Hi all, brand new user here.
The idea behind my project is to active a relay every time a counter increments.
Im using the sevseg.h counter example and trying to modify that to suit my needs.
I have 4 buttons which will change the amount that the program will count up to and then stop. eg 10, 50, 100 and the last will use eg 100 and run till i power off or press another button. (buttons are assigned to pins but thats all so far)
My code so far is stuck at trying to get a LED to flash ( imitation relay) with each change of the counter( seconds counting up).
My next problem is trying to get another function (void) to use the buttons .
thanks in advance.
#include <SevSeg.h>// note am using the wokwi simulator site to run the code.
SevSeg sevseg; //Instantiate a seven segment controller object
//button designations
const int Start100 = A0; //set Seconds for 100
const int Start50 = A1; //set Seconds for 50
const int Start10 = A2; //set Seconds for 10
const int Runinfinty =A3; //to run main loop with out stopping count to 100 then start again as per orgininal program before i destroyed it.
//state of change not sure if i need these to check for which button is checked
int State100 =0;
int ChngeState100 =0;
int State50 = 0;
int ChngeState50 =0;
int State10 =0;
int changeState10 =0;
//relay on pin 13 to activate for 500 milli after every second/count
const int RelayAction = 13;// using an LED to simulate the relay
int Seconds=0;
int lastSeconds=0;
void setup() {
byte numDigits = 4;
byte digitPins[] = {2, 3, 4, 5};
byte segmentPins[] = {6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12};
bool resistorsOnSegments = false; // 'false' means resistors are on digit pins
byte hardwareConfig = COMMON_CATHODE; // See README.md for options
bool updateWithDelays = false; // Default. Recommended
bool leadingZeros = true; // Use 'true' if you'd like to keep the leading zeros
sevseg.begin(hardwareConfig, numDigits, digitPins, segmentPins, resistorsOnSegments, updateWithDelays, leadingZeros);
sevseg.setBrightness(90);
pinMode(Start100, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(Start50, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(Start10, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(RelayAction, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {// unsure how to add in the button functions, or the raly activation function.
static unsigned long timer = millis();
static int Seconds = 0;
if (millis() - timer >= 2000) {// will be changed to 10000
timer += 2000;
Seconds++; // 1000 milliSeconds is equal to 1 Second
if (Seconds != lastSeconds) {//to activate the relay after every increment
digitalWrite;(RelayAction, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(RelayAction, LOW);// doesnt work not sure why
}
if (Seconds == 11) { // Reset to 0 after counting for required count, value will be changed by button input
Seconds=0;
}
sevseg.setNumber(Seconds, 1);
}
sevseg.refreshDisplay(); // will need to change depending on button press
}
Amazingly chatGpt understood that run on sentence better than I did and produced usable code
// Define pin numbers
const int buttonPin = 2; // Pin connected to the button
const int relayPin = 13; // Pin connected to the relay
// Define variables
int buttonState = 0; // Variable for storing the state of the button
int interval = 1000; // Default interval for counter (in milliseconds)
unsigned long previousMillis = 0; // Variable to store the last time the counter was updated
void setup() {
// Initialize the button and relay pins
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
pinMode(relayPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
// Read the state of the button
buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
// If the button is pressed, change the interval
if (buttonState == HIGH) {
interval = 500; // Change interval if button is pressed
} else {
interval = 1000; // Default interval if button is not pressed
}
// Check if it's time to activate the relay
unsigned long currentMillis = millis(); // Get the current time
if (currentMillis - previousMillis >= interval) {
// Save the last time the counter was updated
previousMillis = currentMillis;
// Toggle the relay
digitalWrite(relayPin, !digitalRead(relayPin));
}
}
Although I would have defined th button as INPUT_PULLUP. I'm still amazed that it's that good and getting better.
If your buttons are the 4 pin type like shown in your wokwi diagram, you should get into the habit of using 2 diagonal corners for connections. One corner to ground, the other to your arduino pin. That way, in the physical world, you can install the button rotated 90 degrees and it will still work correctly. If you do it the way you show, accidentally installing a physical button rotated will not work.
As for working with your buttons, look at the state change detection example in the IDE (File->examples->02.digital->State Change Detection) to learn how to detect when a button gets pressed. Note that using the pins as INPUT_PULLUP reverses the logic. No press will read HIGH and a button press will read LOW.
When you do detect a button press, the code needs to set a variable (maybe something like TopCount) to the value associated with that button. Then, you just need to check if Seconds is at TopCount and then stop. If it is not, continue.
The sevseg.h runs a counter in which you can change the value to count up to, and also the wait time between counts which will be changed to about 10 seconds.
I want the buttons to change this amount, eg Start10 = count up to 10 then wait for the next instruction, Runinfinity= count up to 100 and repeat until further instructions.
The next bit is after each increment of the count close and open a relay, this is where im up to and will look at the buttons later.
My code , because of the delay is causing the display to either go blank or show random segments when the relay is in operation.
Ive tried to add a milli wait command but get " sketch.ino:52:14: error: too many arguments to function 'long unsigned int millis()'
millis (500);"
as an error. I need to work out how to use this properly.
Your program must run the refreshDisplay() function repeatedly to display the number. Warning: Any calls to delay() will interfere with the display. Any delays introduced by other functions will produce undesirable effects on the display. If you need help getting away from delay() statements, I recommend the simple Blink Without Delay arduino example sketch.
Thanks all for your replies and ideas, half my issue is not knowing the correct syntac for the coding so some more reading for me., ill chip away at it slowly and put up some more code in abit.
knowing the language doesn't teach you how to use the language, just as much as knowing how to a mechanics tools teaches you how to fix, much less design a car.
there are lots of computer science classes that teach things common to all programming languages, such as linked lists, tree, finite state machines, parsing,
