorado, Boulder
'$TimeServer = "time.nist.gov"               '192.43.244.18 NCAR, Boulder, Colorado
'$TimeServer = "time-nw.nist.gov"            '131.107.1.10 Microsoft, Redmond, Washington
'$TimeServer = "nist1.datum.com"             '66.243.43.21 Datum, San Jose, California
'$TimeServer = "nist1.aol-ca.truetime.com"   '207.200.81.113 TrueTime, AOL facility, Sunnyvale, California
 
TYPE RFC867 'Example: "54488 08-01-23 03:55:27 00 0 0   0.0 UTC(NIST) *"
  Julian  AS STRING * 5
  Space1  AS STRING * 1
  Year    AS STRING * 2
  Hyphen1 AS STRING * 1
  Month   AS STRING * 2
  Hyphen2 AS STRING * 1
  Day     AS STRING * 2
  Space2  AS STRING * 1
  Hour    AS STRING * 2
  Column1 AS STRING * 1
  Minute  AS STRING * 2
  Column2 AS STRING * 1
  Second  AS STRING * 2
  Space3  AS STRING * 1
  DST     AS STRING * 2
  Space4  AS STRING * 1
  LeapSec AS STRING * 1
  Space5  AS STRING * 1
  Health  AS STRING * 1
  Space6  AS STRING * 1
  Delay   AS STRING * 5
  Space7  AS STRING * 1
  Label   AS STRING * 9
  Space8  AS STRING * 1
  OTM     AS STRING * 1
END TYPE
'_____________________________________________________________________________
 
FUNCTION PBMAIN AS LONG
 LOCAL SysTimeUTC   AS SYSTEMTIME
 LOCAL SysTimeLocal AS SYSTEMTIME
 LOCAL ServerTime   AS RFC867
 LOCAL hFile        AS DWORD
 LOCAL sTime        AS STRING
 LOCAL sMessage     AS STRING
 
 hFile = FREEFILE
 TCP OPEN PORT 13 AT $TimeServer AS hFile TIMEOUT 2000
 IF ERR THEN
   sMessage = "Error opening " & $TimeServer
 ELSE
   TCP LINE INPUT #hFile, sTime
   TCP LINE INPUT #hFile, sTime
   TCP CLOSE hFile
 
   TYPE SET ServerTime = sTime
   sMessage = "Server"  & $TAB & $TimeServer        & $CRLF & _
              "sTime"   & $TAB & sTime      & $CRLF & $CRLF & _
              "Year"    & $TAB & ServerTime.Year    & $CRLF & _
              "Month"   & $TAB & ServerTime.Month   & $CRLF & _
              "Day"     & $TAB & ServerTime.Day     & $CRLF & _
              "Hour"    & $TAB & ServerTime.Hour    & $CRLF & _
              "Minute"  & $TAB & ServerTime.Minute  & $CRLF & _
              "Second"  & $TAB & ServerTime.Second  & $CRLF & _
              "DST"     & $TAB & ServerTime.DST     & $CRLF & _
              "LeapSec" & $TAB & ServerTime.LeapSec & $CRLF & _
              "Health"  & $TAB & ServerTime.Health  & $CRLF & _
              "Delay"   & $TAB & ServerTime.Delay   & $CRLF & _
              "Label"   & $TAB & ServerTime.Label   & $CRLF & _
              "OTM"     & $TAB & ServerTime.OTM     & $CRLF & $CRLF
 
   SysTimeUTC.wYear   = VAL(ServerTime.Year) + 2000
   SysTimeUTC.wMonth  = VAL(ServerTime.Month)
   SysTimeUTC.wDay    = VAL(ServerTime.Day)
   SysTimeUTC.wHour   = VAL(ServerTime.Hour)
   SysTimeUTC.wMinute = VAL(ServerTime.Minute)
   SysTimeUTC.wSecond = VAL(ServerTime.Second)
   SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime(BYVAL 0, SysTimeUTC, SysTimeLocal)
 
   sMessage = sMessage & "Local time conversion" & $TAB & _
              FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wYear, "0000") & "-" & FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wMonth,  "00") & "-" & _
              FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wDay,    "00") & " " & FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wHour,   "00") & ":" & _
              FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wMinute, "00") & ":" & FORMAT$(SysTimeLocal.wSecond, "00")
 
