Merge pull request #3046 from pybamm-team/issue-1839-time-based-experiments

Fix failing notebook

Author: brosaplanella

examples/notebooks/experiments-start-time.ipynb

@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@
    ],
    "source": [
     "%pip install pybamm -q    # install PyBaMM if it is not installed\n",
-    "import pybamm"
+    "import pybamm\n",
+    "from datetime import datetime"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@
     {
      "data": {
       "application/vnd.jupyter.widget-view+json": {
-       "model_id": "5516f708a0264190a51d1811064afd82",
+       "model_id": "86a9137722254204893ad9cf3402c6df",
        "version_major": 2,
        "version_minor": 0
       },
@@ -91,7 +92,7 @@
     {
      "data": {
       "text/plain": [
-       "<pybamm.plotting.quick_plot.QuickPlot at 0x7f3194e00eb0>"
+       "<pybamm.plotting.quick_plot.QuickPlot at 0x7f8910adb4f0>"
       ]
      },
      "execution_count": 3,
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@
     {
      "data": {
       "application/vnd.jupyter.widget-view+json": {
-       "model_id": "4832134ba802437e957ccdd5072d6d93",
+       "model_id": "a22e45e9e8ff46b194efe28b21f7a9a6",
        "version_major": 2,
        "version_minor": 0
       },
@@ -138,7 +139,7 @@
     {
      "data": {
       "text/plain": [
-       "<pybamm.plotting.quick_plot.QuickPlot at 0x7f31943d3760>"
+       "<pybamm.plotting.quick_plot.QuickPlot at 0x7f8910b8e250>"
       ]
      },
      "execution_count": 4,
@@ -151,9 +152,9 @@
     "\n",
     "experiment = pybamm.Experiment(\n",
     "    [\n",
-    "        s(\"Discharge at 1C for 1 hour\", start_time=\"Day 1 08:00:00\"),\n",
-    "        s(\"Charge at C/3 for 10 minutes\", start_time=\"Day 1 08:30:00\"),\n",
-    "        s(\"Discharge at C/2 for 30 minutes\", start_time=\"Day 1 09:00:00\"),\n",
+    "        s(\"Discharge at 1C for 1 hour\", start_time=datetime(1, 1, 1, 8, 0, 0)),\n",
+    "        s(\"Charge at C/3 for 10 minutes\", start_time=datetime(1, 1, 1, 8, 30, 0)),\n",
+    "        s(\"Discharge at C/2 for 30 minutes\", start_time=datetime(1, 1, 1, 9, 0, 0)),\n",
     "        s(\"Rest for 1 hour\"),\n",
     "    ]\n",
     ")\n",
@@ -171,9 +172,39 @@
     "In the example above, we note that the first step (1C discharge) is cut short as the second step (C/3 charge) start time occurs before the end of the first step. On the other hand, an additional resting period is added after the second step as the third step (C/2 discharge) start time is 20 minutes later than the end of the second step. The final step does not have a start time so it is triggered immediately after the previous step. Note that if the argument `start_time` is used in an experiment, the first step should always have a `start_time`, otherwise the solver will throw an error."
    ]
   },
+  {
+   "attachments": {},
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "id": "fff78a14",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "Note that you can use the `datetime.strptime` (see [the docs](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.strptime) for more info) function to convert a string to a datetime object. For example, to start the experiment at 8:30 on the 2nd of January 2023, you can use"
+   ]
+  },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
    "execution_count": 5,
+   "id": "bb616043",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "datetime.datetime(2023, 1, 2, 8, 30)"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 5,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "datetime.strptime(\"2023-01-02 8:30:00\", \"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S\")"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 6,
    "id": "driven-sensitivity",
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [