Clock Sign

Before this: Reacting to the Game, Number Options

A sign that shows the real time, updated every second. Hang it in a lobby or over a station platform.

You need
Code
Wire it
Check it in game
Change it
How it works

You need

a brick with a Text Decal

chip text -> decal Text

Code

const FORMAT = "%H:%M:%S" // %H hours, %M minutes, %S seconds
const USE_UTC = true // true for UTC, false for the server's local time

var now: int = 0
@right out text = FormatDate(now.Value, FORMAT, useUTC = USE_UTC).Output

on Clock(interval = 1.0) {
  now = GetUnixTime()
}

Wire it

Compile the chip and paste it in-game. Place the Text Decal brick.
Wire text to the Text Decal’s Text.

The chip has no inputs: it starts as soon as it is pasted.

Check it in game

Within a second of pasting, the sign shows a time such as 14:05:32.
Watch it: the seconds go up by one each second.
Compare it with a clock set to UTC: the hours and minutes match.

Change it

Drop the seconds: const FORMAT = "%H:%M", and set interval = 10.0 on the Clock so the sign updates less often.
Show the date too: const FORMAT = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", with %Y the year, %m the month and %d the day.
Show the server’s own time zone: const USE_UTC = false.
Put the date on a second line: join two FormatDate calls with .. and a "<br>" between them, which starts a new line on a sign (Rich Text). Use "%H:%M" for the first and "%Y-%m-%d" for the second.

GetUnixTime() reads the server’s clock as a whole number of seconds, counted from 1 January 1970. Once a second the Clock stores that number in now (Reacting to the Game), and FormatDate turns it into text using the codes in FORMAT (Number Options). Its .Output is the text. It also has a .Success, which is false when the date could not be formatted. A Clock’s first pulse comes one interval after it starts, and until then now is 0, so the sign shows the start of 1970 for its first second.

Wirescript