Automatic Servo with Manual Override (delay problems)

landis:
however isn't it changing in my loops when I say previousmillis = currentmillis

Because you only ever set it when you say "the button has been released long enough for me to go back to state 0 and state 1".

And can you elaborate on the lastTimeButtonWasPressed, I think I might get what your saying but its cloudy

In how you want it to work, previousMillis should be set based on the state of the button (or more specifically, you want it to be set on the transition). As it stands now, there is no link between when previousMillis is set and the state of the button. I suggested changing the name to show that they should be related, as well as give you a hint on where it should be being set.

So now that I want my function to know when the last time I pushed the button, I should put it under the my while "button is being pressed loop" So then once the button stops being pressed it takes the time at that point.
Something like this?
Top Code:

#include <Servo.h> 
 
Servo myservo;
const int leftbutton = 2;  //variable to represent the pin that the left button is on
const int rightbutton = 4;  //variable to represent the pin that the right button is on
int casenum = 0;  //case number to tell the servo which case to run
int pos = 0;  //position
int delaytime = 20;  // increasing this slows down the servo movement
unsigned long LastTimeButtonWasPressed; // last time update
int endTime = 2000; // interval at which to do something (milliseconds)
 
void setup()

...

Case 2 Code:

 case 2:
    while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
    }
 LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
        myservo.write(pos);  //after the button stops being pressed the servo is at pos
        if(currentmillis - LastTimeButtonWasPressed >= endTime)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {          
          //casenum = 1;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                        //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //previousmillis = currentmillis;
          //interval = millis() +;
          break;
        }

The comments are there because I am not sure what to do with that code.

With the current code it is not pausing at all.

Try moving the assignment statement inside the while loop. Outside of it, its still not being affected by the button state.

by putting the statement inside the while loop like so

case 2:
    while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
        LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
    }
    myservo.write(pos);  //after the button stops being pressed the servo is at pos

It still does not delay.

However, I was playing around with this code and when I did this

 case 2:
    while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
    }
        myservo.write(pos);  //after the button stops being pressed the servo is at pos
        previousmillis = millis();
        
        if(millis() - 5000 >= 3000UL)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {          
          //casenum = 1;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                        //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //previousmillis = currentmillis;
          //interval = interval + millis();
          break;
        }

The code paused. But only for around 5 seconds.
There is also a time slot where it will delay and then it will just stand still after I press the button
and I am trying to get the significance of this, but I just can't figure it out

In the first piece of code, where is the if statement that determines how long it has been since LastTimeButtonWasPressed?

In the second piece of code, simply algebra would give you

if (millis() >= 8000)

Which says "if it has been 8 seconds since the processor was turned on or reset..."

I don't see how that's useful...

for the first code

while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
    }
        myservo.write(pos);  //after the button stops being pressed the servo is at pos
        previousmillis = millis();
        
        if(millis() >= 8000UL)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {          
          //casenum = 1;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                        //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //previousmillis = currentmillis;
          //interval = interval + millis();
          break;
        }

but for the second part, I thought the same thing, but with the -5000 on the left side of the inequality delays the panning for 5secs which doesn't make since to me

landis:
for the first code

while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed

{
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
    }




What happened to LastTimeButtonWasPressed ?



previousmillis = millis();




And/or why did you brink previousmillis back?



if(millis() >= 8000UL)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec
        { 
          break;
        }




In English, what are you expecting this if statement to do? Is it your intention that your sketch behaves differently based on how long it has been running?

I'm sorry, this is not that clear but this is for the first code.

 case 2:
    while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
        LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
    }
        
        if(millis() - LastTimeButtonWasPressed >= 3000UL)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {          
          //casenum = 1;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                        //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
          //interval = millis() +;
          break;
        }
        //if (digitalRead(rightbutton))
        //{
        //casenum = 3;
        //break;
        //}
        if (digitalRead(leftbutton))
        {
        casenum = 2;
        break;
        }

I've been accidentally pulling from different code files.

forget the other code. I showed you that to see if it sparked an idea. Because when that code was entered, for some odd reason, it delayed the panning again

        if(millis() - LastTimeButtonWasPressed >= 3000UL)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {   
          break;
        }

Commented out code removed. Again, What are you expecting this to do?

if (digitalRead(leftbutton))
        {
        casenum = 2;
        break;
        }

And this? Why are your break statements conditional? 99.9% of the time, the break statement within a case statement should be the last thing done, and it should be done unconditionally.

I want the first code to become a timer. When this the total time - the time from when the button was last pressed is greater or equal to 3secs I want the code to pan automatically.

My overall idea with the conditionally breaks is that if the code reads that the leftbutton is being pushed it should rotate left and stay left once the button is not pushed. However, if either of the buttons are pushed again, I want it to restart the case and essentially restart the "delay" time.

landis:
I want the first code to become a timer. When this the total time - the time from when the button was last pressed is greater or equal to 3secs I want the code to pan automatically.

So you have the conditional part down, but if the condition fires, all you do is break out of the code to just go right back into it. How does that break statement make "the code pan automatically"?

My overall idea with the conditionally breaks is that if the code reads that the leftbutton is being pushed it should rotate left and stay left once the button is not pushed. However, if either of the buttons are pushed again, I want it to restart the case and essentially restart the "delay" time.

Think about this part:

if (digitalRead(leftbutton))
        {
        casenum = 2;
        break;
        }

casenum is already 2, since you're still within the "case 2:" part of the switch statement, so this entire piece of code does nothing for you.

Okay that lightens up the code content, thank you. But the problem is still with the delay. It will not stop for me, it just keeps panning.

