| CrazyShrum | Posted: 2 Nov 2026, 04:07 PM |
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 Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2-November 26 |
Greetings all. I was just admiring my Mitxela Precision Clock Mk IV and how it automatically changed for PST over the weekend. Then I was discussing with a friend in Vancouver BC about their changes to DST (or rather no change). I started looking into how that works with the GPS clock. With regards to Daylight saving rules, I understand this is complex and also very interesting. My questions are simple: Does the Precision Clock Mk IV require a firmware update to include the new changes to DST in large parts of western Canada? Is this something that would be handled by the clock firmware? Or is this something that some "Time Variance Authority" handles in a table somewhere? Thank you. P.S. I am not actually in Canada, but if I WERE to take it there... ------------- |
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| mit | Posted: 2 Nov 2026, 04:29 PM |
 yeah whatever Admin Posts: 704 Joined: 4-May 16 |
QUOTE
Yes, except for clocks bought very recently. You can get the latest releases here: https://github.com/mitxela/clock4/releasesDoes the Precision Clock Mk IV require a firmware update to include the new changes to DST in large parts of western Canada? The rules used by the clock are ultimately derived from the IANA timezone database. There's a file on the internal drive of the clock (tzrules.bin) which contains the relevant info, and is generated by the scripts in the github repo. To update the rules on the clock, simply copy the new tzrules.bin file onto the drive. You can also update the tzmap file (it takes a few minutes to copy to the clock) although country borders change less frequently. Regarding Canada, there has been a LOT of debate about the decisions made this year, a lot of people are very unhappy that they've chosen "pacific time", abbreviated PST, as the name of their zone, which clashes directly with the adjacent PST that's now an hour off from it. Thankfully the clock only cares about the offsets and the full name of the zone ("America/Vancouver", etc) but I expect there to be several more databases releases in the coming months. The latest release I've prepared for the clock is 2026d, in September, and there have been two new releases of the timezone database since then. I'll do another release soon, it's still a semi-manual process though. ------------- |
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| CrazyShrum | Posted: 2 Nov 2026, 04:36 PM |
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Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2-November 26 |
Oh wow, I didn't know that about the naming Canada decided to go with. Currently I will not be going to Canada, so I will wait out any additional updates to the IANA timezone database before I worry about any firmware updates. I think the USA has something floating around regarding DST as well...but it has not officially be voted/implemented yet. Cheers to you and this fun work. ------------- |
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| mit | Posted: 2 Nov 2026, 06:10 PM |
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yeah whatever Admin Posts: 704 Joined: 4-May 16 |
For a while I was subscribed to the tzdb mailing list, but in the end I found the whole thing too depressing. Governments can say the time or timezone is whatever they want, and the database maintainers have to scrabble to keep up. Often the things they say are quite poorly thought through. Looks like they've settled on the abbreviation PCT, for "pacific (canada) time", which is then identical to MST (mountain standard time) in the US. If you want some light entertainment, the mailing list has a public archive here: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/tz@iana.org/latest ------------- |
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