 END IF
 
 MessageBox(%HWND_DESKTOP, BYVAL STRPTR(sMessage), "Time server", %MB_ICONINFORMATION OR %MB_OK)
 
END FUNCTION
'_____________________________________________________________________________
'
'                              Daytime Protocol (RFC-867)
'
'This protocol is widely used by small computers running MS-DOS and similar operating systems.
'The server listens on port 13, and responds to requests in either tcp/ip or udp/ip formats.
'The standard does not specify an exact format for the Daytime Protocol,
'but requires that the time is sent using standard ASCII characters.
'NIST chose a time code format similar to the one used by its dial-up
'Automated Computer Time Service (ACTS), as shown below:
'
'                JJJJJ YR-MO-DA HH:MM:SS TT L H msADV UTC(NIST) OTM
'
'JJJJJ    is the Modified Julian Date (MJD). The MJD has a starting point of midnight
'         on November 17, 1858. You can obtain the MJD by subtracting exactly 2 400 000.5 days
'         from the Julian Date, which is an integer day number obtained by counting days
'         from the starting point of noon on 1 January 4713 B.C. (Julian Day zero).
'
'YR-MO-DA is the date. It shows the last two digits of the year, the month,
'         and the current day of month.
'
'HH:MM:SS is the time in hours, minutes, and seconds. The time is always sent as
'         Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). An offset needs to be applied to UTC to
'         obtain local time. For example, Mountain Time in the U. S. is 7 hours behind
'         UTC during Standard Time, and 6 hours behind UTC during Daylight Saving Time.
'
'TT       is a two digit code (00 to 99) that indicates whether the United States is
'         on Standard Time (ST) or Daylight Saving Time (DST). It also indicates when ST or DST
'         is approaching. This code is set to 00 when ST is in effect, or to 50 when DST
'         is in effect. During the month in which the time change actually occurs,
'         this number will decrement every day until the change occurs. For example,
'         during the month of November, the U.S. changes from DST to ST. On November 1,
'         the number will change from 50 to the actual number of days until the time change.
'         It will decrement by 1 every day until the change occurs at 2 a.m. local time
'         when the value is 1. Likewise, the spring change is at 2 a.m. local time when
'         the value reaches 51.
'
'L        is a one-digit code that indicates whether a leap second will be added or subtracted
'         at midnight on the last day of the current month. If the code is 0, no leap second
'         will occur this month. If the code is 1, a positive leap second will be added at
'         the end of the month. This means that the last minute of the month will contain
'         61 seconds instead of 60. If the code is 2, a second will be deleted on the last
'         day of the month. Leap seconds occur at a rate of about one per year.
'         They are used to correct for irregularity in the earth's rotation.
'         The correction is made just before midnight UTC (not local time).
'
'H        is a health digit that indicates the health of the server. If H = 0,
'         the server is healthly. If H = 1, then the server is operating properly but
'         its time may be in error by up to 5 seconds. This state should change to fully
'         healthy within 10 minutes. If H = 2, then the server is operating properly but its
'         time is known to be wrong by more than 5 seconds. If H = 3, then a hardware or
'         software failure has occurred and the amount of the time error is unknown.
'         If H = 4 the system is operating in a special maintenance mode and both its accuracy
'         and its response time may be degraded. This value is not used for production servers
'         except in special circumstances. The transmitted time will still be correct
'         to within ±1 second in this mode.
'
'msADV    displays the number of milliseconds that NIST advances the time code to partially
'         compensate for network delays. The advance is currently set to 50.0 milliseconds.
'
'label    UTC(NIST) is contained in every time code. It indicates that you are receiving
'         Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) from the National Institute of Standards
'         and Technology (NIST).
'
'OTM      (on-time marker) is an asterisk (*). The time values sent by the time code refer
'         to the arrival time of the OTM. In other words, if the time code says
'         it is 12:45:45, this means it is 12:45:45 when the OTM arrives.
'_____________________________________________________________________________
'

**David Roberts** · 23 Jan 2008, 01:20 AM

Here is another variant of Mike Doty's work.

If it has a command line, of anything, then it runs in silent mode. I did this because my XP box drifts something rotten and schedule the app to run every six hours. This is a bit naughty on a fixed time server list so the list is randomly shuffled first.

The code includes suggestions by both Bob Scott and Clay Clear.

The NIST time is adjusted by an 'average' 45ms to compensate for latency within the US. I live in the UK so I have removed that and added a latency adjustment myself.

I have recently started using another app which taps into the time server at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) here in the UK and corrections are down to a few milliseconds.

Comparing the two apps the code below seems to be accurate to about 20-30 milliseconds which isn't bad considering where the servers are compared to where I live.

Code:

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
#REGISTER NONE
#TOOLS OFF

%NOMMIDS = 1
%NOGDI = 1

#INCLUDE "WIN32API.INC"
'#INCLUDE "NIST-Time.inc"

TYPE InputBuffer
  JJJJJ AS ASCIIZ * 6     ' Modified Julian Date
  year AS ASCIIZ * 3
  month AS ASCIIZ * 3
  day AS ASCIIZ * 3
  hour AS ASCIIZ * 3
  minute AS ASCIIZ * 3
  second AS ASCIIZ * 3
  TT AS ASCIIZ * 3        ' Regards US Standard or Daylight Saving Time
  L AS ASCIIZ * 2         ' To leap or not to leap, that is the question
  Health AS ASCIIZ * 2    ' = 0 for healthy, = 1 for < 5 secs error & should be OK within 10 minutes
                          ' = 2 for > 5 secs error & = 4 for unknown error
                          '
  msADV AS ASCIIZ * 6     ' millisecond advance for ACTS but not RFC-867
  sLabel AS STRING * 9    ' Should be UTC(NIST)
  dummy AS STRING * 1
  otm AS STRING * 1       ' On-time marker (*) - no cr/lf pair sent
END TYPE

UNION BufferUnion
  wholeStr AS STRING * 48
  section AS InputBuffer
END UNION

DECLARE FUNCTION FillArray( MyArray1( ) AS STRING, MyArray2( ) AS STRING ) AS LONG

FUNCTION PBMAIN AS LONG
LOCAL hSocket, NumberOfTimeServers, Count, dummy, success, Start, Finish AS LONG
LOCAL wNistMilliseconds AS WORD
DIM DataBuffer AS BufferUnion
LOCAL qvTime AS QUAD
DIM udtvTime AS SYSTEMTIME
LOCAL mode AS STRING

  mode = COMMAND$ ' If anything found then run silent

  REDIM Site( 0 ) AS STRING
  REDIM SiteName( 0 ) AS STRING

  NumberOfTimeServers = FillArray( Site(), SiteName() )

  RANDOMIZE
  ' Shuffle the time servers to use
  FOR Count = 1 TO NumberOfTimeServers - 1
    dummy = RND( Count, NumberOfTimeServers )
    SWAP Site( Count ), Site( dummy )
    SWAP SiteName( Count ), SiteName( dummy )
  NEXT

  FOR Count = 1 TO NumberOfTimeServers
    ERRCLEAR
    hSocket = FREEFILE
    TCP OPEN PORT 13 AT Site( Count ) AS hSocket TIMEOUT 2000
    IF ERR = 0 THEN

      Start = TIMEGETTIME() ' ................................................................. [1]
      TCP LINE INPUT hSocket, DataBuffer.wholeStr
      TCP LINE INPUT hSocket, DataBuffer.wholeStr
      Finish = TIMEGETTIME() '................................................................. [2]
      TCP CLOSE hSocket