Updated code? (the whole sketch, not snippits)

CODE:

#include <Servo.h> 
 
Servo myservo;
const int leftbutton = 2;  //variable to represent the pin that the left button is on
const int rightbutton = 4;  //variable to represent the pin that the right button is on
int casenum = 0;  //case number to tell the servo which case to run
int pos = 0;  //position
int delaytime = 20;  // increasing this slows down the servo movement
unsigned long LastTimeButtonWasPressed; // last time update
long interval = 3000UL; // interval at which to do something (milliseconds)
 
void setup()
{   
  
  
  myservo.attach(9);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object 
  
  pinMode(leftbutton, INPUT);  // the buttons are the inputs
  pinMode(rightbutton, INPUT);

} 

void loop()
{
  unsigned long StartVoidLoopTime = millis();
  if (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //checks to see if each button is being pressed
        {
          casenum = 2;  //if so it switches the casenum
        }
        if (digitalRead(rightbutton))
        {
          casenum = 3;
        }
  
  switch (casenum)  //switch switches the case based on the value of casenum
  {
    case 0:
    for (pos = pos; pos < 180; pos += 1)  // pan right
      {
        
        myservo.write(pos);  // Move to next position
        delay(delaytime);  // Short pause to allow it to move
        if (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //checks to see if each button is being pressed
        {
          casenum = 2;  //if so it switches the casenum
          break;
        }
        if (digitalRead(rightbutton))
        {
          casenum = 3;
          break;
        }
      }

    casenum = 1;  //if none of the buttons are pressed then it goes to pan left
    break;
   
    case 1:
    for(pos = pos; pos >= 0; pos -= 1)  // pan left
      {
     
        myservo.write(pos);  // Move to next position
        delay(delaytime);  // Short pause to allow it to move
        if (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //checks to see if each button is being pressed
        {
          casenum = 2;  //if so it switches the casenum
          break;
        }
        if (digitalRead(rightbutton))
        {
          casenum = 3;
         break;
        }
        
      }
    casenum = 0;
    break;

    case 2:
    while (digitalRead(leftbutton))  //while the button is being pressed
    {
        myservo.write(pos);  //rotates servo to its current positon
        delay(delaytime);
        pos-=1;  //position becomes one less
        LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
    }
        
        if(StartVoidLoopTime - LastTimeButtonWasPressed >= interval)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {    
          myservo.write(pos);      
          casenum = 0;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                        //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
          LastTimeButtonWasPressed = StartVoidLoopTime;
          break;
        }
        if (digitalRead(rightbutton))
        {
        casenum = 3;
        break;
        }
      
      
    case 3: 
    while (digitalRead(4))
        {
          myservo.write(pos);
          delay(delaytime);
          pos +=1;
          LastTimeButtonWasPressed = millis();
        }
        myservo.write(pos);
        if(StartVoidLoopTime - LastTimeButtonWasPressed >= interval)  //if the total time - the start time is greater than 3 sec 
        {          
          casenum = 1;  //this is where the code goes wrong, it seems like it reads this if statement 
                       //and immedietly say thinks its true
          //previousmillis = currentmillis;
          break;
        }
        if (digitalRead(leftbutton))
        {
        casenum = 2;
        break;
        }
                
       default:
       casenum = 0;
       break;
  }  
}
LastTimeButtonWasPressed = StartVoidLoopTime;

You're clinging to hard to Blink Without Delay example here. LastTimeButtonWasPressed shouldn't be set while the button is not pressed (If it was pressed, it would still be in the while loop).

You're problem is still with your understanding of the break statements. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, you should be using an UNCONDITIONAL break at the end of every case statement. Since none of your break conditions are met in case 2 or case 3, as soon as the left button is released, it will fall through all the way to the default section, which sets the casenum to 0.

Okay,its making more sense. So because my if statement for the "delay" is not being accomplished in the first pass it is jumping out and going to the default case? How do I make it reloop to accomplish that if statement?

I don't know a way to get rid of the conditional breaks.

landis:
Okay,its making more sense. So because my if statement for the "delay" is not being accomplished in the first pass it is jumping out and going to the default case?

Jumping out isn't the right phrase. More like it's failling through. A break statement says "I'm done executing code in this switch statement, proceed to the end of the switch statement, skipping all the code between here and there"

How do I make it reloop to accomplish that if statement?

It already loops by virtue of being within the loop() function. What you need it to do is only execute the code within the case 2: section of your code. To stop it from doing that, you need an unconditional break.

I don't know a way to get rid of the conditional breaks.

With your delete key.

I need it to only do the code in case 2, then in order to stop it I need an unconditional break? okay, sorry but I need some more advice on that.

So, are you saying that once it gets to case 2 I should only do that code. or case 2 should be the only code.

And then how would I make it keep running case 2?

And I knew what the delete key was thank you haha. Are you saying get rid of the conditional breaks within cases 2 & 3?

landis:
I need it to only do the code in case 2, then in order to stop it I need an unconditional break? okay, sorry but I need some more advice on that.

This is what a typical switch statement looks like:

int someState = 0;

void loop()
{
  // Do some stuff
  switch (someState)
  {
    case 0:
      // Do some stuff for case 0
      break;
    case 2:
      // Do some stuff for case 2
      break;
    case 3:
      // Do some stuff for case 3
      break;
  }
  // Do some more stuff
}
So, are you saying that once it gets to case 2 I should only do that code. or case 2 should be the only code.

When in case 2, the only code in the switch statement that should run is the code in case 2. Any code outside the switch statement will still run without issue.

And then how would I make it keep running case 2?

I already answered that:

It already loops by virtue of being within the loop() function.

And I knew what the delete key was thank you haha. Are you saying get rid of the conditional breaks within cases 2 & 3?

Yes, get rid of the conditional loops and add an unconditional one.

Am I getting closer, because this still reads when the button is pressed, but I'm not sure how to set it up for the delay. Its still jumping into case 1 immediately.