Tried your code and work: output was…GOOD (for both local server and Blynk cloud server) 
[21071] Blynk v0.3.8 on Arduino
[21071] Blynk v0.3.8 on Arduino
WiFi connected with IP address: 192.168.0.253
[21072] Connecting to blynk-cloud.com:8442
[21911] Ready (ping: 0ms).
Connected to Server
[23395] Time sync: OK
Date is: 04/09/2016 and the time is now 22:10:47
[24394] Time sync: OK@mars why is it taking 22 seconds to connect and be sure to read the edit in my last post.
Just tweaking your sketch.
sorry Costas - not sure how you deduced the 22 seconds ?
I have read you comments but I guess I’m failing to understand how the loop states are working i.e. I was thinking rtc.begin was a synchronous function but sounds like it is asynchronous i.e. does not wait for the sync to complete or fail
[21071] Blynk v0.3.8 on Arduino the {21071] is just over 21 seconds, no?
I thought [21071] to [21911] is < 1 sec ?
@mars try this sketch and understand the changes marked with Costas (Serial Monitor confirms time is sync’d within about 200ms by having 200L timer):
Dallas Temperature IC Control Library Demo
Locating devices...Found 0 devices.
Resolution set to:9
.
[767] Blynk v0.3.8 on ESP8266
[5001] Connecting to 192.168.10.229:8442
[5138] Ready (ping: 12ms).
Blynk First connected EXECUTED
BLYNK is Connected!
Year in gettime = 1970
still trying to sync :-(
[5360] Time sync: OK
Year in gettime = 2016
04/09/2016
14:40:17
Requesting temperatures...
DONE
// marsmodified.ino Costas 4 Sept 2016 http://community.blynk.cc/t/setting-staticip-address-on-esp8266/7866
#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial // Comment this out to disable prints and save space
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>
#include <WidgetRTC.h>
#include <OneWire.h> // make sure used ESP OneWire.h file in ESP folder
#include <DallasTemperature.h>
#include <TimeLib.h>
#include <SimpleTimer.h>
char Date[16];
char Time[16];
char ssid[] = "MTN WIFI 19996"; // Costas
char pass[] = "xxxxxxxxx"; // Costas
#define ONE_WIRE_BUS 13 // GPIO13 = onewire to use PIN 7 on WeMos D1 R2 ESP8266 board
#define TEMPERATURE_PRECISION 12
#define RELAY1 13 // D7
#define RELAY2 12 // D6
#define RELAY3 14 // D5
#define RELAY4 4 // D4
DeviceAddress Therm_1 = { 0x28, 0xff, 0x61, 0xd0, 0x64, 0x15, 0x03, 0x5f };
DeviceAddress Therm_2 = { 0x28, 0xFF, 0x2D, 0xD4, 0x64, 0x15, 0x01, 0x25 };
DeviceAddress Therm_3 = { 0x28, 0xFF, 0x18, 0xE7, 0x64, 0x15, 0x01, 0xB3 };
DeviceAddress Therm_4 = { 0x28, 0xFF, 0x70, 0xF4, 0x64, 0x15, 0x02, 0xCE };
DeviceAddress Therm_5 = { 0x28, 0xFF, 0xB0, 0xAB, 0x64, 0x15, 0x01, 0x4C };
int rainSensePin= 0; // analog pin 0 - sensor i/p
long BaudRate = 9600, sysTick = 0;
char GotChar;
SimpleTimer timer;
int clockcounter = 3;
bool clock_sync = 0;
WidgetRTC rtc;
BLYNK_ATTACH_WIDGET(rtc, V8); // Costas
// Setup a oneWire instance to communicate with any OneWire devices (not just Maxim/Dallas temperature ICs)
OneWire oneWire(ONE_WIRE_BUS);
// Pass our oneWire reference to Dallas Temperature.
