a

a

but not turning on lights what am I doing wrong???

// functions to be called when an alarm triggers:
void Light1Alarm(){
  Serial.println("Alarm: - turn lights on");    
}

void Light1Alarmoff(){
  Serial.println("Alarm: - turn lights off");           
}

void Repeats(){
  Serial.println("15 second timer");         
}

Where did you tell the lights to turn on or off?

dyslexic:
have no clue got info from example from timealarm library

It's usually a good idea to learn what the code is doing particularly if it's not doing what you want it to do.

dyslexic:
well I'm a 50yr dyslexic the more I read the more confused I am getting after 2 months I;m ready to take a hammer to board, when I first looked into the arduino I choose it cause of support from community but have not got much support from anyone please help

Short of writing the code for you, what kind of support are you looking for?

You have code that doesn't something at timed intervals. You want it to do something else (turn on/off a light) at those same intervals. You haven't described what kind of "light" you are trying to turn on, how you're trying to turn it on, or how anything is hooked up. If you want help we need more information.

dyslexic:
I'm building a relay board that will turn stuff on/off with alarms

So start by getting it to turn on and off an LED. As long as the relay board is wired correctly, then turning the LED on an off can be used to simulate what will be done to the relay board; There are plenty of examples in the Arduino software that show you how to turn an LED on and off.

dyslexic:
that what I'm tryimg to do

Yet you don't have any digitalWrites in your code to tell the LED to turn on and off. The Serial.prints simply display messages on the Serial Monitor or other terminal program; they aren't going to change the state of an LED. If you look at the simple Blink example, you'll see that.

and tried getting help with no luck

So, describe in English exactly what you want to happen at 6:00 AM (or 8:30 as the comment says) each day. Translating that into code is pretty simple.

If you want, for instance to turn pin 22 (light1) on, then add

  digitalWrite(light1, HIGH);

to Light1Alarm().

You add the same line to Light1AlarmOff(), except change HIGH to LOW.

It's not clear what Repeats() should do, so you need to help us out there.

It's also not clear whether you are setting the correct time in the RTC, or getting the correct time from it. Showing your serial output would help.

It's hard to help you when you're not answering questions or providing us with anything more than

"I've tried a bunch of stuff and it doesn't work and nobody will help me."

so this #include <DS1307RTC.h> and this //sync clock
... dont tell you I'm using a RTC to set time to board

Yes, it does tell me (us) that you have an RTC. What it doesn't tell me (us) is whether the time is set on the RTC correctly, or that the RTC is indeed providing the correct time.

Please don't give up and wander off. But, remember we can only see what you post here. We can't see what is happening on your LCD, or on your serial monitor, or on your pins.

That we keep asking what is happening is not because we don't believe you. It is because we really can not see what is happening.

What we need to help you do is narrow down where the failure is. If you see "Setting pin 7 HIGH" followed by "Pin 7 is HIGH" on the serial monitor, and the only statement in between is digitalWrite(7, HIGH);, and you tell us that whatever is connected to pin 7 didn't turn on, we learn one thing. If it did turn on, we learn something else.

By process of elimination, we'll eventually understand what is happening/not happening. You are our eyes and ears, though.

Don't give up.

Let's take it slowly. Do the lights on and lights off messages appear on the serial monitor as you would expect ?

I am confused by your replies.

Do you get the "Alarm: - turn lights on" and "Alarm: - turn lights off" messages on the serial monitor at the times that you would expect ?

well you said to add digalwrite to alarm I have no clue where in code to put or the format ie: what bracket goes where the light1 pin is what I want to turn on the examples for timealarms DONT SHOW HOW SO EXAMPLES ARE WORTHLESS

Take a deep breath and try to relax a little. This is supposed to be a fun hobby.

void Light1Alarm()
{
Serial.println("Alarm: - turn lights on");
digitalWrite(light1, HIGH);
}

void Light1Alarmoff()
{
Serial.println("Alarm: - turn lights off");
digitalWrite(light1, LOW);
}

Now, if this doesn't work, I'd suggest abandoning the TimeAlarms library. You have an RTC. On each pass through loop, you can figure out if it 6:00 AM. If so (now.minute() == 0 and now.hour == 6), turn the pin on. If you want to turn it off three minutes later (now.minute() == 3 and now.hour == 6), do that.

Do you get the "Alarm: - turn lights on" and "Alarm: - turn lights off" messages on the serial monitor at the times that you would expect ?

no

OK, then it is time to abandon the TimeAlarm library, and use a different approach.

  digitalClockDisplay();  
  delay(1000);
  Alarm.delay(1000); // wait one second between clock display

This is actually causing a two second delay - one in the delay() function and one in the Alarm.delay() function. One of them needs to go - the plain delay(), actually.

then it repeats

Lets be clear about this. What part of it repeats? If it is the whole thing, from "System Starting" on, then there is a real problem.

update code to this still dont work maybe I should trash the arduino and look for something else

Did you learn to read in the Adult section of the library? I didn't think so.

You need to test one part of the code at a time. The issues with the TimeAlarm library have NOTHING to do with the PH sensors or switches, so get rid of that code. They have nothing to do with displaying the time on the LCD, so get rid of the LCD and the code to show the time on it.

Get the code down to something that sets an alarm at regular intervals - something more than once a day. Do nothing in the callback except print a message. Does that work? If it does, we can build from there. If not, we can dig into why not.

just forget about copying and pasting. why everyone who starts wants to copy paste 1000 lines of codes from different websites and expect to work.

Am I right in thinking that you have wired your lights through Relays?

Then, can you check the Blink example that comes with arduino IDE and confirm it works?of course changing the ledpin from 13 to where you have the relay connected.
we need to start from the basics to know at which point you are cause if you are not using a single DigitalWrite in your code and dont see this as the problem, then we certainly need to start from the beginning. (Arduino basic tutorials)

dyslexic:
no I did not learn to read in the Adult section of the library I have a 3rd grade reading level because of dyslexic thanks for making fun of me PaulS guess you was a bully in school and still are

stop saying you are dyslexic and try to learn something from what people are telling you. If you are so certain that being dyslexic makes it impossible to use the arduino then why blame the forum for not giving you the information you need (which actually they are doing)

thanks for making fun of me PaulS guess you was a bully in school and still are

Don't start that. I was NOT making fun of you. I was pointing out that you learned to read by starting with simple books. You learn to code the same way. You get one function, like reading from the temperature sensor or triggering an alarm or writing to the LCD or any of a zillion other tasks working. Then, you combine them into larger projects.

If you have a problem with part of a larger project, step back and develop a program that either illustrates the problem or allows you to determine what the problem is. When you fix it in the small program, you can apply the fix in the complete program.

You are having a problem with part of a larger sketch, and yet you seem very reluctant to step back and develop a smaller sketch to test what the problem is.

This thread is getting nowhere, the OP is more hell bent on informing us about his unfortunate circumstances than actually working on his code.

this post just turned out really wrong.
pop-corn time cause obviously there is no willingness to learn.
PaulS you have given incredible help to many people in many post I have read, this is just one of those cases were there is nothing to do anymore.