ya i know. but a whole new board will probably be the easiest.

i did think about getting a new board. i may do that if the pin interupt thing dont work.
thanks alot for all your help.

pin change interrupts?
what does that mean?

what do you think about trying to write my own sketch?

so any ideas

ya the sketch didnt have a wake up function to wake the camera up after longer intervals so was goin to make pin 2 the wake up pin.

i loaded the sketch and all buttons work. cept the start button.
so i changed the sketches buttons allocations, so changed the start and up around.
same story. what used to be the start buttons works now to increase the values,
but it still wont start when you press the new start button

hope that makes sense

hey so iv figured out that the problem is not hardware. its in the sketch. iv stared at it for hours and cant figure out what the problem is. can some one take a look?

its the code i posted at the beginning of the thread

hey guys thanks for the advice i did the serialwrite thing to check if its picking up the inputs. and when i run the simple sketch it picks up all the buttons .
but when i put the end cct together it will not pick up the start stop button. but picks up all the others?
any ideas?

ok. all the digital pin are being used. and the origanal 5 that were the switches are damaged. this is y im using analog.

the cct worked.
problems came after i put the 9v battery in the wrong side.
now i just cant get the analogs to work.

thanks ill try that.

sadly i did not keep the link.
guess i should have.

not sure y its like that.
its a code that i found on the net.
im new so only know the very basics.
if you know a better way im all ears.

second half


//function to check the state of the up button and increment interval accordingly.
void checkUp(){
  upReading = digitalRead(upPin);
  if (upReading == HIGH && prevUpReading == LOW && millis() - pressUpTime > debounceDelay){
    activityTime = millis();
    if (changeNumPics){
      if (numPics >= 9950){  //allows variable to wrap around.
        numPics = 0;
      }
      else{
        numPics += 50;
        numPicsChanged = millis();
      }
    }
    else{
      if (interval >= 999){
        interval = 0;
      }
      else{
        interval += 1;
      }
    }
    pressUpTime = millis();
  }
  prevUpReading = upReading;
}

//function to check the state of the down button and increment interval accordingly.
void checkDown(){
  downReading = digitalRead(downPin);
  if (downReading == HIGH && prevDownReading == LOW && millis() - pressDownTime > debounceDelay){
    activityTime = millis();
    if (changeNumPics){
      if (numPics <= 0){  //allows variable to wrap around.
        numPics = 9950;
      }
      else{
        numPics -= 50;
        numPicsChanged = millis();
      }
    }
    else{
      if (interval <= 0){
        interval = 999;
      }
      else{
        interval -= 1;
      }
    }
    pressDownTime = millis();
  }
  prevDownReading = downReading;
}


//function to display a 3 digit number on 7-segment displays.
void displayDEC(int i){
  for (byte bitMask = 128; bitMask > 0; bitMask >>= 1){
   digitalWrite(clockPin, LOW);
   digitalWrite(serialOnesPin, bitMask & ~digits[i%10] ? HIGH : LOW);
   digitalWrite(serialTensPin, bitMask & ~digits[(i/10%10)] ? HIGH : LOW);
   digitalWrite(serialHundsPin, bitMask & ~digits[i/100] ? HIGH : LOW);
   digitalWrite(clockPin, HIGH);
  }
}

//function to display "inf" on 3 7-segment displays.
void displayINF(){
  for (byte bitMask = 128; bitMask > 0; bitMask >>= 1){
    digitalWrite(clockPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialOnesPin, bitMask & ~inf[2] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialTensPin, bitMask & ~inf[1] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialHundsPin, bitMask & ~inf[0] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(clockPin, HIGH);
  }
}

void displayPIC(){
  for (byte bitMask = 128; bitMask > 0; bitMask >>= 1){
    digitalWrite(clockPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialOnesPin, bitMask & ~pic[2] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialTensPin, bitMask & ~pic[1] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialHundsPin, bitMask & ~pic[0] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(clockPin, HIGH);
  }
}
void displayINT(){
  for (byte bitMask = 128; bitMask > 0; bitMask >>= 1){
    digitalWrite(clockPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialOnesPin, bitMask & ~intvl[2] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialTensPin, bitMask & ~intvl[1] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialHundsPin, bitMask & ~intvl[0] ? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(clockPin, HIGH);
  }
}
void displayOFF(){
  for (byte bitMask = 128; bitMask > 0; bitMask >>= 1){
    digitalWrite(clockPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(serialOnesPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(serialTensPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(serialHundsPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(clockPin, HIGH);
  }
}
  
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