DallasTemperature sensors(&oneWire);
int numberOfDevices; // Number of temperature devices found
DeviceAddress tempDeviceAddress; // We'll use this variable to store a found device address
// Time to sleep (in seconds):
const int sleepTimeS = 10;
bool V1_written = 0;
//char auth[] = "xxxxxxxxxxxx"; // Costas Blynk Server
char auth[] = "xxxxxxxxxxxxx"; // Costas Pi Zero Server
// ESP token for Wemos D1 Project TEMP on LOCAL SERVER
// Blynk token for ESP8266 Project on LOCAL SERVER
// Mac address should be different for each device in your LAN
byte arduino_mac[] = { 0xDE, 0xED, 0xBA, 0xFE, 0xFE, 0xED }; // Costas
IPAddress arduino_ip ( 192, 168, 10, 20); // Costas
IPAddress dns_ip ( 8, 8, 8, 8); // or ( 192, 168, 10, 90) // Costas
IPAddress gateway_ip ( 192, 168, 10, 90); // Costas
IPAddress subnet_mask(255, 255, 255, 0); // Costas
void setup()
{
pinMode (13, INPUT_PULLUP); // set GPIO13 Onewire with Internal PULL_UP resistor on for it to work
//Serial.begin(9600); // Costas
Serial.begin(115200); // Costas
if(oneWire.reset()==1) { Serial.println ("OneWire has been reset correctly");}
else { Serial.println ("One wire reset was UNSUCCESSFUL!");}
Serial.println("Dallas Temperature IC Control Library Demo");
// Start up the library
sensors.begin();
sensors.setResolution(Therm_1,12);
sensors.setResolution(Therm_2,12);
sensors.setResolution(Therm_3,12);
sensors.setResolution(Therm_4,12);
sensors.setResolution(Therm_5,12);
// Grab a count of devices on the wire
numberOfDevices = sensors.getDeviceCount();
// locate devices on the bus
Serial.print("Locating devices...");
Serial.print("Found ");
Serial.print(numberOfDevices, DEC);
Serial.println(" devices.");
Serial.print("Resolution set to:");
// sensors.setResolution(TEMPERATURE_PRECISION);
Serial.println(sensors.getResolution());
WiFi.config(arduino_ip, gateway_ip, subnet_mask);
//WiFi.begin("xxxx", "xxxx"); // Costas
WiFi.begin(ssid, pass); // Costas
//Blynk.config(auth,IPAddress(xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx)); // Costas
while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) { // Costas
delay(500); // Costas
Serial.print("."); // Costas
} // Costas
Serial.println(); // Costas
Blynk.config(auth, "192.168.10.229"); // Costas to Pi Zero local server
//Blynk.config(auth, "192.168.10.229"); // Costas to Blynk cloud server
// Or like this:
//Blynk.begin(auth, "blynk-cloud.com", 8442, arduino_ip, dns_ip, gateway_ip, subnet_mask, arduino_mac);
while (Blynk.connect() == false) { // wait for Blynk to be connected
}
//rtc.begin(); // Costas
Serial.println ("BLYNK is Connected!");
// Blynk.syncAll(); // Real all virtualpins
// clockcounter = timer.setInterval (300L, gettime); // check if clock has updated every second
clockcounter = timer.setInterval (200L, gettime); // check if clock has updated every 0.2 seconds Costas
//Serial.print ("Clockcounter = ");
// Serial.println (clockcounter);
timer.setInterval(2000L,tempclock); // get temp & show clock every 2s, can be much less than 2s Costas
}
void tempclock(){ // Costas
// call sensors.requestTemperatures() to issue a global temperature
// request to all devices on the bus
Serial.println("Requesting temperatures...");
sensors.requestTemperatures(); // Send the command to get temperatures
Serial.println("DONE");
// printTemperature(Therm_1, 1);
// printTemperature(Therm_2, 2);
// printTemperature(Therm_3, 3);
// printTemperature(Therm_4, 4);
printTemperature(Therm_5, 5);
// deepSleep time is defined in microseconds. Multiply
// seconds by 1e6
// Serial.println ("I'm going to sleep");
clockDisplay();
//if (clock_sync == 0) { gettime();} // Costas
// ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000); not using this for now
Serial.println ("I'm awake");
//delay (1000); // Costas
}
void loop()
{
Blynk.run();
timer.run(); // Costas
}
BLYNK_WRITE(V1)
{
// BLYNK_LOG("Got a value: %s", param.asStr());
