Controling relay or valve pin with serial input

[19940224Alex]

I have the following code that opens and closes a solenoid valve. However I would like to press O for Open Or C for Close on the keyboard and this should send digitalWrite(pin, LOW); / digitalWrite(pin, HIGH); to my arduino.

#define VALVE_PIN 2

class valveControl {
//defining attributes
private:
byte pin;
public:
valveControl(byte pin) {
// Use 'this->' to make the difference between the
// 'pin' attribute of the class and the
// local variable 'pin' created from the parameter.
this->pin = pin;
init();
}

void init() {
  pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);
  // Always try to avoid duplicate code.
  // Instead of writing digitalWrite(pin, LOW) here,
  // call the function off() which already does that
  off();
}

void on() {
  digitalWrite(pin, HIGH);
}

void off() {
  digitalWrite(pin, LOW);
}

}; // don't forget the semicolon at the end of the class

class valveControler {
// class definition
};
valveControl valve(VALVE_PIN);
void setup() { }
void loop() {
valve.on();
delay(100000);
valve.off();
delay(100000);
}

[UKHeliBob]

Welcome to the forum

@19940224Alex

I have the following code

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[UKHeliBob]

Do you know how to read a character from the keyboard and test its value ?

[pmagowan]

Welcome

Serial Input Basics - updated

Updated Version Please note that this is a revised version of the advice in this earlier Thread which has become very long. As far as possible I have kept the code examples identical or simplifed them slightly. It should not be necessary to refer to the older Thread, but feel free to do so. Contents The following sections are in this Tutorial Introduction Serial data is slow by Arduino standards Example 1 - Receiving single characters Why code is organized into functions Exampl…

[19940224Alex]

Would you share code examples?

[gcjr]

consider

#define VALVE_PIN 2
enum { Open = HIGH, Close = LOW };

void loop ()
{
    if (Serial.available ())  {
        char c = Serial.read ();

        if ('o' == c)
            digitalWrite (VALVE_PIN, Open);
        else if ('c' == c)
            digitalWrite (VALVE_PIN, Close);
    }
}

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

    digitalWrite (VALVE_PIN, Close);
    pinMode      (VALVE_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

[19940224Alex]

Helped me a lot!

[gcjr]

@19940224Alex, i'm curious, why did you start with a class?

[19940224Alex]

I study Computer Science and we are thought to code in OOP rather than procedural programming. Also there are other components/ objects that I would like to add. Still a newbie.