I’ll post twice to separate all of this. The broken code I’ll post after this one.
I found another library that I was able to make work. It came from the guy reselling the DS3231 board. Source: https://github.com/switchdoclabs/RTC_SDL_DS3231_ARDUINO/tree/master/DS3231/Examples/DS3231_TEST
His time format spits out like this:
2017-3-20 22:27:1
Temperature=20
My goal with this is to log temperature and humidity in a concrete curing chamber. I don’t want to have to rely on having to blanket the entire shop with wifi to have accurate time stamps so I thought I would use the DS3231 since it loses approx 1 min a year and it’s cheap.
With the code, I’ve been able to set the RTC clock, but how (and where) do I implement your suggestion @BulldogLowell? Also, will I need to reformat the date to match up with the format the Photon expects?
This portion of the project is a bit out of my range so any specific guidance (and comments on code) are helpful 
The code is:
/*
DS3231_test.pde
Eric Ayars
4/11
Test/demo of read routines for a DS3231 RTC.
Turn on the serial monitor after loading this to check if things are
working as they should.
#include "ds3231.h"
#include "application.h"
DS3231 Clock;
bool Century=false;
bool h12;
bool PM;
byte ADay, AHour, AMinute, ASecond, ABits;
bool ADy, A12h, Apm;
byte year, month, date, DoW, hour, minute, second;
void setup() {
// Start the I2C interface
Wire.begin();
//sets the time ONLY NEED TO DO ONCE
//set 20 seconds ahead of when you plan to click flash
//Clock is 2-3s fast
/*
Clock.setSecond(0);//Set the second
Clock.setMinute(42);//Set the minute
Clock.setHour(11); //Set the hour
Clock.setDoW(1); //Set the day of the week
Clock.setDate(20); //Set the date of the month
Clock.setMonth(3); //Set the month of the year
Clock.setYear(17); //Set the year (Last two digits of the year)
*/
// Start the serial interface
Serial.begin(115200);
//Serial.begin(9600);
}
void ReadDS3231()
{
int second,minute,hour,date,month,year,temperature;
second=Clock.getSecond();
minute=Clock.getMinute();
hour=Clock.getHour(h12, PM);
date=Clock.getDate();
month=Clock.getMonth(Century);
year=Clock.getYear();
temperature=Clock.getTemperature();
Serial.print("20");
Serial.print(year,DEC);
Serial.print('-');
Serial.print(month,DEC);
Serial.print('-');
Serial.print(date,DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(hour,DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(minute,DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(second,DEC);
Serial.print('\n');
Serial.print("Temperature=");
Serial.print(temperature);
Serial.print('\n');
}
void loop()
{
ReadDS3231();
delay(1000);
// send what's going on to the serial monitor.
// Start with the year
/* Serial.print("2");
if (Century) { // Won't need this for 89 years.
Serial.print("1");
} else {
Serial.print("0");
}
Serial.print(Clock.getYear(), DEC);
Serial.print('-');
// then the month
Serial.print(Clock.getMonth(Century), DEC);
Serial.print('-');
// then the date
Serial.print(Clock.getDate(), DEC);
Serial.print(' ');*/
// and the day of the week
/*Serial.print(Clock.getDoW(), DEC);
Serial.print(' ');*/
// Finally the hour, minute, and second
/*Serial.print(Clock.getHour(h12, PM), DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(Clock.getMinute(), DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(Clock.getSecond(), DEC);
// Add AM/PM indicator
if (h12) {
if (PM) {
Serial.print(" PM ");
} else {
Serial.print(" AM ");
}
} else {
Serial.print(" 24h ");
}
// Display the temperature
Serial.print("T=");
Serial.print(Clock.getTemperature(), 2);
// Tell whether the time is (likely to be) valid
if (Clock.oscillatorCheck()) {
Serial.print(" O+");
} else {
Serial.print(" O-");
}*/
// Indicate whether an alarm went off
/*if (Clock.checkIfAlarm(1)) {
Serial.print(" A1!");
}
if (Clock.checkIfAlarm(2)) {
Serial.print(" A2!");
}*/
// New line on display
//Serial.print('\n');
// delay(1000);
// Display Alarm 1 information
/* Serial.print("Alarm 1: ");
Clock.getA1Time(ADay, AHour, AMinute, ASecond, ABits, ADy, A12h, Apm);
Serial.print(ADay, DEC);
if (ADy) {
Serial.print(" DoW");
} else {
Serial.print(" Date");
}
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(AHour, DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(AMinute, DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(ASecond, DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
if (A12h) {
if (Apm) {
Serial.print('pm ');
} else {
Serial.print('am ');
}
}
if (Clock.checkAlarmEnabled(1)) {
Serial.print("enabled");
}
Serial.print('\n');
// Display Alarm 2 information
Serial.print("Alarm 2: ");
Clock.getA2Time(ADay, AHour, AMinute, ABits, ADy, A12h, Apm);
Serial.print(ADay, DEC);
if (ADy) {
Serial.print(" DoW");
} else {
Serial.print(" Date");
}
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(AHour, DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(AMinute, DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
if (A12h) {
if (Apm) {
Serial.print('pm');
} else {
Serial.print('am');
}
}
if (Clock.checkAlarmEnabled(2)) {
Serial.print("enabled");
}*/
/* display alarm bits
Serial.print('\n');
Serial.print('Alarm bits: ');
Serial.print(ABits, DEC);
*/
/*
Serial.print('\n');
Serial.print('\n');
delay(1000);
// Display the time once more as a test of the getTime() function
Clock.getTime(year, month, date, DoW, hour, minute, second);
Serial.print(year, DEC);
Serial.print("/");
Serial.print(month, DEC);
Serial.print("/");
Serial.print(date, DEC);
Serial.print("day of the week :");
Serial.println(DoW, DEC);
Serial.print(hour, DEC);
Serial.print(":");
Serial.print(minute, DEC);
Serial.print(":");
Serial.println(second, DEC);*/
}
