Hi Steve,
all,
This totally highlights the problem. No offense
intended to the developers (myself included), but we've
not structured the product very well for "normal" folks
who are somewhat technical, but have no inside knowledge
of the product, prior versions, Linux, ESP-IDF, etc.
How was I to know what to put in the Timezone field?
Bear with me as I walk through my troubled mental
process... And please take this as me trying to be
helpful.
// Begin Rant
So, I've seen configuration screens a bazillion times
asking for timezone. If there's not a pull-down,
usually I would put in -7 for the US Pacific Daylight
Time that I'm in right now, or -8 if on Standard Time,
and make a mental note to change it next fall. Not a
big deal; there are a dozen "clocks" here at the house
that need semi-yearly care. What's one more? Sometimes
the config would be -8 with a checkbox for enabling
DST. More recent product config screens sometimes use
cities, with Los Angeles being our "local" example.
That's been the set, so glancing at (but not truly
understanding the implications of) the fine print on the
configuration screen, I simply put in my -7 and moved
on. It's been that way for weeks, and I never noticed
anything wrong until I saw the "GMT" reference on the
Time at Boot status that I recently added. Should have
been "PDT". Something's wrong. Playing the
ever-so-observant beta tester, I dig in...
So, back to the config screen I went. First, where was
it? I was doing a firmware update, but it's not there,
and there's no General config tab. Nothing labeled
"Time". Finally found it under Vehicle. Really? I see
my -7 still sitting there, so it wasn't lost. Finally I
re-read the comment about a web link to "Example
Timezone Strings", and think, huh, I guess there must be
some other way to say "-7". I click on the link, and
scan down the table. It says USA & Canada, Pacific
Time, and PST8PDT. Odd, but ok. Copy & paste. Hit
Save. Go back to the status page, and see PDT on the
aforementioned boot status line. Also see the upgrade
was done yesterday afternoon, and realize that was 2am
GMT, so I guess it checks out. Annoying, but DONE.
Now you tell me I'm
not done, and that
I really needed to click on the second link to the man
page on glibc? And
understand it? Then
research what the rules for DST computation are in my
country, state, and so forth, to craft some sort of
command lingo for the TZ engine?
Reality check here. My HP 100LX palmtop, manufactured
in
1992, does a better
job at handling this. We've taken a simple task of
entering a small, well known signed integer, and turned
it into an exercise in POSIX programming and
international politics. This for a parameter that has
little, if any, consequence on the daily operation of
the product as I currently use it.
// End Rant
With a grateful acknowledgment to Michael for his
awesome work on the Webserver UI, I think we should take
a pass through the configuration steps with an eye
towards making this as turn-key as possible. I
understand that he's made some significant changes to
the UI since my module arrived (back on .003 code), so
the improvements in initial config have not been
reflected in what I am running now (since the config has
already been set). As I noted in my previous email, I
will blow my module back to factory defaults and start
over, looking for places where we might improve things.
I know that the V3 OVMS module is a VAST improvement
over the prior versions, even without having experienced
them myself. But to reach a broader audience, we need
to continually look to improve the setup / configuration
experience, especially as we add new and even more
powerful features.
Greg
Stephen Casner wrote:
On Tue, 22 May 2018, Greg D. wrote:
Oh, almost... My timezone was also wrong. It was set to -7 like I do
everywhere else, instead of PST8PDT. Where did that come from? My only
clue to this was that the new boot status display of time at last boot
said GMT instead of PDT.
Because the ESP-IDF system does not have all the compiled-in timezone
code, we need to specify how to manage daylight saving time using the
long value for the TZ parameter. So not even PST8PDT is sufficient,
you need "PST8PDT,M3.2.0/2,M11.1.0".
-- Steve
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