Hi Michael,

Yeah, I'm not finding any good source either, which is partly why I'm scratching my head about it. Seems like it should either be a common problem (thus generating a lot of web support), or one that is highly unusual. Since there is not the plethora of helpful web sites (*), and there are a bazillion IoT devices out there, I wonder why are we so unusual / unique in this? What did we miss?

Regardless, we are here. I think at this point the site we currently link to is probably the best resource. You do have good prompts within the empty fields, but perhaps add "Refer to Example Strings link below for your locale" to make it more explicit that this requires a little bit of work to set properly.

Greg

(*) Most of the sites I found were either for programmers looking for source examples to access the locale data, or links to create random gibberish which I find oddly appropriate. None were for common folks in need of a TZ string.

Michael Balzer wrote:

Greg,

I haven't found a web site that offers a simple timezone string generator, your links also don't provide that.

I can include a list of standard zones for the main regions/capital cities into the web UI. Can you provide that?

Thanks,
Michael

Am 23.05.2018 um 01:36 schrieb Greg D.:
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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