Implementing a Pushbutton counter

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

Hello everyone, I'm stuck in a programming rut. I am attempting to implement a counter using 2 pushbuttons (one UP button & one DOWN button).

This is exactly what I need it to do:

1 single press of either button will increment/decrement a counter by 1.
Holding either button for 2 or more seconds will increment/decrement the counter by 10 at a time.

I'd greatly appreciate any sort of help. Thanks!

#2

Off the top of my head in like 3 minutes. Only covers up button, no warranty against typos. Something like this

byte lastb1st=0;
byte lastb2st=0;
unsigned long lastb1time=0;
unsigned long lastb2time=0;

//assumes the buttons are active low (ie, button pressing connects an INPUT_PULLUP pin to ground)

void loop(){
if (lastb1st!=digitalRead(btn1)) { //button changed state
lastb1st=digitalRead(btn1);
if (!lastb1st) {counter++;} //if button is not pressed 
lastb1time=millis();
}
if (lastb1time && lastb1time < millis()-10000 && !lastb1st) {
counter+=10;
delay(500); //otherwise this will go very quickly
} 
}
#3

Hey so I’ve implemented the above code into mine and I am running into two problems.

  1. The counter in the serial monitor is increasing by 10 at a time per individual button press.
  2. Serial monitor stops working (not updating) after 5-6 seconds.

Here is my code:

byte lastb1st=0;
byte lastb2st=0;
unsigned long lastb1time=0;
unsigned long lastb2time=0;
int signalIn1 = 5;    // set pin 5 as digital input pin   
int signalIn2 = 6;   // set pin 6 as digital input pin
int counter=0;  

void setup() {
  pinMode(signalIn1, INPUT_PULLUP);  // initialize pin   5 as an input:
  pinMode(signalIn2, INPUT_PULLUP);  //initialize pin 6 as an input:
  Serial.begin(9600);  //  opens serial port, sets data rate to 9600 bps
}
//assumes the buttons are active low (ie, button pressing connects an INPUT_PULLUP pin to ground)

void loop(){
if (lastb1st!=digitalRead(signalIn1)) { //button changed state
lastb1st=digitalRead(signalIn1);
if (!lastb1st) {counter++;} //if button is not pressed 
lastb1time=millis();
}
if (lastb1time && lastb1time < millis()-10000 && !lastb1st) {
counter+=10;
Serial.println(counter);
delay(100); //otherwise this will go very quickly
} 
}

Thanks a lot for your help!

#4

UPDATE:

I currently have a simple program working for incrementing and decrementing a counter when pressing an UP & DOWN pushbutton, however, I am not sure how to implement the part where I want the counter to increase/decrease by 10 after the button has been held down for more than 2 seconds.

Here is what I have so far:

int inPin1 = 5;   // set input pin (for UP pushbutton)
int inPin2 = 6; // set input pin 6 (for DOWN pushbutton)
int val1 = 0;     // variable for reading the pin 5 status
int val2 =0;      // variable for reading the pin 6 status
int counter = 0;  // initialize counter at 0

void setup() {
  pinMode(inPin1, INPUT_PULLUP);    // declare pushbutton UP as input
  pinMode(inPin2, INPUT_PULLUP);    // declare pushbutton DOWN as input
  Serial.begin(9600);  //  opens serial port, sets data rate to 9600 bps
}

void loop(){
  val1 = digitalRead(inPin1);  // read input value
  if (val1 == LOW) {         // check if the input is HIGH (button released)
    counter++;
  }
  val2 = digitalRead(inPin2);
  if (val2 == LOW) {
    counter--;  
}
Serial.println(counter);
    delay(100);//
}

I'd appreciate any help.

#5