DS3231M
Overview
The DS3231M is a low-cost, extremely accurate I2C real-time clock (RTC) featuring a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator. It provides full calendar data including seconds, minutes, hours, day, date, month, and year with leap-year compensation. The MEMS resonator technology allows the device to operate with +/-5ppm accuracy over a wide temperature range without the need for an external crystal.
Why Choose This Part
The integrated MEMS resonator eliminates the need for external crystals and tuning capacitors, reducing PCB footprint and improving mechanical robustness. It offers high precision of +/-5ppm (+/-0.432 seconds/day) across the full industrial temperature range of -40C to +85C.
Applications
Getting Started
Interface the device via the I2C bus at address 0x68 and provide a 3V lithium coin cell to the VBAT pin for backup power. Many engineers use the DS3231M with standard Arduino or CircuitPython libraries, though care should be taken to account for the MEMS-specific aging characteristics compared to the original DS3231 crystal version.




