Making an ESP32 use an external 32KHz clock for the RTC

[Savage049]

This is my first post, so I don't know if this is in the right topic, but I hope it is. Here is a list of my setup

IDE: Arduino IDE 1.8.19
Hardware: XIAO ESP32C3
OS: Windows 11

Okay, So I am trying to use the external 32KHz clock on the XIAO board, but I cant seem to figure out how to do it in the Arduino IDE. I have heard about using ESP-IDF for this, but I was wondering if there was a way to instead compile the necessary files/cores (I'm not exactly sure what they are called) for the ESP32 to use and then replace the ones the Arduino IDE uses. I've heard of the file being called "menuconfig" but I'm not sure if that is right. I was hoping to use Arduino IDE for this because I have already written quite a bit of code in it and would like to not change my IDE. Thank you guys for being understanding if this is in the wrong Topic.

[ESP_Me-no-dev]

You can not use the 32K crystal through Arduino IDE, because it requires configuring the RTC clock source, which is done through ESP-IDF's `idf.py menuconfig`. Documentation here: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp ... _time.html

One option is to use the Arduino lib-builder to add the config changes and regenerate the libraries used in Arduino IDE with that option On, but you need to pay attention at the version of the core you are compiling for and the branch of the lib-builder you are using so that they match. This will also mean that if you update your ESP32 Arduino core, the changes will be overwritten. Positive is that you will still use the Arduino IDE. Docs: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/ard ... ilder.html

The other option is to use Arduino as IDF component and leverage the full power of ESP-IDF, while also using the Arduino APIs for coding. This is more advanced, does not use the Arduino IDE and might have some challenges to integrate external Arduino libraries into the build. Docs: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/ard ... onent.html

Third option is to use "pioarduino" with their "hybrid compile" option to change the setting required to enable the 32K XTAL. This also does not use the Arduino IDE and has a different workflow. Info here: https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32