// You can also use:
int i = param.asInt();
int state;
float tempC = sensors.getTempC(Therm_5);
Serial.print ("Temp C = ");
Serial.println(tempC);
Blynk.virtualWrite(V1,tempC);
V1_written = 1; // my little flag
}
bool isFirstConnect = true;
BLYNK_CONNECTED() {
if (isFirstConnect) {
// Blynk.syncAll(); // not doing much for now
isFirstConnect = false;
Serial.println ("Blynk First connected EXECUTED");
}
}
// function to print the temperature for a device to Blynk app
void printTemperature(DeviceAddress deviceAddress, int thermostat_label)
{
// method 1 - slower
//Serial.print("Temp C: ");
//Serial.print(sensors.getTempC(deviceAddress));
//Serial.print(" Temp F: ");
//Serial.print(sensors.getTempF(deviceAddress)); // Makes a second call to getTempC and then converts to Fahrenheit
// method 2 - faster
float tempC = sensors.getTempC(deviceAddress);
Serial.print("Thermostat : ");
Serial.println(thermostat_label);
Serial.print("Temp C: ");
Serial.print(tempC);
Serial.print(" Temp F: ");
Serial.println(DallasTemperature::toFahrenheit(tempC)); // Converts tempC to Fahrenheit
Serial.println("...temperature read ok..... pls wait"); // Costas
Serial.println(" ");
Blynk.virtualWrite(V1,tempC);
}
// Digital clock display of the time in Blynk App
void clockDisplay()
{
// You can call hour(), minute(), ... at any time
// Please see Time library examples for details
sprintf(Date, "%02d/%02d/%04d", day(), month(), year());
sprintf(Time, "%02d:%02d:%02d", hour(), minute(), second());
Serial.print("Current time: ");
Serial.print(Time);
Serial.print(" ");
Serial.print(Date);
Serial.println();
// Send time to the App
Blynk.virtualWrite(V2, Time);
// Send date to the App
Blynk.virtualWrite(V3, Date);
}
void gettime(){
Serial.print ("Year in gettime = ");
Serial.println (year());
if(year() != 1970){ // we have got the right time now so kill the SimpleTimer
setSyncInterval(300); // normal 5 minute sync interval but not sure this actually works
timer.deleteTimer(clockcounter); // don't need this timer anymore Costas
sprintf(Date, "%02d/%02d/%04d", day(), month(), year());
Serial.println(Date);
sprintf(Time, "%02d:%02d:%02d", hour(), minute(), second());
Serial.println(Time);
clock_sync = 1; // set clock_sync flag to TRUE so we don't call gettime function again from void loop ()
}
else {
Serial.println ("still trying to sync :-(");
rtc.begin(); // keep trying to sync the time until year is not 1970
}
}Yes but why the initial 21071? As you will see I have an initial 767 for Blynk to be called (less than 1s) and connected by 5138 (5s).
good question - its instant from my serial monitor, certainly not waiting 21 seconds.
OK I think I know what it is, this will include your compiling time.
A normal ESP reset should show the correct details.
Edit: Maybe not, doesn’t give any longer times on my system when compiling.
Is there a hybrid system whereby you can still use AT commands from Espressif SDK whilst using ESP’s in standalone mode via the Arduino IDE?
That’s not possible. It’s assigned via the Sketch if it’s running standalone. It has nothing to do with the AT set because as soon as you upload a Sketch the AT firmware is deleted.
Hi Costas - just tried your sketch and it worked perfectly
Clock syncs very quickly and temp updated properly.
thank you so much for your help - learnt quite a lot from this exercise.
@mars my tests show there is negligible difference in access times whether you use static IP or not and whether you use Blynk cloud or local server.
same on my end. But I’m thinking if I setup static IP using AT commands and assuming that IP address remains in ESP even if powered off then it maybe faster to setup ?
All my esp8266 retain their ip addresses, is this because of my router settings?
if you using DHCP then most probably yes as you router may be configure to hold IP for MAC addresses for xx period before forcing renewal.
thank you so so so… much