Get time from HomeAssistant not from device

[RoterRaecher]

I would like to submit a feature request.

As described in the ticket (Issue #469), the card currently displays only the time provided by the client device. Home Assistant dashboards are often displayed on devices such as Amazon Fire Tablets or similar hardware. These devices are frequently configured to communicate exclusively with Home Assistant, for example to prevent unwanted updates.

As a result, the device's clock may eventually become out of sync, causing the time displayed in the Clock Weather Card to be incorrect as well.

It would be great if an option could be added to use and display the time provided by Home Assistant instead of relying solely on the client device's local time.

Thank you very much!

[pkissling]

hi, thanks for the request!

i looked into using a time_date sensor (e.g. sensor.time or sensor.date_time_utc) as the time source for the card. the problem is that these sensors only update once per minute and never contain real seconds. HA's own docs say: "Sensors that include the time update every minute". even sensor.date_time_iso, which has a seconds field, always shows :00.

if the card used the sensor value directly, anyone with seconds in their time_pattern would see the seconds stuck at :00 and the clock jump once a minute. this would cause inconsistent behavior on the card side, which would cause tickets to be dealt with on my end, for which i don't have an answer.

do you have an idea on how the feature could be implemented?

[RoterRaecher]

Thank you for your response.

Would it be possible to implement an option such as "Use Time from HA" and, when it is enabled, make the time_pattern option unavailable or restrict it to a fixed hh:mm format only?

That way, users would get the correct time from the Home Assistant server, but without seconds. The limitation could also be stated explicitly in the description of the "Use Time from HA" option, making it clear that seconds are not supported because the underlying sensors only update once per minute.

This approach could avoid inconsistent behavior while still giving users the choice between local device time and HA server time.

[pkissling]

hi @RoterRaecher, thanks for the suggestion!

i'd rather not drop the seconds or lock time_pattern for this option. that would leave us with two clocks that behave differently, which leads to the same kind of tickets.

i have another idea: the card watches a time sensor, sensor.date_time_utc from the Time & Date integration. this sensor changes exactly at every full minute, so the moment it flips, the server time is precisely that minute at :00 (UTC, including the date). the card compares that with the device clock and shifts its own clock by the difference. the card keeps ticking every second, so seconds and every time_pattern keep working, accurate to the network delay (usually well below a second). until the first flip (at most a minute after loading) it shows the device time.

it could look like this:

type: custom:clock-weather-card
entity: weather.home
additional_sensors:
  date_time_utc: sensor.date_time_utc

would that solve your issue? how far is your tablet's clock usually off - seconds, minutes or even more?

[pkissling]

hi @RoterRaecher, i've built this as a beta: v3.2.0-beta.1. it isn't merged yet, so i'd love your feedback first.

install: in HACS open clock-weather-card → ⋮ → Redownload, enable "Show beta versions" and pick v3.2.0-beta.1. then reload the dashboard (clear the browser/app cache on the tablet if it still shows the old version).

setup: enable sensor.date_time_utc in the Time & Date integration (or use any sensor whose state is the UTC date and time as yyyy-MM-dd, HH:mm) and add it to the card:

type: custom:clock-weather-card
entity: weather.home
additional_sensors:
  date_time_utc: sensor.date_time_utc

it's also available in the visual editor under additional sensors.

the clock ticks right away with the tablet's time and corrects itself at the next full minute, when the sensor changes. could you check whether the card now shows the server's time on your tablet, including seconds if you use them?