Hello!
So, I tried to synchronize openPDC time with my PMU device, I used the following topic, but it didn’t work. It would be a great help if someone could help me with that!
Thank You
Trying updating to Nightly Build:
https://www.gridprotectionalliance.org/nightlybuilds/openPDC/Beta/Synchrophasor.Installs.zip
There have been some improvements to that adapter.
Thanks,
Ritchie
Ritchie,
Thank you for the fast answer. I updated the application but it’s still not synchronized
You have a PMU connected to GPS as input, yes? Check other parameters for handling “bad time quality”, e.g., try setting PreferGoodTimeQuality to false in case GPS doesn’t have a lock…
Yes, I have as an input a PMU connected to GPS. Where do I find this configuration? On OpenPDC or on the PMU configuration?
In the PMU_TIME_SYNC adapter’s parameter list.
I changed it, but it’s still not working 
I made some tests and it looks like the timestamp used is 3 hours ahead of my computer’s time. I live in Brazil, so my timezone is UTC -03:00
All timestamps being processed by openPDC are assumed to be UTC, using the time-sync adapter, the local clock will be adjusted to the latest received timestamp, assumed to be in UTC. Local clock adjustments are done relative to UTC, but that does not mean local clock needs to be in UTC - it can be local time zone.
However, if GPS timestamp of incoming device is not UTC as expected, this would throw off local time.
All incoming device timestamps should be in UTC in order for clock synchronization to work properly.
Thanks,
Ritchie
Hello!
So, that’s how my GPS is configured:
I already checked and my PMU is in sync with the GPS
That’s my server time and local time. Maybe openPDC was able to sync, but not the measurements? Since there are two different times in server time and local time, I assume server time is the time coming from GPS and local time, the time coming from my computer? Is that right?
That’s the time of one of my measurements:
After some time this started to appear on Monitor Device Outputs. What is Config Out of Sync? Does it have to do with the time sync problem? Also, my measurements stopped being recorded on openHistorian. I receive data, but it’s not recording.
If you open the “openPDC Console” application, you can check the details of the time-sync adapter to see if it is working appropriately. When the console application is open, start typing the following:
ls PMU_TIME_SYNC
NOTE: If the text you are typing is interrupted by status messages, keep typing, your keystrokes are being recorded. When you are finished typing, press
Enterto execute the command.
This will tell you if clock is “syncing” or has a permissions issue.
The “Config Out of Sync” message means the device configuration in the openPDC does not 100% match that which is being published by the PMU. You typically need to re-request device config and update your openPDC configuration, you can do this by clicking the red-colored text Config Out of Sync on that page - it is a link.
I would re-sync and see if your data starts recording again - perhaps the signals in the device no longer match your device configuration…
Thanks,
Ritchie
Hello, Ritchie!
I will try to use this command on openPDC console and see what happens, thank you, I will come back with the results later… about the Config Out of Sync, I tried to do that, I reconfigured the device, but then it signals Config in sync and a few seconds later, it comes back to out of sync
Ritchie,
After using the command line, that’s what I got:
The time is about 3 hours ahead of my time.
Also, the config out of sync is still happening.
And for some reason, the configuration of openPDC seems to be changing the time on my computer. I changed the timezone in the device input configuration and the time on my computer changed too.
Sorry about all the messages… i’ve been doing a lot of tests to find out what’s happening
i just deleted the custom action, because i think it’s interfering with time in my computer and i used the command LS M60MMXU1 (PMU device). The timezone was defined as UTC. In this way, I see data in the graphs in UTC time.
After that, i changed the time zone to UTC-3 (the right time zone). In this way, data in my graphs appear with UTC+3 and not -3.
the last report time is 00:00:00. Maybe that’s the cause of the time problem?
That’s not good. Clearly you are getting data, but time appears to be zero.
Yes. It only happens when I configure the timezone to UTC-3.
Do you have any idea what could be happening?
I am not sure what you mean when you say “configure the timezone to UTC-3”? Are you changing the timezone in the device, in the openPDC configuration for the device, or on your local computer clockl?
On openPDC configuration
I see. FYI, changing the time zone on the device in the openPDC configuration should only be done to make the openPDC match the time zone configuration on the PMU - and this should only be the case when the PMU is not configured as UTC - which is not ideal. When you select the time zone configuration in the openPDC, it uses this to adjust the clock time for measurements received from the device to UTC inside the openPDC - thus normalizing the timestamps in the openPDC to UTC.
Ideally, all field devices should be configured to report UTC time, not local time. This way you don’t have to deal with day-light savings time jumps twice per year, causing possible data loss due to time discrepancies after the time change until openPDC time zone configuration is updated to match that of PMU.
When the PMU is configured as UTC, and the openPDC configuration is also set to UTC, this is the “best” state. This is also the “normal” deployment configuration for PMUs and synchrophasor environments.
By the way, when configured in this way, i.e., device = UTC / openPDC = UTC, you can then use the PMU_TIME_SYNC adapter to synchronize your local clock to PMU time, even when your local computer clock may be set to local time. The purpose of this adapter is to keep the local computer clock synchronized to a high-resolution time source. However, note that this is not always necessary, for example, your local computer may be synchronized to an Active Directory domain server which will automatically control clock time – or – the computer clock may already be synchronized to an NTP or PTP time source. The only time I would recommend syncing your local clock to the PMU’s GPS timestamp is when the other clock synchronization options are not viable, e.g., AD or NTP updates do not keep clock sync’d to within a few seconds of actual time, or there are no other good clock sync options.
Always keep this in mind: all screens in the openPDC assume UTC time - and thus show time values in UTC - regardless of local computer time zone. This actually reduces confusion, in that you don’t have to think about whether or not a UI is doing time zone adjustments to the timestamps - it is not - everything is UTC.
Hope that helps clarify things! 
Thanks,
Ritchie