Button not working correctly. Static bool, Potentiometer. uno

[miked34]

@gcjr

if the button is connected between the pin and 5V, what would cause it to be pulled low?

button switches are commonly connected between the pin and ground and the pin is configured as INPUT_PULLUP so that the pin will be HIGH when the button is not pressed.

Interesting idea, but would I still be able to use the Pin A1 to read the pot value for my delay?
as shown in my first picture the potentiometer is connected to the switch in series, that's how the machine was originally wired. So A1is the pin for the switch and the delay value, which i would like to use to control the speed and duration of the blinking lights. But i guess i could disconnect the pot from the switch and plug it into two pins just like the suggested switch.

@gcjr

the other aspect of you code is that it's not checking for a change in state and each iteration thru loop while the pin is HIGH will cause ledFlag to toggle

why is my code not checking for the HIGH condition at the beginning of each loop ? and are you saying that the HIGH condition with the toggle would cause the lights to turn on the first run through the loop then off the second time ?

@gcjr

if (ledflag)  {
#if 0
        byte led = random (10, 13);

what is the 0 value ? is this saying that if the button is off, led's 10-13 will shine ?

@gcjr

void setup ()
{
    Serial.begin (9600);

    for (unsigned n = 0; n < N_LED; n++)  {
        digitalWrite (pinLeds [n], LedOn);
        pinMode      (pinLeds [n], OUTPUT);
    }

    delay (2000);
    for (unsigned n = 0; n < N_LED; n++)
        digitalWrite (pinLeds [n], LedOff);

    pinMode (button, INPUT_PULLUP);
    butLst = digitalRead (button);
}

Here you seem to be consecutively turning pins on, assigning them as an output then turning them off.
As mentioned I would like a random Led to turn on for an adjustable amount of time. so I don't think this is what I'm looking for.

One thing I am also trying to add to my code is to select a random number of leds up to 10 at a time, then have them all light up at once, maybe u would have an idea how i could attempt that, maybe with an array ?

Thanks for your help and insight !