      IF VAL( DataBuffer.section.Health ) > 0 THEN EXIT IF
      ' We should have got the on-time marker - try another server
      IF DataBuffer.section.otm <> "*" THEN EXIT IF

      udtvTime.wYear = VAL( DataBuffer.section.year ) + 2000
      udtvTime.wMonth = VAL( DataBuffer.section.month )
      udtvTime.wDay = VAL( DataBuffer.section.day )
      udtvTime.wHour = VAL( DataBuffer.section.hour )
      udtvTime.wMinute = VAL( DataBuffer.section.minute )
      udtvTime.wSecond = VAL( DataBuffer.section.second )
      'wNistMilliseconds is the ms value to the next whole second
      wNistMilliseconds = VAL( DataBuffer.section.msADV ) ' Suggested by Bob Scott

      SYSTEMTIMETOFILETIME udtvTime, BYVAL VARPTR( qvTime ) '
      ' FILETIME routines used as opposed to VARIANTTIME routines as suggested by Clay Clear

      ' We are going to add latency which is the time estimated by ( [2] - [1] )/2
      ' and subtract 45ms which is the 'correction' for US users.
      qvTime = qvTime + ( (Finish - Start)/2 - wNistMilliseconds - 45 ) * 10000
      FILETIMETOSYSTEMTIME BYVAL VARPTR( qvTime ), udtvTime
      SETSYSTEMTIME udtvTime
      POSTMESSAGE %HWND_TOPMOST, %WM_TIMECHANGE, 0&, 0& ' POSTMESSAGE, another suggestion by Clay Clear
      success = %TRUE
      IF mode = "" THEN MSGBOX "Time set by " & SiteName( Count ) & " (# of servers tried:" & _
      STR$(Count) & ")" & $CRLF & $CRLF & "Estimated Latency:" & STR$((Finish - Start)\2) & "ms",,"NIST-Time"
      EXIT FOR
    END IF
  NEXT
  IF ISFALSE success THEN
    IF mode = "" THEN MSGBOX "Failed to get time" & $CRLF & $CRLF & "Error:" & STR$( ERR ),, "NIST-Time"
  END IF
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION FillArray( MyArray1( ) AS STRING, MyArray2( ) AS STRING ) AS LONG
LOCAL x AS LONG

  REDIM MyArray1( 1 TO DATACOUNT/2 ) AS STRING
  REDIM MyArray2( 1 TO DATACOUNT/2 ) AS STRING

  FOR x = 1 TO DATACOUNT/2
    MyArray1( x ) = READ$( 2 * x - 1 ) ' giving 1, 3, 5, ..., DATACOUNT - 1
    MyArray2( x ) = READ$( 2 * x )     ' giving 2, 4, 6, ..., DATACOUNT
  NEXT

  FUNCTION = DATACOUNT/2

  DATA time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
  DATA "NIST, Boulder A, Colorado"
  DATA time-b.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
  DATA "NIST, Boulder B, Colorado"
  DATA time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
  DATA "NIST, Boulder C, Colorado"
  DATA utcnist.colorado.edu
  DATA "University of Colorado, Boulder"
  DATA time.nist.gov
  DATA "NCAR, Boulder, Colorado"
  DATA time-nw.nist.gov
  DATA "Microsoft, Redmond, Washington"
  DATA nist1.symmetricom.com
  DATA "Symmetricom, San Jose, California"
  DATA nist1-dc.WiTime.net
  DATA "WiTime, Virginia"
  DATA nist1-ny.WiTime.net
  DATA "WiTime, New York City"
  DATA nist1-sj.WiTime.net
  DATA "WiTime, San Jose, California"
  DATA nist1.aol-ca.symmetricom.com
  DATA "Symmetricom, AOL facility, Sunnyvale, California"
  DATA nist1.aol-va.symmetricom.com
  DATA "Symmetricom, AOL facility, Virginia"
  DATA nist1.columbiacountyga.gov
  DATA "Columbia County, Georgia"
  DATA nist.expertsmi.com
  DATA "Monroe, Michigan"

END FUNCTION

**Walter Schütz** · 23 Jan 2008, 04:29 PM

Thanks for the two solutions. Will save me a lot of time!

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