DS3231 Real-Time Clock HAT
A DS3231-based RTC HAT (or pHAT) adds battery-backed timekeeping to a Raspberry Pi 3/4, Le Potato, or Orange Pi that lacks an onboard clock. Why it matters: A node that boots without internet (remote site, power blip) otherwise comes up with a wrong clock, breaking logs, scheduling, and TLS. The DS3231 is temperature-compensated and accurate. Note: Not needed on a Pi 5, which has a built-in RTC. On Linux, enable the rtc-ds3231 overlay and point chrony/systemd-timesyncd at it as a fallback time source.